Author: Calder Lodge School

Calder class enjoyed a cultural capital trip focused on pizza making, which provided an engaging, hands-on learning experience that linked with several areas of the National Curriculum. During the visit, the children learned about the ingredients used to make pizza, including flour, yeast, tomatoes, and cheese. They explored where these ingredients came from and how they were produced, which helped them develop their understanding of food origins and basic nutrition.

The activity strongly supported Design and Technology objectives, as the children followed a recipe, prepared ingredients, and created their own pizzas. They practiced practical skills such as kneading the dough, as well as safely using cooking equipment. This encouraged creativity and problem-solving while allowing them to design their own toppings.

The pizza-making trip also supported the development of executive functioning skills. The children were required to follow a sequence of steps in a recipe, which helped them practise planning and organisation. They had to remember instructions and manage their time while preparing and baking their pizzas, supporting their working memory and time management. They also used self-regulation as they waited for their turn, followed safety rules, and adjusted their actions if something did not go as planned. Making choices about toppings and solving small problems during the activity encouraged flexible thinking and decision-making. Overall, the experience helped strengthen key executive functioning skills that support learning, independence, and problem-solving in the classroom.

Overall, the pizza-making trip provided a memorable and practical way for the children to apply classroom learning in a real-life context. It helped them develop teamwork, independence, and a deeper understanding of food and cooking. The children particularly enjoyed eating their pizzas during lunchtime; they had lots of fun.

As part of our Cultural Capital the class visited a Morecambe beach to explore and identify physical and human features in a real-world environment. The students were excited to get outside in a new environment as they observed and explored their surroundings.

Straight from the bus they dived straight into the mud, showing great enjoyment and fun together. 

The children quickly identified several physical features of the beach. They examined the stones scattered along the shoreline, they discovered logs that had drifted in with the tide. Some students managed to find pieces of sea glass and they observed the sea whilst noticing the mountains in the background. 

The class also explored human features—things made by people. They noticed pieces of plastic washed up on the shore and in the distance, they saw a train traveling along the coastline, recognising it as a form of transportation built by people.

Throughout the visit, students sorted their observations into physical and human features, strengthening their understanding of the difference between natural and man-made elements. The visit encouraged curiosity, environmental awareness, and hands-on learning, helping students connect classroom geography lessons to the world around them.

As part of our Cultural Capital enrichment, the children took part in a pizza-making experience that combined practical life skills with cross-curricular learning. Prior to the trip, the children planned and designed their own pizzas, carefully considering food hygiene procedures, safety rules and the importance of following instructions when cooking. They selected toppings thoughtfully, explaining their choices and labelling a picture of their finished pizza.

This learning was closely linked to English, where the children planned to write an acrostic poem using the word PIZZA. They focused on the visual appearance of a pizza and later used their senses during the tasting experience to uplevel their adjectives and descriptive language.

During the trip, children were highly engaged and confidently drew upon prior knowledge about sequencing instructions and understanding why it is important to listen carefully and follow rules in real-life cooking situations. 

They demonstrated independence, teamwork and responsibility throughout the activity.

After making and tasting their pizzas, the children will had the opportunity to evaluate their work, discussing what they liked and disliked and suggesting improvements. They reflected on how their choices might change if they were making a pizza for someone else rather than just themselves, encouraging empathy, consideration of others and critical thinking.

Overall, the experience provided a meaningful opportunity to develop practical skills, language, reflection and cultural awareness through an enjoyable and memorable hands-on activity.

We went on a school trip to Lancaster Castle to learn about the Pendle Witches. The castle
is very old and was used long ago as a place where people were kept and questioned.

During our visit, we learned about what life was like over 400 years ago and why people
were afraid of witches. We found out that some of the people accused were poor and
different, and that fear caused many unfair decisions.

We explored parts of the castle and listened carefully to stories about the past. The trip
helped us understand why it is important to be kind, fair, and not judge others.

We enjoyed our visit and learned a lot about history and how we can learn from the past.

This trip linked to the History curriculum, where we learned about significant events from the
past and how people’s lives were different from today. It helped us understand that evidence
and fairness are important when learning about history. Furthermore, it gave the children
insight into key historical people in our locality of Lancaster.

The visit also supported English, as we listened to information, asked questions, and wrote
about our experiences using clear sentences and new vocabulary. It was also linked to
PSHE, helping us think about kindness, fairness, and treating others with respect. We
learned how fear and rumours can hurt people and why it is important to make fair choices.
We concluded our trip by evaluating whether the Pendle Witches were heroes and villains,
the children loved discussing this and drawing their own conclusions.

The trip helped us learn in a real place, making history come alive and helping us remember
our learning.

As part of our Everyday Materials topic, we visited Bamber Bridge Park to explore materials in a real-life environment. The children worked in small groups to observe and identify different objects around the park, such as benches, paths and natural features. We then focused on the play equipment, where the children looked closely and decided which materials it could be made from. The children were asked questions such as Is this object made from more than one material? and How does this material feel? to encourage careful observation and discussion. They discussed their ideas, explained their reasoning and identified materials such as wood, metal, plastic, stone and fabric. The children consolidated their learning by recording their findings and once back in school, shared their observations and discussed similarities and differences between materials. This visit helped the children make meaningful links between classroom learning and the world around them, developing their scientific vocabulary, observation skills and understanding of how materials are used in everyday life.

The class spent an exciting and creative day designing and building their own rockets, inspired by the story Beegu. They were using recycled materials found in school.

At first the students designed a rocket by drawing and discussing their ideas. Next they made a start with making their own rockets using their preferred materials found in school. 

They worked collaboratively at first, building their rocket and exploring where materials should be placed and used for specific things. The main materials they used were cardboard, bottles, tubes, and foil to construct unique rockets, thinking about shape and detail. 

As they built, the children shared ideas, solved problems, and helped one another, showing great teamwork. The day ended with everyone proudly presenting their rockets and explaining how they built it and what they used.

Bleasdale Class visited the Blackpool Sea Life Centre as part of their Abyss topic. The purpose of the visit was to inspire the children to write alliteration poems linked to sea life and underwater habitats.

The children greatly enjoyed exploring the Sea Life Centre and observing the wide variety of animals. They used the information boards, along with what they saw and heard during the visit, to gather facts and descriptive vocabulary that they could use in their alliteration poems. For example, while observing the clown fish, Xander worked with Mr Blower to create the alliteration phrase “ornate orange, cool clown fish.”

Whilst listening to information about rock pools, the children learnt that starfish have no blood, bones or teeth, live in cold water and feel sticky to the touch. They also discovered that sea anemones, when viewed up close, look like gumdrops and prefer to live close to rocks.  

The children also learnt about coastal waters and how they support marine life. They found out that bays, inlets and sheltered coastal waters often provide a nursery for fish, offering a safe environment away from predators.

The pupils will be able to use the information and experiences gained from this visit when writing their alliteration poems in follow-up lessons and it was a great way to introduce the topic to them. The trip was both enjoyable and educational and provided valuable inspiration for our learning.