Lane End Primary School

Best of British Week

 In May 2016 we organised an action-packed week of activities and events around a 'Best of British' theme.

We celebrated the work of British artists, scientists, mathematicians, musicians, writers, explorers and sports people. We also looked at British history, geography, democracy, diversity, values, food, traditions and life in Britain. We held special assemblies and competitions for the children and all of the teachers planned lessons related to their subject specialisms for children across the school. The PTA Summer Fair on the Saturday at the end of the week also had a village fete theme.

It was a fun and rewarding week - please have a look at the photos below to get an idea of the exciting activities the children were involved in.

On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the whole school moved classes for a lesson - each class went to another teacher for a British themed lesson on their specialist subject. There was:

British music with Mrs Toyne - composing music inspired by the work of Benjamin Britten.

British geography with Mrs Chamberlain and Mrs Cookson - learning about famous British landmarks and either writing about or building them! Also identifying British trees.

British sport with Miss Rainey - looking at British sporting records and having a go at beating them!

British art with Mrs Tweddle and Miss Preskey - painting British icon inspired Popart 

British engineering and science with Mr Vallance - a Tim Peake inspired lesson where the children built their own rocket and we held a class competition and a whole school final

British maths and code-breaking with Mrs Mealand and Mrs Love - based on the work at Bletchley Park by Alan Turing during World War 2 the children had to crack the code to win the scone with jam and cream!

British literature with Mr Toyne - the children read 'The Tunnel' by British author and illustrator Anthony Browne and then analysed the text and pictures and created their own inspirational tunnels! 

Every class took part in the rocket competition. Each class was split into groups and each group designed and built a water powered rocket. The aim was to build the rocket which stayed in the air the longest. We timed each rocket in class and then the winner from each class took part in the grand final on Friday with Mr Vallance as British astronaut Tim Peake! 

On Monday afternoon we all took part in traditional sports and games - both indoor and outdoor. There was cricket, rounders, tug-of-war, sack race, egg and spoon race, playground games - 'duck, duck, goose' and 'oranges and lemons', marbles, skipping, chess, snakes and ladders, card games and tiddly-winks! 

On Friday afternoon we held a whole school picnic/street party. We enjoyed a picnic accompanied by some of our instrumentalists, watched the county dancers and the whole school danced together! It was a great way to celebrate the end of a fantastic Best of British Week. Thank you to all the staff for their enthusiasm and organisation and to all of the children for taking part so well.

The fun hadn't quite ended though as we still had the PTA Summer fair on Saturday. We had a village fete theme and - despite the typical British weather - everyone had a good time and we raised over £2500 for school enrichment activities and resources. We were joined by the police service, fire brigade and the Mayor and Mayoress of Stockport who were on their last public engagement before they stepped down - they said how successful the fair was and what a great PTA and partnership there was between parents and school. The Mayor and Mayoress also judged our competitions including our British Bunting competion - very well done to Quayone in Year 6 and Amber-Marie in Reception who were our winners and thank you to everyone who took part. We had a lot of entries and the standard was very high making it hard to judge! Well done to Megan who won the cake competition with her amazing three tiered cake too. A big thank you to our fantastic PTA and everyone who helped make the fair a success.

Have a go at our Best of British Quiz - 

Our school values are underpinned by the British values shown above. We have talked about these values and what they mean during the week but this is not a one off isolated topic - both our school values and the British values are looked at in assemblies and throughout our curriculum as we look at current affairs, religion, society, different countries around the world, our links with Zambia, sporting events and other related issues and events.

Our Reception class held their first ever class assembly and presented some of their work and learning on British values and our 'Best of British Week' to their parents and relatives - they all did a great job!