Academic Creative Enrichment

ACE is focused on developing the young people’s social skills and interaction, whilst still offering educational benefits on two afternoons each week. The young people can opt for two of the following options and these can be changed every other term. This allows them to witness and enjoy a broad range of opportunities leading to them gaining a wider range of skills and learning experiences.

Here are the ACE groups that are currently offered.

CROSS-CURRICULAR TOPIC AREA – Arigato

CROSS-CURRICULAR TOPIC AREA – ARTS & CRAFTS

CROSS-CURRICULAR TOPIC AREA – boardgames

CROSS-CURRICULAR TOPIC AREA – FILM CLUB

Running a club is hugely beneficial for both educators and young people, and has been proven to foster social development, as well as improving inter-personal relationships between club leaders and young people. Film clubs provide a safe space for young people to grow, flourish and gain confidence as well as creating a sense of unity across age ranges, social classes and ethnicities through a shared appreciation of film.

CROSS-CURRICULAR TOPIC AREA – FOREST SCHOOLS

An approach that takes a long-term sustained approach to outdoor learning. Forest schools seek to encourage, motivate, engage and inspire children through positive outdoor experiences. Forest schools are closely entwined with the concepts of free flow play and learning from play.

Confidence

Forest School helps children to grow in confidence because of the freedom, time and space they are given in their learning. This allows them to demonstrate independence at each individual child’s rate.

Social skills

Activities such as sharing tools and participating in play help teach the children to work together as a group, which strengthens their bonds and social ties.

Communication

The sensory experiences provided by Forest School’s helps prompt language development. Improving communication skills has a positive effect on a child’s self-esteem and is a crucial part of their development.

Motivation and concentration

High levels of interest lead to high levels of attention. Spending time in the woodland is exciting for a child. It tends to fascinate them, which develops a strong will to participate and concentrate over long periods.

Physical skills

The increase in outdoor activity is bound to have a positive physical impact. Not only does the development of physical stamina improve but also gross and fine motor skills.

Knowledge and understanding

Children develop an interest in the great outdoors and respect for the environment. Encouraging children to develop a relationship with the natural world will help in protecting the environment for generations to come.

New perspectives

Forest School is not just beneficial to children it is also beneficial to teachers. Observing their class in a different setting allows them to gain a new perspective and understanding of their class.

Ripple effects

When children really engage with Forest Schools they will take their experiences home to share with friends and family. This will often encourage families to visit their local woodlands more frequently.

Levels the playing field

Taking children outside of the classroom removes the pressures of academia and allows them to play to their strengths. This is beneficial to children who struggle in the classroom because there is more of an opportunity for them to learn at their own pace.

Enjoyable for the children

Forest Schools are fun! It is educational whilst also allowing children to play, explore and discover. Children who participate in Forest Schools are generally observed to be happier. The fresh air, the excitement, getting mucky – it does not get child friendlier than that.

CROSS-CURRICULAR TOPIC AREA – HORTICULTURE

Being outdoors is great for children. As well as the fact kids love the great outdoors, the fresh air works wonders for them, and outdoor activities keep them active.

Gardening offers so many fun and interesting opportunities for children, and teaches them invaluable lessons.

They can learn about the different species of plants and what those plants need to help them grow. They also get to learn about the different seasons, weather and the affects they have on the plants.

It also offers an opportunity to learn about different shapes and colours, and different animals and insects they might come across.

Now the warmer weather has arrived, what better way to spend your time than enjoying some gardening.

Here are just a few benefits of gardening with children:

Sensory Development

Gardening engages all sorts of senses and helps children to develop and recognise them without even realising. They can feel the texture of soil, seeds, flower and petals. They get to smell all the amazing flower scents and see all the colourful petals.

It also helps develop hand-eye coordination and builds physical strength. Gardening is quite physical and requires the body to work hard digging, carrying, lifting, sieving, watering etc.

As children garden, they develop important motor skills that will help them improve their academic skills such as writing, cutting and typing.

Encourages Healthy Eating

It’s a well-known fact that if you engage children in growing their own vegetables, they gain a keen interest in eating them too.

It can sometimes be a real struggle to get children to eat healthy foods and enjoy them. Growing vegetables not only teaches them the hard work that it takes to grow them, but they get a sense of achievement knowing they are eating food they have grown themselves.

It’s not just the process of growing them, but learning about all the different fruits and vegetables they can grow, when is best to grow certain ones, and the process when it’s time to harvest.

It’s good to teach children about the preparation of food too, from harvest to cooking. There are so many valuable lessons they can learn which all help towards encouraging healthier lifestyles moving through their lives.

Teaches Responsibility & Patience

Growing any sort of plant or vegetable from the seedling or bulb stage requires daily attention and care. Children will quickly learn they get out what they put in. If the plants aren’t regularly watered and taken care of, they won’t flourish.

Gardening is a great way to teach responsibility, but, it is no overnight process. Children will need to learn to be patient when waiting for their flowers and vegetables to grow.

They will also need to remain engaged in the process and keep looking after their flowers even when there are no clear results. The anticipation will make the moment their flower or vegetables sprout, even more exciting.

Helps with Educational Topics

Gardening helps with a wide range of topics that are a part of everyday national curriculum. The wider topics include seasons, weather, life cycles, animals and mini beasts. These are topics that children learn about from nursery right through their school lives.

It also helps develop numeracy and literacy skills. Measuring and counting are mathematical concepts which are involved with gardening. Reading instructions on how to complete tasks or the name of different seeds help develop literacy skills.

Counting seeds and petals, and describing colours and shapes of plants also help towards developing these skills.

