‘Opening minds, Opening doors’ at South Hylton Primary Academy
South Hylton Primary Academy in Sunderland has put on a series of needs-driven enrichment activities for children in their school.
The school noticed that, after lockdown and the effects of the pandemic, children needed a greater degree of enrichment, as they had lived very sheltered lives over the past two years. As a result, the school set up the ‘Opening minds, Opening doors’ program to open up the world to all of their students, beginning locally.
Head of School at the Academy Chris Mitchison said:
“Our ‘Opening minds, Opening doors’ program came from a realisation that many children had missed out on so much during successive lock-downs. At first, we set out to ensure that all of our children had access to a fantastic ‘catch-up’ curriculum combined with an equally fantastic program of enrichment. However, we wanted more for our pupils, we wanted a model of enrichment that went far beyond the curriculum and into the real-world and the local community. We called this our ‘Opening Minds, Opening Doors’ initiative and since then we’ve received funding for a community garden project, made links with a local observatory and the local GP surgery, we’ve had visits from engineers, set up micro-businesses and sold goods and had careers talks from a range of different occupations and have so much more planned for September with the hope that through opening minds and introducing new concepts out in the community we will open doors and inspire the students at South Hylton Primary Academy for the future.”
The link with the GP surgery has led to the surgery now giving talks to all of the children and they have also organised for the year 4,5 and 6 pupils to be trained in CPR and first aid. There have also been careers talks from engineers from across the North-East, including companies such as BAM and Nissan, and the children had the opportunity to sell goods which they made at the school’s Christmas fayre.
Chris Zarraga, Director of Schools North East, highlighted that “It’s fantastic to see such innovative enrichment activities for students who have missed out on so much over the last two years. Its another amazing example of the outstanding work NE schools do to provide a broad and rich curriculum for all children within their local school communities.”
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