Dartmouth Academy, Our School Federation teachers and children collaborate to improve Literacy through Science

Teachers and Children having fun on the special day

Part of Dartmouth Academy was transformed into 1930s Paris for a unique educational collaboration on February 26.

The project was based on the book ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ by Brian Selznick, which looks at cinema, science and the adventures of an eleven year-old boy in Paris in the 1930s.

Children from the Our School Federation, encompassing Kingswear, Blackawton, Stoke Fleming and East Allington Primary Schools and Dartmouth Academy’s Primary phase attended a special day at the Academy at the start of the project.

The children and their teachers – dressed up in 1930s costumes – performed experiments using rockets, batteries, clockwork and other interesting and hands-on activities.

The project was conceived by Academy Director of Learning Andrew Carpenter and Kingswear Primary School head teacher Mark Oakshott, and then put together as a collaboration between all Year 6 teachers in the Our School Learning Federation and at Dartmouth Academy.

Dartmouth Academy food technology students created a Paris bistro serving pastries and French cuisine to help the primary children immerse themselves in the day.

After this the Year 6 children, who had been jotting down ideas throughout the day, went away to their own schools the next day and put together creative writing pieces based on their experiences.

The aim of the project, which was supported by the Science Learning Centre’s “Enthuse” funding stream, was to increase the number of pupils at each school achieving Level Six Literacy within the National Curriculum.

The project was so ground-breaking it will be written up by the teachers involved and put into a resource pack that other schools can use as a model for collaborations between schools and subject areas to help increase literacy.

Mark Oakshott said: “The children involved from the Our School Federation hugely enjoyed the day and I would like to thank Dartmouth Academy for hosting the event. It was great for the Year Six teachers to come together as a Learning Community and work together as a partnership. This hasn’t happened for a long time.

“The impact of the day has yet to be seen but we hope that children are inspired to improve their writing and reading skills. I had the opportunity to work with all the schools’ children over the course of the day and I was hugely impressed with their ability. They also put in a lot of effort prior to the day, reading the book and making notes.  We must remember that Level Six is a GCSE level and that our children are still at primary school! I would also like to thank the Year Six teachers and Andrew Carpenter who came up with the initial idea. The choice of text “Hugo Cabret” was an inspiration and really caught our children’s imagination. Well done to everyone involved.”

Andrew Carpenter said: “This was a brilliant event, which has really inspired the children and the teachers as well. Most importantly the children had a lot of fun and learnt a lot too! This shows how working with different subjects can aid core skills such as literacy – and the model can be applied in other ways.

“We are delighted to be involved in such a generous and successful collaboration between the Our School Federations schools and Dartmouth Academy. We look forward to creating more events like this in the future, which inspire and educate at the same time.”

Dartmouth Academy’s Sports Leaders create winning indoor Athletics event for young school children

Pupils from Dartmouth Academy, St John the Baptist RC Primary, Blackawton Primary and Stoke Fleming Primary with the Sports Leaders at the back before the Athletics event began.

Dartmouth Academy’s team of ‘Sports Leaders’ has created an exciting and successful indoor athletics event for local primary schools.

The event, held in Dartmouth Leisure Centre on Thursday January 17, saw the Dartmouth Academy, Stoke Fleming Primary, St John the Baptist Primary School, Dartmouth and Blackawton School children competing in a number of different sports events.

The children all got to try at least one track and field event at the day, and the results were very close right up until the end.

The Sports Leaders were on hand to measure the efforts of the children, look out for their safety and collect all the results together. They had taken on a large amount of the organisation of the event and did their teachers proud.

The ‘Leaders’ are a group of young people who applied for the roles, as part of a special scheme set up by the Academy’s sports department. The idea behind it is that older students teach younger children sports at least once a week, and take on positions of responsibility in the Academy’s sports events.

The results were so close it required a recount – but Stoke Fleming was proclaimed victorious with Dartmouth Academy a close second.

The Sports Leaders scheme has been very successful since it was launched in 2011, and Academy sports teacher Luke Clement said he felt the young people did very well at the indoor athletics event.

“It was a great day, and the Sports Leaders did exceptionally,” he said. “Every child from every school gave their all and their parents and teachers can be very proud of them. The Sports Leaders scheme has been brilliant, with these young people taking on a large amount of responsibility, working hard outside of lesson time, and they are learning many new skills that will help them as learners and in their future careers. Well done to them all.”

“Midas” Touch From Dartmouth Academy Performances for Primary Schools

 

Kayleigh Durman (right) with several cast members from the Midas-themed play and workshop.

Dartmouth Academy GCSE Students have been helping the area’s primary school pupils learn about Greek Myths with a special play. 

The GCSE students, working with teacher Kayleigh Durman, put together a play based around the Myth of King Midas and his ‘Golden Touch’.

They created a special interactive performance that engaged its young viewers and give the students experience of performing to a new audience.

The students visited Brixham Primary School, Blackawton Primary School and Stoke Fleming Primary School in a small “Tour” of the play and workshop.

They received rave reviews from the pupils and teachers who watched. The GCSE students also participated in workshops looking at the themes and ideas behind the play run by Miss Durman, which involved the younger children creating their own show based on a Greek Myth.

Miss Durman said as well as being a fantastic achievement for the students and she felt that they had learnt a massive amount from the experience.

“Our students felt a real sense of pride and achievement in their work,” she said. “This was echoed in the workshop I ran beforehand where our pupils were able to aid and assist the Year 3 and 4 pupils to create their own play in 45 minutes! Our students were a real credit to the school and highlight the growing popularity of Drama and performance in Dartmouth Academy.”

Mel Easter, Head Teacher at Brixham Primary School said: “This initiative is a wonderful example of “schools supporting schools” – working together for the benefit of the students .We are grateful to Dartmouth Academy for bringing their talent and energy to Brixham in an innovative way that allowed our Year 6 the opportunity to be part of a quality performance.”

Brixham pupil Lily Barwood said: “We thought this was a fantastic opportunity that encouraged us to collaborate, improvise and show empathy-we thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Drama is growing in popularity at the Academy and Miss Durman said it was a wonderful subject to build student’s confidence and skills.

She said the increase in student numbers could benefit the Academy and its feeder schools as similar visits to Primary Schools would strengthen links between them.

“We are delighted that students taking the GCSE Drama option have increased for next year,” she said. “The department is doing well, the students are enthusiastic and this will help make primary school visits a more frequent.”