Appleton Thorn Primary School

Children celebrated this day by investigating what peace means to them, how peace is regarded around the world, symbols of peace and the concepts of forgiveness and reconciliation. The children produced artwork, written work and and took part in discussions in class. 

Children across the school took part in activities to mark 100 years since the end of World War One and investigated the significance of the poppy. Children used media clips, stories and assemblies to understand the terms 'armistice' and 'remembrance' before participating in workshops to make ceramic poppies in KS1 and KS2 and poppy themed artwork in the EYFS. This artwork was then shared with the community by being put on display in and around school.

Children at Appleton Thorn enjoy French lessons as part of their curriculum. This year we have sought to enrich this through collaboration with a French school. Whilst this has proved challenging, we continue to pursue potential links through members of the school community, and children have been writing letters and postcards to send to our eventual partner school. You can see some of our correspondence, classroom activities and displayed work below. 

***JUNE 2019 UPDATE***

We have now been fortunate to secure a brand new link school in Strasbourg, France, through one of our pupils' family. College Les Sept Arpents in the village of Souffelweyersheim are as excited as we are to work together in the coming months to find ways of enriching our curriculums and giving our language learning a real life context. We have started by writing letters to introduce ourselves and sharing information on where we live. 

Here are some of the children's introductions and a staff evaluation:

Next, we have examples of Lower Key Stage Two children's actvities based on the origins of Islam and the key beliefs of Buddhism. 

Finally, Key Stage One children wrote and performed their own role play dramas to reflect how we can behave in the right ways, illustrating the Hindu concepts of Dharma and Adharma, and participated in a Sikh Langar Meal to develop an understanding of their duty to help others. 

This year, Appleton Thorn's Sports Day was given an international feel as children competed in teams named after Olympic countries from around the world. In the run up to the day, children became familiar with the countries that they would compete with by gathering basic information and locating them on the world map. To deepen the global context of this event, EYFS children looked at the symbol of the Olympics, the Olympic Rings, whilst some older children worked collaboratively with our link school in Africa to study the Olympic values of determination and friendship. Pupils in Tanzania looked at what it means to be a good friend and shared art work, and the children of Appleton Thorn used their school value focus to look at determination and the importance of persevering. You can see some of the shared activities below, as well as photographs from the day. 

As part of their PSHE work, children have explored the term 'refugee', considered their understanding of those to whom it may refer and Year 6 looked at some misconceptions surrounding refugees in the UK.  Launched in a special assembly, Key Stage Two children were challenged to dicover stories of migration within their own community of family and friends, and to learn something new about refugees throughout history to share back in school. Younger children used the familiar character of Paddington to understand what it means to leave an unsafe home, what somebody may need if they had to do this and used circle time discussions to relate this to themselves by thinking about what they would take with them if they had to leave. Some Reception children even made their own suitcase, just like Paddington's! Examples of these activities can be found below. 

Visitors and parents who joined us were most impressed, and you can see more on our school Dojo pages!