Shene at the BBC: The BBC School Report Project
Our involvement with pupils will begin in January when an after school club will run for six weeks, teaching news skills via lesson plans sent from the BBC school report team. The students will build up skills and ideas to eventually create their own article, so we will look at potential topics for this. In this time, we will have a practice ‘News Day’ (possibly February 4th) where we will record the news report and publish it. This ultimately becomes ‘News Day’ (March 11th), where schools from across the country spend the day creating and publishing a news report that eventually is published on our school website and also the BBC website.
We may be assigned a BBC mentor to assist us with this but will only know just before Christmas. We have also been advised to contact local papers about the day and encourage them to participate in some way, the best of which would be to publish the student’s work or have someone come in to discuss the process with the children. Finally, I am going to ask my Newsround friend if he can come in to give a workshop so we will see on that one!
Outdoor Activity Residential trips
Every year, Key Stage 3 pupils are invited to take part in a residential weekend undertaking various outdoor/extreme activities such as abseiling, rock climbing, zip-wire and canoeing. This residential trip often run through PGL or Kingswood Activity Centres is a challenging, rewarding and always exciting experience. Everyone has fun while learning new skills and capabilities; there is no better way to foster team building, positive attitudes and a sense of personal achievement.
These trips are used at 2 times of the school year
- Beginning - to establish team building and communication skills
- Summer term - usually after exam periods as reward for students hard work and individual achievement
Outcomes:
- Improved confidence through taking on challenges
- Social awareness skills are developed by appreciating the achievements of others and helping them reach their goals through teamwork
- Personal qualities - initiative, self-reliance, responsibility and perseverance are demonstrably improved
- Key skills such as communication, leadership, problem solving and teamwork are developed
- Increased motivation and appetite for learning can lead to raised levels of attainment in other aspects of education
- Appreciation of the benefits of health and physical fitness
Sponsored walk
The school hold its annual Sponsored Walk at the start of October each year covering the 13km to and around Richmond Park. This has become a fine tradition that challenges pupils physically, promotes an appreciation for the local environment and in turn raises a large amount of money that goes into the Student Council Fund. In previous years the Student Council have elected to give this money to a variety of Local and National Children’s Charities and we are hoping to reach a target of £2500 this year.
