In the Agri club the pupils will invest in animals in the hope of get sponsorship from a local butcher along with using the profits from the previous year. The animals are fed at the teacher’s home farm, monitored for performance and sold on again. A maiden heifer has been purchased for this year’s project. A plot of ground has been given by the local parish to allow for vegetables to be grown. The control of pesticides will be managed and the growing of vegetables throughout the year will be measured.

 

In The Food Kitchen, the club runs over 5-week intervals. Pupils learn the basics of producing meals in a defined time frame. There are groups of pupils chosen to choose good food and gain skills preparing the food. Under the restrictions of the pandemic, the pupils are restricted to working within their bubbles for both the Agri and Kitchen activities.  

 

We find that both these clubs develop skills such as teamwork, meaningful communication and listening to others to collectively complete tasks. The content of the projects enhance their STEM subject knowledge. Students gain an understanding of animal science, plant science, environmental issues and food production. As a result of this, standards in numeracy including calculating costs and analysis of successes in terms of profit and labour are measured and evaluated. Promotion of literacy is also be a factor; with ongoing communication and writing up of reports for social media.

 

Pupils who are involved in studying often do not have the opportunity to experience the practical side of learning. This club help pupils to establish employability skills through working to deadlines and managing a budget. It improves communication skills bringing to reality the life of a business owner which includes the bargaining for and selling their products. Pupils grasp the main concepts of business management and highlight the need to consider target audience in their chosen product designs. The activity is run by our highly esteemed Art Teacher. The priority of the programme is to;

- Allow practical skills to be explored

- Improve communication skills

- Become more aware of the environment (Reuse)

- Become aware of employability skills

- Identify budgets and Deadlines

- Improve Business Acumen

 

Visits to SVP and Charity Shop take place and checking of online items through ‘buy and sell’. It is hoped that completed items will be sold on a section of the School Website and FB.  

Transition can be difficult for young people and pupils often struggle to settle in to a new, bigger school. Pupils worry about things like not making friends and having problems with the transition to taking on new subjects in a more specialised mode. This extra worry can lead to stress and anxiety and may also result in them not achieving their full academic potential. This is also a time of worry for parents hoping their child will settle into the new school easily and adapt to their new surroundings. The summer scheme addresses the many of these anxieties.

 

From the running of this scheme in previous years, pupils have entered into Year 8 less anxious and more content in September and in the first term. Parents" feedback also has been very positive because they can see a change in their child over the week of activities. Our specialised subject leaders and student volunteers deliver a programme in August for our incoming year 8 pupils.  A dynamic and challenging range of activities have been planned by our staff which included;

-Tie dying t-shirts in Art

-Building Minecraft plans of the school in ICT

-Writing of poems in English

-Using co-ordinates to navigate in Maths

- Rocket launching in Science

- Team completion of an assault course in PE,

- Tic Tok Dance in Drama

- Gathering and sharing thoughts and getting to know one another in our pastoral sessions with the school Pastoral Support Officer.