Learning Beyond the Classroom
Intent
At Bisley we strongly believe that we should educate the whole child, the head, the hand and the heart; not just the head. In this ever changing and advancing society many of our young people will later in life embark on jobs that have not even been invented yet. Therefore, it is important that we ensure that not only our children have the basic skills in reading, writing and maths but can also problem solve, communicate effectively and have bags of resilience. So we have introduced Learning Beyond the Classroom.
The main purpose of these afternoons is to:
- Provide character building opportunities
- Provide opportunities to develop self-esteem and self-confidence outside of the classroom
- Give children a more varied curriculum and the opportunity to participate in something new
- Give the children opportunity to develop new, transferable skills.
- Allow staff and children to flourish by developing and extending expertise and interests.
- Enable real and productive community links
Implementation
Every term all children in Year 1 – 6 will have the opportunity to take part in a short course. The sessions will run on a Wednesday afternoon over four weeks. Staff put forward the courses they will be offering each term and the children discuss the options with their parents and teachers. The first life lesson is that they do not always get their first choice! As a school we work closely with Elmfield Residential Home in Bisley village and every time we run the courses one option is ‘care in the community’. At the end of the four weeks the children receive a certificate to say they have completed the course.
What courses do we offer?
We aim to offer a range every term. Here is an example of some of the courses we have run:
- Forest School
- Cookery e.g. baking bread, learning to make healthy snacks
- Early Childcare in our nursery
- Needlework
- Creating an HTML website
- Care in the community at Elmfield Residential Home
- Magic of the Musicals
- Team Building
- Safe Citizens
- Japan
- Dog Safety and Training
- French Café
- Manga Art
- Pot Luck Percussion
Have a look on the right hand side for further details on the courses and examples of the structure.
Impact
Learning Beyond the Classroom has quickly become one the children's favourite parts of our curriculum. We have seen children become more confident in their own abilities and they enjoy trying new challenges. By having the sessions in the middle of the week it shows how much they are valued rather than having them on a Friday afternoon where it might have been seen as a treat at the end of the week.
We are constantly listening to the children and always looking for ways to introduce new courses. Our link with Elmfield Residential Home in Bisley has gone from strength to strength. The residents love having the children visit and the children are developing purposeful community links.
"The Learning Beyond the Classroom sessions are fantastic for the personal development of the children and encouraging them to be the best they can be, not just in the classroom. The choice of activities is very impressive!"
Comment from a parent in our Parent Survey December 2019
Examples of courses offered