Outdoor Learning

At Stanford Junior and Infants School our vision focuses on real-life learning, and we make effective and exciting links to the world, one of the ways we can do this is to take children outside the classroom into their wider school environment in order to engage them.

The use of the ‘outdoors’ helps to deliver a skills based curriculum, in which touching experiencing and ‘being amongst’ underpins the learning.

Learning outside enables a child to be immersed in hands on, practical experience and problem solve. Asking questions, working collaboratively, operating in real life and relevant projects improves understanding and engagement in all aspects of the curriculum be it maths, science, geography creative writing and the list goes on…

Please look at our Curriculum Page to keep up to date with the exciting outdoor learning that we are so proud of at Stanford Junior and Infants School.

Pumpkin Class Plant Trees

Today Paul from NELC came to school to help us plant 4 new apple trees.

The project was launched by NELC to help increase the canopy cover across our borough, which is currently one of the lowest in the country.
Paul talked us through each step of planting a tree which links to our science topic of planting. We hope one day we can use the produce off these trees in our cooking club to help us towards being more sustainable. 

Community Beach Clean!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who attended our beach clean this morning. This was such a positive event with lots of amazing feedback about our work. Members of the public were very complimentary about the hard work we put into collecting any litter we found. A big thank you to Ken for letting us borrow the litter picking equipment. We can't wait to update you on our ECO award and our next steps. 

"A brilliant job you are doing!"
"Amazing morning 10/10"
"As a grandparent it got me up"
"Brilliantly organised"
"Thank you for all the work you are doing"

Bird Feeders

Our outdoor learning group have been recycling to make bird feeders. They used milk cartons to place bird seed in, and made them attractive by using feathers and colour. We used cross curricula skills from DT to PSHE to look at why we used milk cartons to help environment to knowing what skill we needed to use to make the bird feeders. This helped us to feed the birds during these cold months, and also draw more birds to us during our big garden bird watch.

Birdwatch

Buttercup class have been learning about British Birds this week. We went to the nature area to do some bird spotting as part of RSPB Big School Birdwatch. We completed the survey back in class. We saw wood pigeons, crows, a magpie and seagulls. We could hear other birds in the closeby bushes but they were hiding out of site. We did meet a couple of squirrels in the nature area which was very exciting.

2D Shapes

This week Year 1s have been using sticks gathered from outdoors to make different 2D shapes.
We started with triangles and went on to make squares and rectangles.

Pupil 1: I used 3 sticks to make a triangle.
Pupil 2: we needed 1 more than 3 to make a square or a rectangle
Pupil 3: Maths is great when we get to go outside.
Pupil 4: I never knew we could make shapes with sticks!
Pupil 5: We made triangles and squares.

Thank You

A big thank you to one of our governors who organised for the local beck plant pots to be donated to us. Gardening club have made sure these are watered using the watering system they have. You can find these brightening up our reception area.

Our Metal Flowers

Today we put our metal flowers up in our reception area. I think you'll agree that the children have done amazing with these. Each of the flowers have incorporated an artist's design that we look at in each of these year groups. Be sure to look out for them as you come into school via the reception!

Another big thank you to Sam from Vanel for supporting us with this project.

Being Scientists….

This week Year 1 have been studying Deciduous and Evergreen Trees. We went searching around school and found both types of tree. It was a windy day and we sat in the Nature area watching the leaves falling from the deciduous trees. We collected different leaves and took them back to class.

Because the Gardening Club have been working so hard making improvements in the wild area, we were able to use the new paths and seats to stay out of the mud. Thank you Gardening Club from all Year 1.

Pupil 1: I know that Evergreen trees stay green all year.

Pupil 2: Yes Evergreen trees never drop their leaves either.

Pupil 3: Deciduous trees have leaves that fall off.

Pupil 4: We drew Deciduous trees in the Summer with lots of green leaves and in Autumn with yellow, orange and brown leaves fallen to the floor.

Pupil 5: I loved going to the wild area and seeing the leaves falling.

Pupil 6: It was so windy the leaves blew around!

Parts of a whole

Year 1 have been learning how a whole can be partitioned into different parts. Taking 5 bean bags, we threw at the target and recorded how many landed in and out of it. We found many combinations of how the bean bags landed. Back in the classroom we drew the combinations. We had lots of fun and learnt so much about number.

