Local Area Visits

Heybridge Basin trip

Sycamore and Maple class enjoyed sketching the yachts that were moored in the marina. The sailing boats were amazing and were docked in lines by the sides of the River Blackwater. They were the exact description of the sailing boat that Michael went on from Kensuke’s Kingdom, which is linked to our English book.
After lunch, we all played in a nearby park and watched the various boats sail out down the river. We explored the basin and were told about the sea wall that follows the coast of Essex. The children loved this outdoor science lesson that linked to their topic ‘Water’.

Colchester Zoo trip

Year 6 visited Colchester zoo to enhance their Science learning about adaptation. The children had a special talk from the Education Manager around predators and prey and how they are perfectly suited to their habitat and lifestyle. They looked at the importance of camouflage, ears, tails, feet and many more. The children even had the chance to dress up as an animal (predator or prey), identifying their adapted features, before getting up-close and personal with a variety of animal skins (confiscated from poachers) to raise awareness of conservation.

Lower Academy Visit

Year 5 visited the Lower Academy to watch shows with a number of other primary schools in the local area. Children watched and participated in the ‘Feel the Power’ and ‘Explosive Food’ shows.

Duxford War Museum Visit

Year 4 visit Duxford as part of their topic on WW1.

Watt Tyler Country Park

Year 3 visited Wat Tyler Country Park to undertake a mixture of team building activities and to learn how to use compasses to navigate their way around an area. Children learnt how to use the 8 points of the compass and then how to use a walking arrow to navigate directions. This built on our geography unit around mapping. They had to follow a series of instructions and use find clues to answer a number of questions. The problem solving and team building challenges included rescuing ‘Bob’ from a volcano without setting foot inside the perimeter, guiding a blindfolded partner through a course and working together to pass a ball through short sections of pipe for over 100 metres without letting it drop to the floor. Children learnt how to listen to each other’s ideas, communicate and work together as a team.

Year 3 visit Thorndon Park to take part in a Stone Age themed day to support their history topic. They were taught about foraging techniques used by Stone Age people and gathered beech nuts, chestnut seeds and acorns. Children learnt how to use flints to light fires and how to gather natural materials to construct a shelter. Back in the classroom children were able to wrote a set of instructions, about foraging or dent building in the Stone Age.

Fund-Raising

Greensted’s choir visited Eastgate Shopping Centre on two separate occasions. After a truly successful trip in December where the children sang Christmas songs to shoppers, they went back in March but this time to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital. The children were amazed at the amount of spectators that had gathered to hear them and this truly raised their self-confidence. They also enjoyed representing their school out in public and receiving excellent feedback from shoppers and were even mentioned in local newspapers, helping to raise a positive profile for the school.