Outreach

Download as PDF Outreach Programmes – End of Year 2024

 

Children from Y5 & Y6 have taken part in a record number of amazing outreach programmes provided by some of the very best schools in the UK. Many have seen a number of our Upper KS2 pupils attending after school and even at the weekends to really make the very most of these incredible opportunities. Here’s a flavour of what they have been learning.

In the Autumn term, three Y5 children made their way to the historic headquarters of the Royal Institution in central London to take part in its six week Maths Masterclass programme. Led by leading academics, the Saturday morning sessions covered some fairly advanced maths and science, as one might expect. “We learned about many number systems and patterns like squared, cubed and triangular numbers as well as π. My favourite lesson was when we learned about the Fibonacci Sequence where you add the previous two numbers – 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…. We saw the pattern in succulents!” The children also studied ‘medicine’ in the world famous labs carrying out scientific investigations in to plants and also experimenting with wires and lemons to measure the conductivity of different metals. Opening up their minds and exposing the children to the excitement of STEM subjects was what it was all about – “I enjoyed looking at the different DNA in animals through a microscope, the first time I had ever used one!”

Not to be outdone by a younger cohort, on Wednesday afternoons in the Spring term, four top Y6 mathematicians made their way to Bute House to take part in a slightly more maths focused incarnation of the Ri Maths Masterclass programme, which also ran for six weeks. Hosted at Bute House and taught by different visiting specialists each week, the children were really engaged and inspired by the very challenging problems, puzzles and games they were presented with. Many were taken by the more practical or physical pattern type tasks, but a particular favourite was estimation and probability, “When we worked out the chances of winning the National Lottery – very, very small!” Learning alongside peers from others local schools added to the children’s overall enthusiasm for this great programme.

For the first time this year, we were invited to take part in the Christ’s Hospital Maths Competition. Four of the best mathematicians in Y5 joined 100+ more from schools across London this morning at the Christ’s Hospital Y5 Maths Challenge, held in the Guildhall. Neither the inclement weather, the imposing setting, the number of huge maths brains in the room nor the challenging questions, put off the two pairings. The competition was carousel based, which meant that after each 10 minute round the teams moved to the next set of questions, with their Christ’s Hospital ‘marker’ – a Sixth Form student. Great fun was had and, for the record, out of 67 teams, our two brilliant teams came 5th and 29th. Top marks!

Continuing the Maths theme, St Paul’s invited any keen Upper KS2 mathematician to join their new ‘Colet Club’, which has been taking place here at lunchtimes on Thursdays. Challenging reasoning questions are posed for the children to work on, then when/if they might need a hint or a hand, they log on using the Easya App, where Y11 & Y12 students give ‘live’, real time assistance. “I have really enjoyed doing Maths Club. The questions are fun and a bit hard, but it’s great to get help from the St Paul’s boys, who make it easy… but not too easy.”

Finally, St Paul’s invited us back once again to their Primary Maths Challenge event, which the lunchtime Colet Club children were delighted to attend. Having practiced the intricacies of the various rounds, honing their methods, the two teams of six divided further into two tables of three. The questions were designed to both challenge while also driving teamwork. Rounds included tricky riddle-like ‘number table challenges’, ‘cross number’ logic elimination and assorted relay rounds where a team could not forward until their teammates (on a distant table) had solved their own question the answer of which they needed. Sounds more complicated than it was. The children agreed that the rounds were ‘challenging, but fun’, which is exactly how maths should be.

Staying with St Paul’s, new this year for us, was their six week Classics programme to which three Y5 high fliers were invited. “We learned Latin and explored Greek & Roman stories such as Medusa, the Twelve Labours and Pandora’s Box. The best thing for me was learning the Latin verbs and tenses, adverbs, nouns and adjectives; it was fun and interesting, as well as vocabulary such as mater, pater, servi etc.” The children also tasted Roman foods and got an understanding of the lives of the wealthy as well as the many slaves. The very funny stories of Minimus were a great introduction to what’s to come in Y7.

Two Y5 pupils joined the 12 month Bridge Programme in January, which aims to is to provide academic enrichment for children from families who would not normally consider sending their children to independent schools. There are a total of 12 Saturday sessions, taught by Godolphin and Latymer teachers, with each session consisting of Maths, English, and other lessons or activities on rotation, such as History, Geography, Music and debating. The goal is to give the pupils a taste of what secondary school teaching and learning is like, and to inspire and enthuse them in the subjects. Lessons have included: Ice cream making and balloon powered cars – Physics; A source-based enquiry – History; A memory map activity – Geography; Cryptography – Computing and Plato’s cave allegory – Philosophy. “I particularly enjoyed flame testing metals in Chemistry and how copper sulphate turns it bright green! The homework is really annoying though and I hated the ‘mock’ exams.”