Child A: ‘We did a kind of PE – Maths lesson it was great!’

Child B: ‘My group found 6 different ways of doing it.’

Child C: ‘We had 5 as a whole and then 2 different parts.’

Child D: ‘We love maths outside.’

Gardening 👨‍🌾

This week down at the nature area we have been busy laying bark around our plants. This will hopefully prevent weeds and act as a drainage system. A big thank you to Sam and Lauren who helped us wheelbarrow just over one tonne of bark from our carpark to our nature area!

Geographical Features

In year 1 we have been learning about human and physical geographical features. Human features are things around us that have been made by humans and physical features are things which are natural items such as the seasons, the weather, plants and coasts. We then went on a hunt around the school to see what geographical features we could find.

Planting Winter Pansies

Mrs Petyt showed us how to plant our Winter Pansies. We saw the roots that needed covering in compost and noticed the bright colours of the petals. We had to water them so they will stay alive. We took it in turns and showed good listening.

Gardening Club: Choosing Plants

Today our gardening club have been to Grimsby Garden Centre. The reason behind the visit was to purchase some herbs and plants for new our sensory walk way we are creating in our nature area. A big thank you to Grimsby Garden Centre for all their help, and our school helpers for supporting with the visit.

Gardening Club: Carrots

Gardening Club have found some of their carrots that they gave grown! One member of the group said "That's the longest carrot I've ever seen!" We wonder if you've seen a longer carrot?

Thank You!

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers for helping with maintaining our pond and nature area.

Gardening Club

A big congratulations to Gardening Club who have achieved their Level 2 Gardening Award. 

Wildlife Camera

Today gardening club put up our new wildlife camera! We can't wait to see what has been recorded.

Weeding and Tidying

Today in Gardening Club we started by weeding and tidying around the entrance to school. Then we went to check on how our plants were doing, and we found we had some broad beans that had grown so we had to try them!

"I didn't like them"
"It wasn't what I expected it to taste like"
'It was actually alright" 

Year 1 loved Activity Day!

A big thank you to year groups 5 and 6 for putting on such a great event. We had lots of fun! We played games, won lots of sweets, and even got to eat ice cream and popcorn!

"I had lots of sprinkles on my ice cream"

"I had salted popcorn"

"I won the jackpot on hook-a-duck!"

"I had so much fun!"

Using 10s to count to 100

In year 1 Maths we have started a new module this week; Place Value (within 100.) Today as our starter activity we used 10s to count to 100. We did this by throwing beanbags into a target of 10. We then had to calculate our score up to 100.

"Me and my partner got all our bean bags in the target, so we got 100 altogether."

"We missed a few so we got 60."

Outdoor Science: Identification and Classification Skills

The Year 2 children have been learning all about different kinds of plants, flowers and trees.
They enjoyed exploring The Humber Bridge Country Park and were able to spot a wide range of wild plants and flowers and could identify and name trees by matching their leaves to their spotter’s guides.

J- Plants are all different in appearance. I had to look carefully at the shapes of leaves and the colour of petals
H- Classification is when you put plants into groups. Some plants produce seeds and some don’t.
S- I spotted some flowers that I hadn’t seen before. I had to look carefully at lots of pictures to find out what they were called.
R- If we went back to the park at a different time of year, I think we might see some different plants. In the springtime there might be flowers that grow from bulbs like daffodils.

Art at Humber Bridge Country Park

The Year 2 children enjoyed creating art work at The Humber Bridge Country Park. They had lots of fun creating natural sculptures with clay and sketching observational pictures of The Humber Bridge.

E- The first activity we did at the Country Park was Art. We made forest faces out of clay, sticks, stones, grass, berries, feathers- well anything we could find really. We stuck them to the tree trunks and then we all had a look at each other’s. They were all different and we thought we would leave them in the park for other people to enjoy.

H- We did some more Art. We did observational sketches of The Humber Bridge. I loved it, as it was so relaxing. We used binoculars and telescopes to try and see more detail.

Spring Greens

In our Polytunnel we have been growing lots of cabbages. Instead of these going to waste in the Summer holidays we have decided to sell our spring greens to raise a bit of money for gardening resources. We will be selling these during sports day for 50p. We hope they taste as delicious as they look!

Well-being Wednesday!

