With the beach located right on our doorstep we are fortunate to be able to enrich our curriculum with outdoor learning activities. Beach School forms part of our weekly timetable with every year group given the opportunity to participate in a 5/6/week Beach School programme designed specifically around their curriculum. Beach School activities are led by a qualified Level 3 Beach School Leader. Children learn about the impact of plastic pollution, they explore the coastal flora and fauna, they learn about tidal forecasts, lunar cycles, and beach safety.  They get fresh air, physical exercise and learn about teamwork.  ‘‘There is strong evidence that good quality learning outside the classroom adds much value to classroom learning’’. The Office for Standards in Education explains that ‘‘outdoor education gives depth to the curriculum and makes an important contribution to students’ physical, personal and social education’’.

Year 4 Beach School

Year 4 have had an amazing time on the beach so far...

On our first week of Beach School we discovered some very interesting finds. Take a look at the pictures below and see how many you can identify!  We have been on a coastal walk and looked at all the man made and natural features in our local area. We now know what a nurdle is and went on a Great Nurdle Hunt as part of our plastic pollution session. We thought about how long the plastic we find on our beach takes to degrade and sorted it, we were surprised at how long most items take, many over 500 years!! We collected over 3 bags of rubbish while on the beach. If you can collect 3 items of rubbish each time you visit the beach you will be doing your bit to help the environment 

Year 3 Beach School

We try not to let the weather stop us from going out at Beach School, Year 3 wrapped up warmly and braved the elements for their winter Beach School sessions. We kept active by playing games, exploring and 

It was the first time any of us had seen a cat shark (dogfish) washed up on the beach, so was very exciting. Watch the video to see the rescue operation! We played beach snap to find natural and man made things along our coastline and then made maps on the sand to show their locations. We learnt how to keep ourselves safe on the beach and practised making shelters, we all loved hiding under the big bothy bag! The stone age tools we made were awesome! Take a look at our life size marine animals, we were amazed at how large some can grow especially the basking shark, WOW 12 metres  It was quite windy for our mermaid story telling and treasure seek but we tried very hard to listen to each other tell part of a story.

Well done Year 3, what a fabulous, memorable time you had on the beach! 

Year 5 Beach School

Year 5 had a very busy time at Beach School, each week there was something new to learn. We practised identifying marine flora and fauna, we were particularly interested in the range of egg cases (mermaid purses) that we found. We used our senses in different activities to develop our language for poetry writing, we went on a blindfold walk, made beach cocktails, colourful rainbows and meditated using pebbles. We had an informative visit to the local lifeboat station, we were shown the equipment used and were amazed at how much some of the kit cost. We decided to hold a fundraiser for this important charity and raised over £250! We had fun creating life size marine animals and our own beach art, working well with our team. 

Super work Year 5, you really are a creative bunch!