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Primary

How to Plan a Curriculum-Relevant Primary Residential

Help pupils put science learning into context by integrating the curriculum on your next trip

Kim Somerville
by Kim Somerville

Funding and staff time is being squeezed in our schools, making it more important than ever that you get the best return on your time and financial investment when it comes to providing residential opportunities.

Pokesdown Primary, a large school in Bournemouth that has been crowned a Learning Away Champion School, provides several different excellent residential opportunities to its pupils that fully integrate its curriculum.

Staff at the school recognise that the first-hand activities that children experience when learning outside the classroom – and on residentials in particular – enables them to put their learning into a real context.

The school provides all pupils from Y3 to Y6 with high-quality residential experiences that enhance the outcomes of each class’s particular topic.

Under the sea

In Y4, pupils have the chance to undertake a residential stay at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. This links to the school’s ‘Attenborough’s animals’ topic, which has science as a lead subject.

The overnight stay involves children cosying into their sleeping bags on the floor in front of a large tank filled with marine wildlife, including sharks. This gives them the exciting opportunity to see what happens in the underwater world from their pillows.

On day two, the children visit Paignton Zoo, where there are more real-world learning opportunities.

The overnight stay is designed specifically to address the objectives of the science curriculum, looking explicitly at living things and their habitats. The residential enables the children to experience, first hand, the animals at the aquarium and zoo.

The experienced staff at both locations provide educational workshops for the group with the school’s objectives in mind.

Emily Clements, teacher at Pokesdown Primary, explains that the Y4 residential comes in the middle of their four week topic. “This means that that the children have already begun to explore grouping and classifying animals and looking at their changing habitats,” she says.

“The trip gives them the opportunity to see animals in their habitats and put their learning into context. Before leaving school, the children each decide on an animal which they want to study further. This gives the residential further focus for the children, as they are responsible for their own learning while being away. They work alongside their teacher to film the animals that they see in order to use the footage as a backdrop for a green screen movie back at school.”

After returning to the classroom, the children are tasked with writing an emotive speech, encouraging others to look after the changing habitat of their chosen animal, as Emily explains:

“They read their speeches out loud in front of a green screen, using real footage from the trip as a backdrop. Their final movie links their science and English learning together brilliantly. The experience really encourages the children to write emotively about their chosen animal, while also being a fantastic opportunity to experience an overnight stay somewhere spectacular.”

It’s not just teachers that see the benefits post-trip either, with one parent noting, “The excitement of my child before and after the trip was amazing. He could not stop talking about everything that he’d seen and done. In the subsequent weeks, as he worked on the topic, he spoke more to me about what he was up to at school than ever before.”

Yearly trips

Pokesdown Primary has been awarded a Learning Outside the Classroom Mark to recognise its efforts in embedding frequent, continuous and progressive learning outside the classroom into its curriculum.

The aquarium visit is only one of several opportunities available to the pupils while at school. In Y3, pupils are invited to attend a sleepover in the school hall. This is a single night experience where the children have the opportunity to stay away from home in a setting that is familiar to them.

After the aquarium visit in Y4, the children venture further in Y5, taking the ferry across to Kingswood on the Isle of Wight.

They stay together in dormitory style rooms for a full week and are given the independence to explore the wider site, develop timekeeping responsibilities, maintain their personal cleanliness and push themselves with activities that challenge their resilience.

In Y6 the children go to London. They stay in a hotel, sharing their space with members of the public in a busy city. They eat in cafes and restaurants alongside members of the public; ordering their own food, using and budgeting with their own money.

The children guide the exploration of the city, using different method of public transport and taking into account the individual needs and interests of the group as a whole.

Harmonious classrooms

All of these opportunities go down a storm with pupils, with one Y6 child noting, “I’ve loved all of my trips at Pokesdown. My favourite has got to be the trip to Plymouth as it was just so crazy to sleep in the aquarium.”

Kathryn Pittar, Y4 teacher, adds, “The atmosphere in my class completely changes when children get back from a residential. They work collaboratively, sharing anecdotes and memories from their shared experiences.”

Teacher Emily believes the benefits of the various trips the school offers are clear to see.

“In terms of relationships, the opportunity for children to experience something new together unites them in a way that the comfort and safety of school just cannot do. Children who have known each other since they started school in Reception find out things about each other that they never knew before. They develop tolerance, resilience and empathy towards others. Back in the classroom, their teachers report that this contributes to a more harmonious classroom environment.”

Headteacher Jo Barton says, “I’m proud that we are able to offer such a range of residential experiences for our children. We believe that spending time away from home with peers and school adults develops confidence and resilience. Our residentials contribute enormously to the children’s social and emotional development. Beginning with a one night sleepover at the school, we enable children who might not feel comfortable in unfamiliar surroundings to participate. It is an excellent start to years of exciting learning opportunities.”


What makes a brilliant residential?

The impact of residentials as learning experiences has been robustly evaluated over a five year period through the Learning Away programme, involving 60 schools across the UK. The final report by independent evaluators York Consulting used extensive survey and focus group data and showed that Learning Away residentials:

  • Improve students’ engagement with learning
  • Improve students’ knowledge, skills and understanding
  • Support students’ achievement
  • Foster deeper relationships
  • Improve students’ resilience, self-confidence and wellbeing
  • Boost cohesion and a sense of belonging
  • Provide opportunities for student leadership, co-design and facilitation
  • Smooth students’ transition experiences
  • Widen and develop teachers’ pedagogical skills

Kim Somerville is campaign coordinator for Learning Away. For more information about the #BrilliantResidentials campaign, visit learningaway.org.uk.

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