Author: Calder Lodge School

Calder Class, and a discerning visitor from Nicky Nook, had a fabulous time when they visited South Lakes Zoo.  It was their first experience at this up close and personal zoo.  Walking amongst the animals in their enclosures was all part of the experience. 

Unfortunately, the penguins weren’t interested in being fed a bucketful of sprats, much to the children’s disappointment.  However, whilst we were waiting for the penguins to be tempted by the exasperated zookeeper, the howler monkeys gave us a front row ‘whooping’ contest.  There was even a monkey pirouetting on top of a high pole.  This kept everyone very amused.

All of the pupils had the opportunity to hand feed a group of ravenous lemurs.  They listened extremely carefully to the zookeeper’s advice regarding safety around the lemurs.  Initially, it seemed that the lemurs were also not interested in accepting a free meal from Calder Lodge pupils.  The zookeeper disappeared for a few minutes attempting to call the lemurs from the nearby treetops.  Before too long, a conspiracy (collective noun) of hungry lemurs gathered on the enclosure fences ready to be fed.  The children were extremely sensible and happily offered fruit to the wide-eyed animals.  

As they reluctantly boarded the minibus ready for the ride back to school, most of the pupils were requesting a return visit.  Mrs Mott and Ms Jameson resisted the temptation to sneak a baby prairie dog in their pockets.  Or did they?!

NickyNook class visited Leighton Hall and the Larksfoot Forest School as part of their Predator topic. It was a grey and damp day so we donned our wellies and waterproofs, setting off on our adventure. The children had a wonderful time exploring the woodland area looking for wildlife, some were even looking for Bigfoot. As a team we built a hedgehog house to bring back to school, as we are reading the Hodgeheg by Dick King Smith. We will hide it in our school grounds and watch it closely to see if we get any spiky visitors.

Nicky Nook class are exploring the animal kingdom in lessons this half term. What better way to bring learning to life than a school trip to a wildlife park?! And so, on January 12th, we put on our warmest jackets and set off to “Wild Discovery” at Ribby Hall Village. Despite the chilly weather, the children were able to get close up to some of the rarest animals on the planet. We saw binturong, anteaters, arctic foxes and even a pair of pure blood Scottish wildcats. Highlights of the trip included actually holding a Madagascan hissing cockroach, braving the darkest recesses of the bat cave as its residents swooped around our faces and arms and a huge crocodile that seemed as interested in us as we were in her! The children kept our park warden on her toes with plenty of questions and we returned to school vowing to return in the warmer months and hopefully see new arrivals in the wildlife breeding programme…

Today we had Andy Baker, Director from Lancaster football club visit us at school. Following many generous donations from the school staff and pupils we were able to amass a significant amount of food and homegoods. We have given these to Olive branch whose missions is to support those suffering distress caused by addiction, broken family relationships, poverty and homelessness, and to enable individuals and families to resolve and alleviate their difficulties. Andy very kindly came to school to collect the goods and pass them on on our behalf. A bit of goodwill at Christmas time.

This morning we went to a local farm, Calderside, which supplies Christmas trees. We selected the best one we could find and took it back to school. During the day we listened to Christmas music whilst we decorated the Christmas tree. The baubles were a little fiddly but we got there in the end.

Over the next two weeks we will be having lots of Christmas fun. There are a variety of exciting trips happening including pantomime,cinema, chocolate making and most important, a trip to see the reindeers!

In school each pupil in each of the six classes will be making a christmas craft or treat. We will all then put these in a Christmas treat bag that each and everyone can take home. This means everyone in school gives everyone else a Christmas present!

Led by Bleasdale class, pupils from across the school took turns in cycling for Children in need. Over the course of the day an impressive 35 miles was covered raising £127 at the last count. Some tired legs were joined by big smiles as the sense of achievement took over. Whilst this was occuring back at school Parlick and Fairsnape class headed off to the local park to run a mile. They returned exhausted but full of pride at their efforts. A wonderful day has been had by all and all for a good cause!

Calder Lodge School pupils leaving flowers at Dalton square, Lancaster. This was followed by signing the book of condolence at the Town Hall.

Queen Elizabeth ll 1926-2022.

On Wednesday April 27th, Calder Class were fortunate enough to visit Haigh Woodland Park in Wigan.  The boys spent their time playing crazy golf, having fun at the amazing play park and exploring the woodland landscape.  

The boys were put into teams, each team was supported by an adult.  They were quite inexperienced and needed advice about how to hold the clubs.  Some of the golf stations were really tricky, but the boys all encouraged each other and offered advice regarding best places to take shots from.  One stood next to the hole for another so that he could gauge where to aim his golf ball.  Some pupils lost their golf balls in the extraordinarily tricky water station.  But they laughed it off and offered to retrieve the balls with the handy net which was available to scoop the balls out.

When we moved over to the park, the pupils played really well together.  They particularly liked the rope see-saw.  The chanted together in a Viking style as they rocked to and fro.

The class has been exploring a short film called The Wishgranter.  In the film, people throw coins in a fountain and the Wishgranter sends their wishes from his underground domain.  In homage to this activity, the boys brought in coins to throw into the lily pond.  They all took it in turns to make a wish and launch their coins into the fountain.

Since returning to School after Easter the Parlick class have been learning about the key features of castles. How the design and construction of them changed throughout the years and why castles were designed the way they are. We have been learning all about battlements, towers, moats and drawbridges and the function of these elements. We have also been learning about the importance of the local area to the castle and the geography that surrounds it. 

Today the Parlick Class ventured out to explore Lancaster Castle to identify which key features of a castle it had. If we think the castle was designed well? If the knights would have been able to defend it well from an attack?! 

The children used their key features tick sheet to identify the design elements and were able to discuss the importance of these features. They were also able to identify the geographical features, such as it being built on a hill and close to a river and discussed why these elements were important. 

Whilst at the castle we also got to explore the Witch’s cells. The children were very interested to find out more about what happened to the women that were sent here. 

Our trip has sparked real excitement within the Parlick children and they are eager to continue to learn about castles throughout the term. We look forward to constructing our own castles in the near future.

On 23rd March Bleasdale Class visited Heysham Barrows to look for older buildings from an early time period. This has strong links with the subjects they have been focusing on in class, which is on archaeology from Stone Age – Iron Age. During the visit they participated in lots of walking, having discussions about the older buildings and this led onto the students reflecting on traces left behind from previous structures and the layers of ground being older because of how low they sit in the ground. After this we visited Half Moon Bay Beach to excavate some sea class and to collect stones in preparation for painting them once back at school. Whilst on the beach they made some stone structures, which they enjoyed! On the way back we dropped off our collection for the Ukraine appeal.