Develops Social Skills

Especially in schools, gardening can be a very sociable activity. Children can learn to work together and will enjoy discussing different types of flower, and process they have carried out to plant their seeds. The anticipation of waiting for whose flower will shoot through the soil first will encourage children to interact and engage. Gardening presents wonderful opportunities for children to bond and help each other look after and nurture their flowers.

Our Indoor/Outdoor Mini Garden provides a space for children to grow their own seeds and look after plants. It can be used in conjunction with the School Planter, which is ideal to transfer seedlings to for continued growth and care.

The outdoor wooden sandpit can also be used as a planter. With four separate sections, its perfect for growing different seeds in different sections. Ideal for use in schools, pre-schools and nurseries, it allows you to dedicate a section to one group of children to work together. The high-quality frame of this sand pit makes it durable, sturdy and boasts enough room for outdoor group play.

CROSS-CURRICULAR TOPIC AREA – SPANISH

CROSS-CURRICULAR TOPIC AREA – SPORTY SOMETHING

Everyone talks about how important sport and exercise is for our kids – including us. Of course, with the rising rate of obesity, it’s an undeniable fact that our kids’ health and fitness should be top priority.

Sure, we’re all aware that active children are more likely to become active adults. But sport is much more than just a means to an end in trying to keep kids physically fit.

Studies suggest that sport can also have a huge impact on a child’s psychological and social well-being. And teach them some extremely valuable life skills too.

Here’s a rundown of sport’s top 10 psychological and social benefits for kids…

1. CAMARADERIE

Joining a sports team gives kids a sense of belonging and the opportunity to make new friends. Some may even become buddies for life!

Getting involved in a sport also gives kids another social circle outside of school.

With roughly one in four students (27%) reporting being bullied at school, joining a sports team could be a much-needed source of social support.

2. LEARNING TO LOSE

And learning to do it graciously.

Bad sportsmanship is an ugly thing. No one likes a sore loser.

Of course, there’s no harm in being competitive and expressing frustration in a non-aggressive manner.

However, losing with integrity to a better opponent is a lot more honourable than throwing tantrums as regularly displayed by certain young Australian tennis players.

Which leads us on to the next point quite nicely…

3. RESPECTING AUTHORITY

Does your child need the occasional extra dose of discipline? Sign them up for a sport.

Following set rules, taking direction and accepting decisions is a large part of playing competitive sport. And players are often penalised for bad behaviour.

With regular interaction with coaches, referees and other players, respecting their elders and listening to their peers is an important skill kids can take from the court or pitch.

4. CONTROLLING EMOTIONS

As kids grow up, we expect them to learn to control their emotions. Especially the negative ones.

In sport, emotions can run high and learning to channel them the right way can be tough for youngsters.

A good coach understands that negative emotional stress hurts performance. However, once this piece of wisdom is ingrained, your child will be better equipped to tackle a whole range of other life challenges.

5. SELF-ESTEEM

Many studies suggest that sport and other physical activities can contribute to the development of self-esteem in kids.

A pat on the back, a high-five from a friend, or a handshake with an opponent at the end of a match (even if they lost), is all character building for your child.

The difficulty however, is to not let their self-esteem be distinguished by winning or losing. But instead, to focus on their effort and enjoyment of the sport.

The supportive relationships of coaches and teammates, plus encouragement from parents, can all positively affect children’s self-esteem.

So next time your child plays a game – of anything – ask “how it did it go?” versus “did you win?”

Or better still, “did you enjoy it?”

6. PATIENCE

Unless your child is extremely athletically gifted, then practice will play a large role in whatever sport or activity they’re involved in.

And if practice makes perfect, then perfect takes patience.

Of course, we shouldn’t encourage our kids to aspire to ‘perfect’ but if the message is: “if you want to get better at something, it’s going to take time.” Then this is certainly a worthwhile lesson for kids to learn.

7. DEDICATION

Similar to patience, the discipline of training and the commitment it takes to pursue a sport is a trait transferrable to many other aspects of life.

It’s no coincidence that participation in sport is linked to higher academic achievement in school.

If your kids put time and effort into getting better at something, and see the results, maybe – just maybe – they’ll put the same amount of dedication into their studies.

No promises there though…

8. WORKING TOGETHER

“There’s no I in team.”

“Teamwork makes the dream work.”

Or whatever other clichéd phrase coaches may tell their team. It means nothing unless the team members buy in too. A team can’t succeed without working together. No matter how good the individual players.

Communication is key and learning to be part of a team is synonymous with learning to value the effectiveness of teamwork. A useful lesson for kids to carry into adulthood and their future careers.

9. LESS SELFISH

Closely tied to teamwork, sports (particularly team sports) are a great platform to teach kids to be less selfish.

In sport, kids need to think about what’s best for the team. Not themselves.

You see it so often in soccer. Players have the opportunity to pass to a teammate, but instead choose to go for glory themselves. Shoot for goal, and then miss.

Egos are not good for team morale or performance.

Coaching kids to understand that they can achieve more by being less selfish, is one of team sports’ great takeaways.

10. RESILIENCE

The highs. The lows. The wins. And the losses.

Sport can be a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

One study found that youngsters who are highly involved in sport are more ‘psychologically resilient’.

This isn’t surprising when sport teaches kids to pick themselves up after a hard tackle, or to hold their head high after losing badly, then get right back out there the next week.

Sport is about bouncing back, and learning from mistakes. The earlier kids can learn these skills, the better.

Overall, the psychological and social benefits of playing sport can help kids become well-rounded, mature adults.

So whether it’s a team sport or an individual sport like tennis, what your kids can learn goes beyond the physical.

But don’t worry if your child isn’t sporty or interested in a particular sport.

There are plenty of other activities (i.e. Kids Club), where kids can develop the above skills and attributes. All of which undoubtedly have a positive impact on the adult they become.