Category: Uncategorized

8th June 2023

Calder class had an absolutely brilliant day out at Waddecar scout camp for a teambuilding adventure exercise. The class used a whole spectrum of skills learnt in school including space, shape and measure from Math’s and speaking and listening from English. Patience, turn taking, perseverance, co-operation, empathy and understanding were all needed as the team worked together in an attempt to stay afloat.

After a great deal of hard work the prototype seemed to be doing the job.

Alas it was not to be but Calder class had great fun splashing around and jumping in the lake.

The day was a huge success with confidence flying high and self esteem building. What a lovely way to spend a day.

Calder Class had a fabulous time when they visited Greenlands Farm. This venue was chosen because this term’s topic is about farming.  The pupils had the opportunity to hand feed two hungry young calves.  Many of the children were very entertained by the springing, noisy lambs. 

The guinea pigs were a firm favourite with most of the class. 

We had a yummy picnic lunch in the sunshine.  After lunch, the whole class went for a bounce on the convex trampoline.  A fun time was had by all.  It was especially nice to have the support from Mrs Nicholson and of course Mr Farnworth – the Cultural Capital King.

We spent some time in the reptile house being introduced to Kevin the tortoise (with loose bowels), a gecko called Leo and a rather gorgeous snake.  Quite a few of the class were brave enough to have the snake draped on their shoulder.  

Oakenclough Class have been learning all about castles and towers throughout their topic lessons. They have visited Liverpool Castle at Rivington, which is a ruin dating back to 1200s, to enable
them to really understand the concept of the age and strength of these structures. Lancaster castle also remains a firm favourite.

They identified the remnants of key features associated with the period of time the castle was
built, testing their prior-knowledge of how castles evolved from the iron age onwards. Using
their imaginations, they considered what life would have been like for those living in the castle at the time it was built. They finished off their trip with a picnic by the lake, what a fabulous time everyone had!

Nicky Nook enjoyed a nature walk at Brockholes Nature Reserve where we did some bird watching and spotted lots of wildlife such as herons and swans . As a part of a social learning activity, the children worked together in teams to build a den using different materials. We had some time playing in the park together, after a picnic and enjoyed an ice cream to finish our trip.

Parlick class went to Catterall park as part of our memorable experience for our new topic, ‘Superheroes.’ The children dressed up into their favourite superheroes and then played with each other on the park.

Before our trip out we discussed with the class who our favourite superheroes were and what superpowers we liked. We then used our imaginations to pretend we were our favourite hero and we used our superpowers to play nicely with each other.

As part of our Culture Capital trip, Fairsnape class spent the day visiting Scorton by going to discuss our current ‘Topic’ subject which is ‘Flow’. We also went to the picnic area for our lunch, followed by the trip conclusion of spending a short time at the park/play area. The objective of the day was to introduce the students to features and aspects of rivers and associated characteristics of flowing water and its constituents. Overall, the day was enjoyable and educational.

The students observed how rivers move and flow as they progress from source to mouth. They could also see how both nature and animals utilise the river as part of their natural habitats. After this, we had a great packed lunch prepared by the school chef, before we moved over to the park and play area. We all brought away many enjoyable memories from the day that we could reflect upon in the lessons that followed surrounding water and flow.

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.