In Year 1 we have been taking extra care of all our plants we have. The plants link to our Science topic, so we have been making sure we know how to look after plants. We have found that watering plants can be very relaxing so we incorporated this into our well-being Wednesday this week.

"The plants need water to survive"

"They need even more water when it's hot!"

Outdoor Art

Today in Year 1 we went outside to create some outdoor Art. We used things we could find on the ground like leaves and twigs. We didn't pull anything up to use as this would have been harmful to the enviroment. We also used chalk to enhance our pictures.

"I have made a reindeer!"

"It's a cat!"

"I've written my name in sticks"

Cabbages

We have been using our polytunnel to grow some delicious cabbages. We are going to give these cabbages to Mrs Christie's cooking club to make something tasty with. Growing our own vegetables to cook with helps with the school's sustainability!

Today in Year 1 we celebrated finishing our Phonics Screening.

This morning we decorated biscuits and made our own sandwiches either jam, cucumber, cheese or butter. Then this afternoon we went onto the field and played different games with the parachute; we had lots of fun!

We sat in the shade and ate our picnic. Once we had come into to cool down Miss Purshouse and Mrs Smith surprised us with ice lollies! A big WELL DONE to all the children, we are so proud of you!

"This is the best day of my life!"

"I've been eating all day"

"My ice lolly was yummy"

"This day ROCKED!"

Tidying the Peace Garden

Today in Year 1 for our Well-being Wednesday activity we tidied up the Key Stage 1 Peace Garden. We used rakes to rake up all the leaves and debris. We used the brushes to sweep up any rubbish around the area. We then go rid of any rubbish. A big thank you to the Stanford trust for all their support with our Peace Gardens.

Thank You!

Today we gave a big THANK YOU to Sam and Lauren from Vanel who have helped us secure a grant to help improve our nature area. We couldn't have done it without them! We are hoping this can help by adding a new path and more equipment which each class can access. We can't wait to update you all when we start the project with our progress. 

Wellbeing Wednesday!

This week, Year 6 used their Wellbeing Wednesday time to explore the nature area! We were looking for any insects and other wildlife in our bug hotel, pond and in amongst the trees!

Green Influencers Project

On a Tuesday during lunch time Sam and Lauren from VANEL come to work with us on a Green Influencers Project. The children decided they wanted to develop our nature area. Today they have looked at different butterflies we find in the U.K and crafted their own butterflies to display.

This group is open to KS2 and anyone wanting to join us are still able to do so. Anyone who is interested is more than welcome to collect a letter from Miss Purshouse. It would be lovely to welcome more members. This club runs during dinner time 12:15pm to 1pm on Tuesday's.

Throwing

Today in Year 1 P.E we have been learning all about throwing. We used beanbags to practice our underarm and overarm throwing skills. We had to make sure that our partner was ready to receive the beanbag and ready to catch. Next week we are going progress the skills we have learnt today by using balls.

Outdoor Reading Collaboration

Poppy and Willow class are enjoying sharing their love of reading outside this afternoon.

Reading Breakfast

This morning Year 1 invited parents and carers into school for a reading breakfast. We took lots of bean bags outside for the children and adults to relax and share a book together. We hope you enjoyed your morning with us.

Absolutely lovely time! Juice and brioche were perfect.
Really enjoyed my morning with the children.
I love attending these mornings. It is nice to be able to take some extra time to read.
A lovely way to show us how the children are getting on in school and the children love us coming in, really good!
Lovely set up and the staff were really friendly, enjoyed by all.

Young Environmentalist Awards 2023

Today the Gardening Club went to Whisby Nature Reserve for the Young Environmentalist Awards 2023. We had to show a presentation of all the hard work we have been doing in Gardening Club every week. We received a runner up certificate which we are all very proud of. In the afternoon we did den making and nature art. Which we came first in both activities!

Well done again Gardening Club for doing so well in such a short amount of time, we are very proud of you all!

Teddy Bear Picnic

This week, foundation stage were invited to bring in their favourite cuddly toy for a special event - a reading picnic! Children in foundation stage carefully made a healthy sandwich for their parents/carers, in the morning. In the afternoon, we invited in our grown-ups and shared some of our favourite books. We really enjoyed seeing so many faces and sharing a love of reading.

