Newsletter 8th March Edition

Enrichment

At Ark Kings Academy, we aim to provide all our pupils access to a clearly defined and structured extended curriculum offer that has the potential to support their health, wellbeing, life skills, aspirations and enjoyment of school.

We aim to provide children with the broad range of experiences, coherent programmes of activities, skills and enrichment to be happy and fulfilled in school. Coupled with their academic knowledge, this will provide them with the agency to lead meaningful lives.

We do this through the following enrichment opportunities we offer our pupils.

Ark Connections

We are proud to offer the Ark Connections programme of 42 experiences that all children complete during their time in the primary phase. These experiences are shared across all children in the Ark Network and are enriching experiences that we feel all children should partake in before starting secondary school.

The experiences meet these core threads that support our aim of developing a strong sense of global citizenship within our pupils as well as offering them cultural capital for the future:

Environmental Awareness

Local and Global Community

Wellbeing and Personal Growth

Enterprise and Careers

Performance, Presentation and the Arts

Adventure, Challenge and Competition

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Spring 1

Spring 2

Summer 1

Summer 2

Reception

Connections

Build and Hide in a Den

Adventure, Challenge and Comp.

Write and Post a letter (Santa)

Local and Global Community

Retell a story to an audience

Performance, Presentation and the Arts

Speak to local people who help us

Enterprise and Careers

Mini Beast Hunt

Environment

Dance in the rain

Wellbeing and PG

Year 1

Connections

Go on a seasonal walk (part 1)

Environment

Visit a place of Worship

Local and Global Community

Go Welly-wandering

(jump in puddles etc)

Adventure, Challenge and Comp.

Go on a seasonal walk (part 2)

Environment

Blow some bubbles and let your troubles blow away

Wellbeing and PG

Create a piece of art for an exhibition

Performance, Presentation and the Arts

Borrow a book from the library

Enterprise and Careers

Encourage summer reading

Year 2

Connections

Visit a Castle

Local and Global Community

Learn and perform a poem off by heart

Performance, Presentation and the Arts

Make a compost bin

Environment

Eat something you have grown

Wellbeing and PG

Have a picnic in the wild

Adventure, Challenge and Comp.

Create a Class Time Capsule

Enterprise and Careers

Year 3

Connections

Positive affirmation

Wellbeing

Make a European Pen Pal

Local and Global Community

Take part in a bake sale

Enterprise and Careers

Explore a different physical environment

Adventure, Challenge and Comp.

Visit a woodland area

Environment

Retell a Greek myth

Performance, Presentation and the Arts

Year 4

Connections

Take part in a team building exercise

Adventure, Challenge and Comp.

Highlight a local issue and raise awareness

Local and Global Community

Express a viewpoint within a debate

Performance, Presentation and the Arts

Go for a river walk

Environment

Participate in an accessibility day

Wellbeing and PG

Research a career that you have never heard of

Enterprise and Careers

Year 5

Connections

5 minutes of mindfulness every day for 10 days

Wellbeing and PG

Invite an MP to discuss and debate the challenges of tackling local issues

Local and Global Community

Experience a live performance

Performance, Presentation and the Arts

Make a fire using a flint stone and toast a marshmallow

Adventure, Challenge and Comp.

Have a paper-free school day

Environment

Take part in a financial literacy scheme - £5

Enterprise and Careers

Year 6

Connections

Visit a University

Enterprise and Careers

Organise a school based environmental awareness day

Environment

Explore and discuss Children’s human rights and the lives of children around the world

Local and Global Community

Explore Stress management

Wellbeing and PG

Write and deliver a speech

Performance, Presentation and the Arts

Go Orienteering

Adventure, Challenge and Comp.

Educational Visits and Workshops

Over the course of the year, we take our pupils on off-site educational visits. These range from visits to the farm to local museums. We encourage all pupils to attend these visits, as not only are they highly engaging learning experiences for our pupils, but they also provide our children with vital cultural capital they need as they grow up.

In addition, we bring new experiences to children in school through workshops and in-school events. These workshops and events build on and enrich the learning pupils are doing in lessons.

	Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
Nursery Visits and Workshops	Parent Stay and Play workshop.	Nursery have hall “sports” day. Cooking session.	Animal Man Workshop Local walk to see different types of homes.	Storytelling Performance (World Book Day) Visits from local firefighters, police and other professionals. Visit to local shop.	Trip to the farm.	Parent and child challenge to build a den.
Reception Visits and Workshops		Visit Ark Tindal Academy Make chapatis	Animal Man Workshop Forest School	Storytelling Performance (World Book Day) Celebrate Holi Festival Visit a Nature Centre	Space Dome Virtual Headsets
Year 1 Visits and Workshops	Local area fieldwork	Visit a church	Animal Man Workshop	Visit a Farm Storytelling Performance (World Book Day)
Year 2 Visits and Workshops	Visit Warwick Castle		Animal Man Workshop	Storytelling Performance (World Book Day) Visit a Hindu temple
Year 3 Visits and Workshops			Watch a pantomime at the theatre	Storytelling Performance (World Book Day)	Visit the Botanical Gardens	Ancient Greek History Workshop Visit a mosque
Year 4 Visits and Workshops		Roman History Workshop	Watch a pantomime at the theatre	Storytelling Performance (World Book Day) River fieldwork trip		Visit the Think Tank Museum
Year 5 Visits and Workshops			Watch a pantomime at the theatre Young Voices	Storytelling Performance (World Book Day) STEM Workshop (British Science Week)	Visit a Buddhist temple	Visit the Black Country Living Museum Victorians History Workshop
Year 6 Visits and Workshops		RSPCA Workshop	Watch a pantomime at the theatre World War 2 History Workshop Visit a synagogue	Storytelling Performance (World Book Day) STEM Workshop (British Science Week)	Local area fieldwork Bowling trip	Blackwell Adventure Activity Day

Fundraising

One of our curriculum aims is to develop pupils' global citizenship. Pupils work towards this through their engagement with charities and good causes. Each year group is champion for a range of local, national and international charities where they lead on running events in school in order to raise money and awareness. Pupil leadership is an integral part of life at Kings - these charitable projects enable all of our pupils to take a lead in making positive contributions to society.

Here is an overview of the charities and good causes that pupils support across their time in the primary phase at Ark Kings:

Year Group

Local Community Project

Global Citizenship (UK based)

Global Citizenship (worldwide)

Nursery

Community Planter Project (Summer 1)

Pupils engage in National Gardening Week: plant flowers, fruit & veg in school and at community planter

Christmas Toy Project (Autumn 2)

Pupils donate toys and create Christmas cards, supporting others that are less fortunate than themselves

WWF (Summer 2)

As part of their ‘How Can I Protect Our World?’ topic, pupils raise money to adopt an animal

Reception

Year 1

Care Home

Pupils engage with the local community by building links with a local care/residential home where they sing and read to members of the cmmunity

Harvest Food Bank (Autumn 1)

Harvest festival performance/crafts morning for parents
Pupils plan and run Harvest collection

Comic/Sport Relief (Spring 2)

Pupils plan and run whole-school Red Nose Day, raising money and awareness

Year 2

Jeans for Genes (Autumn 1)

Pupils plan and run whole-school Jeans for Genes day, raising money and awareness

Year 3

Heart of England Forest (ongoing)

Pupils engage in a weekly HofE project: outdoor learning, tree planting, being responsible global citizens

Save the Children (Autumn 2)

Pupils plan and run whole-school Christmas Jumper Day, raising money and awareness

Water Aid (Spring 2)

Pupils plan and run Water Warriors day, raising money and awareness

Year 4

Shelter (Birmingham)

Pupils learn about the work that Shelter perform and the importance of this work within their local community

Children in Need (Autumn 2)

Pupils plan and run whole-school Children in Need Day, raising money and awareness

Year 5

Hospice

Pupils learn about the work that hospices do and the importance of this work within their local community
Pupils perform acts of kindness, such as planting window boxes

Macmillan (Autumn 1)