Enrichment

Throughout each academic year, we organise a range of activities that extend our pupils' learning through new experiences and enrichment opportunities. These activities allow our pupils to develop their character, confidence, resilience and independence, and encourage them to pursue wider goals. Many of these experiences also allow our pupils to make a highly positive contribution to the life of the school and our wider community.

Some of our most recent enrichment activities can be found below:

‘Our Upland Birds’ Project - Tees-Swale Naturally Connected

The children in Key Stage 2 in our Upper Dales schools are currently taking part in an 'Upland Birds' topic with Tees-Swale Naturally Connected. The focus of the topic is learning about special bird species that live and breed in the uplands, with a specific focus on Curlews, Lapwings and Black Grouse. .

Throughout the topic, the children will have the opportunity to get to know these upland birds, and how to identify them through observation of their physical characteristics and bird calls. They will learn about the various ways that these birds have adapted to their environment, including feather colouration, shape and size of bill, and migration. This project will celebrate the unique upland habitat and the work that farmers, landowners, and conservationists are doing to ensure that the uplands remain a stronghold for these breeding birds.

The children will share their experiences by working with a storyteller and sound artist to create poems and short stories and collect sound recordings that will be used as part of a podcast series developed by the North Pennines National Landscape Team. These creative workshops will create an opportunity for the children to form an emotional connection with the evocative upland birds and the landscape they inhabit. The podcast will be presented  in school assemblies at the end of the summer term.

'A Light In The Dark'

Delivered through Summer & Autumn 2022, 'A Light in the Dark' was a creative programme that explored the history & heritage of the Upper Durham Dales.  Children from the Upper Dales schools of St John's Chapel and Wearhead worked with a team of professional artists and visited Killhope to learn about the history of the dales. They then participated in a series of creative workshops exploring folk dance, music, storytelling & visual art to create new artwork & music in response to the living landscape.

Methodism in Weardale Tapestry Project

               

High House Chapel, in Ireshopeburn, was becoming part of the Weardale Museum. During the academic year 2021-2022, to help attract new visitors, the Museum asked our Federation schools to design and sew panels that tell some of the many local stories that make up Methodist history.  

To prepare our design ideas, the Key Stage 2 children researched Methodism in Weardale and also had the opportunity to visit the Weardale Museum.  Designs from each of the schools were chosen and then transferred onto tapestry calico and frames.  Wearhead's panels feature references to a Love Feast and Jane Ansell a local preacher; St John's Chapel's design features the Chapel and local Methodists features John Wesley and a miner's back to rest on.

The children had a fantastic Zoom session with Tracy Franklin, the project's technical advisor, who demonstrated a range of stitches, including running, back, satin and also how to applique.  The children then used these skills to create each school's individual tapestry panel for the museum.

Each of the completed tapestry panels were mounted before being framed by North Pennine Studios, and are now proudly displayed in the Museum.  You can see their website at https://weardalemuseum.org.uk/ or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/methodisttapestriescollection