Finally, we finish the year this Summer term with the Primary ‘Space’ Partnership project at St Paul’s Girls’ School. Six keen Y5 scientists will be taking part in the Space Adventure which involves challenging hands-on practical activities within realistic space exploration and engineering scenarios. The children will apply their existing scientific and mathematical skills to new situations in order to test ideas and solve problems as part of a team. We hope this will give them a taste for working collaboratively within a real-world STEM context that replicates the working environment of scientists and engineers.

Saturday Schools

“Saturday School was actually very fun and enjoyable,” according to one of the eight Y6 children who attended in the autumn term, “We learned so many new things that are very interesting.” A few favourite subjects were Biology, Chemistry, History, Mandarin, German, Spanish, French & English, Art & Design as well as philosophy, where the children looked at ‘deep and meaningful’ philosophical questions, discussing them and sharing their opinions. “I liked French and Art, which the teachers made very interesting, as well as German which was a laugh because we played games that mainly used German numbers.” Design was a top favourite; which had the children creating metal key rings out of pewter – an alloy consisting mostly of tin. They really seem to have loved the wide range of lessons mostly different types of subjects to what they normally study at primary school – a real taster as they prepare to move on to study at secondary school.

The Primary Professors Saturday School Programme at St Paul’s Boys School followed three themes beginning in the autumn term with Maths, Science and Entrepreneurship. Two Y5 children had fun with geometry focused puzzles amongst other things, but it appears dabbling in a spot of mereology, investigating wind speeds and temperatures indifferent locations, recording then analysing results and finally presenting and interpreting the finding, as a hit. Two different children enjoyed Chemistry, Creative Writing and Philosophy sessions during the Spring term where it appears dabbling in a spot of GCSE Chemistry, investigating PH values of acids and alkalis by turning litmus paper different colours proved most memorable as well as creative writing about their ‘forest school’ activities too. They also enjoyed “answering questions and making up our own,” in Philosophy. This term two more children are getting expert advice on Art and Science, “We made lava lamps in little cups – they were sooo cool!” There is no doubt that The Primary Professors is a fantastic programme for St Stephen’s to be a part of, a wonderful opportunity for our children to experience different teachers for different subjects, while being able to ask their advice and hear their opinions. “I loved it all and really felt proud and excited to have been given an opportunity to open my mind to further learning.”

Debating

The Latymer Debating course was a great insight to the world of debating. Throughout the 15 week programme, we six Y6s learned valuable skills from introducing ourselves to signposting, chunking and explaining, to help us to speak confidently in public. Each week, along with all of the pupils from the other schools attending, we were divided into smaller groups, which were led by two sixth formers, who had already had experience leading this programme. Within these groups, we took part in various types of debate, for example a balloon debates and popcorn debates. All of these after school sessions had been preparing us for a Grand Debate to be held on the last day. This competition, which included teams from all 16 of the schools that had been taking part, set us a series of motions debating issues. We were delighted to talk our way into the final, coming second. We all agree that the whole programme was a huge success.

For the second year, the Y6 Debating Squad entered the ‘National Cicero Cup 2024’ debating competition for private preps and primary schools organised by Noisy Classroom. Honing skills nearly every morning, parent and expert trainer, Emma Kruger, put the children through their paces, which saw them win a series of preliminary competitions – one hosted here. They reached the quarter finals; then the semis before sealing a place in the FINALS held at Hampton Court Palace, where they were up against stiff opposition from seven other teams from all over the country.

The morning consisted of three of our squad taking part in a prepared debate as proposition for the motion: ‘This house believes that international tourism does more harm than good,’ followed later by an impromptu debate with three other members of the team opposing the motion: ‘This house believes it is more important to plant trees than build houses.’ To our great delight, at the end of the sessions, the judges announced that St Stephen’s and Jean Allen’s Girls School were the two winning teams who would fight in ‘THE GRAND FINAL’ that afternoon.

After lunch, and 20 minutes of preparation, all the competitors and teachers gathered in the main hall to watch the two winning teams fight for the Cup with the impromptu and topical debate: ‘This house believes the voting age should be lowered to 12 years old’. After a lively performance, both sides giving strong arguments, the judges had a difficult task, but awarded the Cup to JAGS. They admitted it was very close! Well done to our excellent debaters for their great achievement!

Mr Schumm says, “Huge thanks to Emma for training the children in the dark arts of debating; for sourcing such wonderful opportunities and then organising the logistics and managing the teams/squad so very successfully.”

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1 July 2024

 

Download as PDF Outreach Programmes – End of Year 2024