Normanby Hall

Year 1 really enjoyed their trip on Wednesday. We got to explore the grounds of Normanby Hall. We experienced nest building, the walled gardens, and worm charming. Mrs Smith's group charmed the most worms, but Miss Purshouse's group charmed the longest worm. We even had a picnic together!

Maths Scavenger Hunt

Year 6 had an afternoon scavenger hunting! To help with their Maths revision, they worked in teams to find the different questions around the school. They scanned each QR code to reveal the question, worked as a team to solve this and then collect the letter to form a funny joke! Some questions were fun challenges…. Stand as a scary scarecrow for 30 seconds! Year 6 are ready for their tests today! #youvegothis #year6sats ⭐️

Gardening Club achieve their first award!!

Gardening Club have achieved their Level 1 RHS School Gardening Award🎉

To achieve this level our pupils:

Understand the benefits of gardening to children and young people

Have chosen to lead the gardening project/activity Identified an area for a gardening project/activity

They planned the area and are looking at resources they might need

They understand hazards in the garden

Well done all!! 👩‍🌾

Gardening club are finalists!

finalist

Today our gardening club welcomed the judging panel from The Young Environmentalist Award. We talked the judges around all the projects we have being working on as part of our gardening club. Miss Purshouse is so proud of everything they have achieved and making the final 6 schools in Lincolnshire. A big thank you to Mrs Wink and Mrs Drury for all their support as well! Here's to the final!

Year 3 - Romans on the Rampage

Once again you have outdone yourselves with the costumes the children were wearing. They looked amazing.

The children had lots of fun taking part in Roman based activities. They used their creative skills to make laurel wreaths which the Romans are famous for wearing. The children also learnt about mosaics which the Romans loved. They were really engrossed in creating their mosaics of Roman ladies, citizens and soldiers. For a bit of fun the children learnt how to play Rota which is a Roman strategy game similar to ‘noughts and crosses’, then it was back to the grindstone for a bit of drill practise to prepare them for going into battle. This has been a very busy week for the children but they loved it!

Science scavenger hunt!

Today our Year 1 scientists worked together to go on a senses scavenger hunt. We took our learning outdoors to see what we could smell, see, touch, hear and taste. Although the taste sense was tricky we decided to think back to what we tasted at dinner time. One of the main things we all could hear was a neighbour cutting their grass.

Year 3 - "Oh we do like to be beside the sea side!"

We had a great day on our fieldtrip to 'sunny' Cleethorpes. Nothing was going to stop our fun....rain, drizzle...we didn't care!

We looked at the differences between the human and physical aspects of Cleethorpes. The changing coastlines with the sand dunes and the vegetation which keeps the sand in place compared with the built sea defences. The children loved exploring the marsh land for creatures, shells and pebbles, trying to guess which types of rocks they were. We explored the sand dunes then we went to the bandstand to shelter from the elements and sketch some local wildlife. The sun finally came out for us so we had a brisk walk to get chips & ice cream! Yum! As the children had been so great we had a little free time on the beach then another walk back to the bus! We were all shattered but everyone loved the adventure we had!

Gardening Club: Seedlings

Gardening club have seen progress this week in their runner beans and pumpkin seeds! Our job next week will be to replant the runner beans into individual pots ready for them to grow further. Everyone was very excited to see that they had grown. Things have been tricky to grow so far because of the unpredictable weather we have had. 

Gardening Club: Herbs

Today in gardening club we have been planting using our herb garden pallet. We decided which herbs we wanted to plant and wrote their names on the pallet, then we planted them. We can't wait to watch them grow!

Year 3 - Being a mathematician

In maths we have started to learn about perimeter and what it means. The children enjoyed taking our learning outside where we walked around the perimeter of shapes in the playground. They also used chalk to draw shapes in the quad for their peers to work out the perimeter by counting the sides of the square slabs.


Gardening Club: Planting

Today in gardening club we had a special helper! Mrs Drury brought her grandson to help us do our next lot of planting. We have planted pumpkins, runner beans and peas. We can't wait to update you on how they are growing! Hopefully, we can use the produce we grow to help Mrs Christie's cooking club. 

Year 3 - Geography

In geography we have been learning about the UK. Today we used our map reading skills to find different cities around the UK. After that, we took our learning outside and learnt about the 8 compass points. We then used these skills to complete a treasure hunt to find cities around the UK using compass points.