sailing with Year 7B and 10

Year 7B and 10 showed an interest in sailing along the Bartley Lake. All of the pupils and staff got themselves kitted up with a wet suit, waterproof coat and a life jacket. When they were ready all of the pupils gathered together as a class and watched as the teacher demonstrated the techniques they would need to use to steer the boat left, right and straight ahead, control the sail by pulling the string in tight or loosening it and which way they thought the wind was coming with one of the pupils identifying what way the ripples in the water were travelling. After the pupils made their way to the shore as they prepared their boats by undoing the sail and placing them into the water. 

When we got to the shore all of the pupils were paired up with two in a boat. After the pupils  gathered around their boats and listened as the teacher explained that the next step was for them to work together to set the sail and place the rudder down into the water. The pupils took it in turns to climb onto their boats as the staff gave them a little push along the water to start them off. The pupils enjoyed working in their pairs by travelling in between the balls and around the edge of the lake. 

While they were sailing a couple of the pairs demonstrated how to do a capsize as they began to lost control of their sail boat. The teacher explained step by step the safety instructions of how to roll their boat back up by pushing the udder back into the middle of the boat for them to swim to the other side and climb themselves back on. 

DoE expedition Bronze award with Year 9 and 10

Year 9 and 10 took part in the DoE Bronze award independent expedition where they participated in a two day canoeing adventure from Bridgnorth to Bewdley on Thursday and then Bewdley to Stourport on Friday. 

On the first day the pupils were introduced to the instructor who was going to be guiding them along the river as they sat in their pairs in their canoe's while the instructor explained how long they were going to be canoeing and what techniques they would need to use to operate the movement of the canoe by encouraging the pupils to work as a team. Next the pupils and staff members carried their canoe's to the end of the shore. 

As they got to the shore the pupils and staff members began to set off by using their paddles to push themselves from the shore. The pupils communicated between each other by allocating who was going to move their paddle on the left or the right as they started to float along the river. 

On their journey the pupils and staff members explored the adventures of travelling under bridges and through rapids of different speeds. 

Throughout the canoeing journey the pupils and staff members had regular breaks where they enjoyed eating their lunch and going for a swim as they practiced using the techniques of freestyle and backstroke.

After the first stint of canoeing the next part of the expedition was to camp over in a field while they worked in their pairs to set up tents and sleeping bags as that was what they were going to be sleeping in for the one night. Next the pupils took on the role of cooking their own burgers and sausages on two gas stoves. 

The next day the pupils and staff members cooked breakfast of a bacon and egg sandwich, dismantled their tents and sleeping bags, and then set back off for the last part of the canoeing journey to Stourport. 

walk around The Knapp and Paper Mill with Year 7A

At the beginning of the lesson the teacher explained what the outdoor ed safety rules were which included not to stand near the drop which was halfway between the walk, not to swear and to not go in the stream as they might be able to see a variety of creatures such as otters and kingfishers and where the water is their habitat so not to disturb their environment. As we started to walk the teacher explained to them that there was a waterfall which the pupils showed an interest in seeing. When we got to the waterfall all of the pupils stood as a group to see how fast the water was travelling. The teacher discussed about the history of the waterfall as they talked about how it use to be a weir. We continued to walk where there was a gate that lead closer to the beginning of the stream. The pupils enjoyed exploring past the gate as they tried to see if they could see an otter or kingfisher up close. After we walked up the path as we followed the direction of how the stream was flowing. When we got to "look that is the end of the stream" we turned around and walked back as the pupils played a game of chase with one person on while their peers try to find a hiding place. One of the pupils who was the chaser counted the numbers "1,2,3,6,8,10" before they began their quest to catch their peers.  

walking around Dry Mill Lane with Primary 3

The pupils showed an interest in walking around Dry Mill Lane talking about the sights they could see. One of the pupils saw an arch way and asked "do train's still run along here". We discussed how it use to be a train station for the trains to travel down when stopping at various destinations and how alongside would be an operated shuttle port. We compared then to now as the path is for people to walk along. We then saw a bench which had a picture of the train station on it and what it was called. As we got halfway the teacher went through the safety of rules of following the teacher's lead, no running or no pushing or shoving their peers as we were going to be walking along a path which had a drop next to it. The teacher also explained that at the end of the path was a stream. When we got to the bottom the pupils saw an old looking building as the teacher said it was a mill. The pupils showed an interest in looking inside where they saw "that is a big wheel they would do their washing with that". The pupils also noticed a sign which explained in more detail about the mill which showed when the building was made, what the purpose of the mill was for and who would of used it. 

