Newton School, Chester
Today we travelled up to Chester, to visit Newton School. A few months ago, one of the
teachers had emailed us to ask if we'd take part in their ICT lessons by email. They'd read about our trip in one of my columns in the Times
Educational Supplement, and wanted us to exchange emails with their Year 3 classes. The class all looked at this website, and then each sent
us an email. At the time, it meant reading through 60 emails, and then sending a group reply to the class, which the teacher then showed on
the electronic whiteboard for the class. But the highlight for Charlotte was when they invited her to visit the school when she got home.
After her disappointment at only getting one email from her own school during the year, she was even more excited to visit them.
But she probably
hadn't expected this! After meeting crowds of pupils in the playground at break time, the two Year 3 classes got together in one classroom.
They'd prepared questions to ask us all, so we started by showing them our video of the Canada part of the trip, then answered their questions
for half an hour. We finished by showing them some of the videos from this website - they loved the bit where we had to pull over from the
beach on Fraser Island so that a plane could land.
A year ago, I'd doubt whether Charlotte would have had the confidence to go to a school that she didn't know, and answer a barrage of questions from a large group of pupils. But now, after a year away from school, but surrounded by so many different experiences, she was a natural. After she'd got over her initial nerves, there was no stopping her.
At
the end we were amazed to see their wall display about our trip, with a map of our route, photographs taken from our website, and printouts of
our emails. It was another of those spooky feelings - there we are, off on our little trip, and because of the website, people we didn't know
were following what we were up to from afar. During school lunch, Charlotte and Emily were both crowded by pupils who wanted to look after
them - show them where to sit, and how to get their lunch - and Sarah and I both got grabbed by boys that wanted to ask us questions, and show
us their European Cup medal collections.
After lunch we were back in the classroom, this time with a group of 70 pupils from Years 4 and 6, going through a similar Question and Answer session. Emily had been quietly drawing at the back of the classroom, but then really got into the spirit of it when she was allowed to join in the PE lesson at the end of the afternoon, running around and under the parachute on the field.
After such a positive and happy experience, we're unlikely to have problems getting Emily to school on her first day. Although Charlotte asked whether we could move up to Chester so that she could go to school at Newton School next year.
But she probably
hadn't expected this! After meeting crowds of pupils in the playground at break time, the two Year 3 classes got together in one classroom.
They'd prepared questions to ask us all, so we started by showing them our video of the Canada part of the trip, then answered their questions
for half an hour. We finished by showing them some of the videos from this website - they loved the bit where we had to pull over from the
beach on Fraser Island so that a plane could land. A year ago, I'd doubt whether Charlotte would have had the confidence to go to a school that she didn't know, and answer a barrage of questions from a large group of pupils. But now, after a year away from school, but surrounded by so many different experiences, she was a natural. After she'd got over her initial nerves, there was no stopping her.
At
the end we were amazed to see their wall display about our trip, with a map of our route, photographs taken from our website, and printouts of
our emails. It was another of those spooky feelings - there we are, off on our little trip, and because of the website, people we didn't know
were following what we were up to from afar. During school lunch, Charlotte and Emily were both crowded by pupils who wanted to look after
them - show them where to sit, and how to get their lunch - and Sarah and I both got grabbed by boys that wanted to ask us questions, and show
us their European Cup medal collections.After lunch we were back in the classroom, this time with a group of 70 pupils from Years 4 and 6, going through a similar Question and Answer session. Emily had been quietly drawing at the back of the classroom, but then really got into the spirit of it when she was allowed to join in the PE lesson at the end of the afternoon, running around and under the parachute on the field.
After such a positive and happy experience, we're unlikely to have problems getting Emily to school on her first day. Although Charlotte asked whether we could move up to Chester so that she could go to school at Newton School next year.