After the pupils had explored the mill we continued to walk along a more bumpy path which lead to the stream. As we got there the pupils enjoyed walking over the pebbles and through the water where they picked up stones and had a competition to see who could make the most plops in the water by skimming their stone. One of the pupils shouted "look I made two" when another counted the plops saying "I just counted four". While the pupils and staff members were exploring the stream one of the pupils shared with their peers what they had found "look I just saw a fish, everyone come round and have a look". One of their peers asked "what colour was it?". The pupils replied by identifying "it was really small so I couldn't recognise the colour but I saw it there underneath the stones". After searching for the fish the pupils continued to explore the water by travelling further along as one pupil sat upon a big tree stump that was placed in the middle and said "I am king of the ocean island". 

walking along the paths and through the stream with Year 7B

The pupils enjoyed exploring a variety of streams as they walked along the paths around Leasowes Park. The pupils also showed an interest in travelling in and out, and through the forest trees where one pupil pointed saying "I want to move around like Bear Grylls does". As we got half way the pupils saw a big stream and each had a go at balancing along the stones, splashing through the water or running to the top of the bank and either sliding down on their bottoms or rolly polly's to see how fast they could travel. 

We continued to walk and the pupils saw a big cave with a waterfall as they described the speed of the water as "that is coming down really fast it will completely soak me and everyone in the class". After we carried on walking along the paths which began to lead to the park where one of the pupils saw a hole and said "look how deep this rabbit hole is, I could fit half of my body in there". When we got to the park all of the pupils took it in turns to have a go at seeing how high they could go on the swings, how fast they could go on the spinning top and climbing through obstacle courses on the climbing frame. 

walk along the river and over Worcester Racecourse with Year 8

The pupils showed an interest in taking a ball with them to Worcester Racecourse. As we got to the racecourse we stopped half way and the pupils enjoyed playing a game of football. We continued to walk to the other side of pitch croft and over Sabrina Bridge where we talked about what the builders had done differently with one pupil saying "the planks aren't wooden anymore they are more like tarmac" and how long it took for the bridge to be built. One pupil identified the length "it took them like 10 weeks didn't it before you could walk over the bridge again". 

The pupils then showed an interest in exploring the variety of equipment in Cripplegate Park. The pupils split themselves into two groups as one group climbed to the top of the climbing tower and the other tried to complete the obstacle course of walking along a rock climbing wall, balancing on a moving beam and swinging their body and arms side to side from one end of the money bars to the other. After the park we walked back to School to way we had came as we ran along the racecourse travelling through the water sprinklers. 

Year 9 exploring the length of Dry Mill Lane's stream

While we were travelling through the forest banks of Dry Mill Lane the pupils enjoyed finding different length sticks as they talked about using the stick "to go fishing see what fishes I can find". As we got to the stream the pupils either travelled the outer layer area of the water or walked through the middle of the stream seeing how deep the water went. One of the pupil's said "half of my body is covered by water". In the middle of the long stream the pupils found a pile of big tree branches and as a group worked together to demolish the standing of the branches with the pupils holding both ends and beginning to shake it watching small pieces of the tree disintegrate into the water. One of the pupil's response to what they were going to do with the branch when it breaks free was "we are going to see how far it travels down the stream". At the end of the lesson we asked for the pupil's feedback on how they thought outdoor ed had gone with some of the responses being positive of "I really liked using the rocks to break away parts of the branches" and "my favourite bit was seeing how deep the water was using my body, it came up past my knees".

Primary 2's walk around Paper Mill

 

The pupils enjoyed walking around Paper Mill looking at different signs about what animals live in the stream or in the trees. The pupils showed interest in have running races along the grassy paths seeing who could get to the gate and back to the staff the quickest. One pupil explained how quick they were going to run saying "I can run as fast as the fastest man in the world".  While we were walking the pupils saw a waterfall and talked about where the water begins and the speed to how it travels with one pupil saying "can you see it falling to the bottom of the stream it is going really fast" and another asked the question "why does it start from the top". We started to talk about the water cycle. 

Mid 3 Water Investigation

Mid 3 used the Go Pro's to investigate various bodies of Water and the differences they could see. 

 Students described the water as:

 - smelly

- dirty

- couldn't see anything

- merky

- polluted

Spoken words written by Miss Shakespeare.