Netherthorpe Nursery Infant & Junior School, Netherthorpe Street, Sheffield S3 7JA

ABOUT NETHERTHORPE SCHOOL ~ ENRICHMENT PROJECTS

WRITING ENRICHMENT - BEACON SCHOOL LINK ~ During the summer of 2004, to encourage pupils to be more creative in their approach to writing, we worked with a range of artists and authors over a week. The writer Ann Hamblin worked through the school with all age groups. She told stories and helped develop play scripts and poems. Y1 and Y2 had been looking at the Olympics so Ann worked on an extract from Odysseus. The Teaching Assistants, who supported the children, took this to greater heights alongside the class teachers and the two classes went on to create a dramatised version. This performance was acted out for the whole school, complete with ship, sirens and musical accompaniment.

PERSEUS! - TRANSITION AND SUMMER PRODUCTION ~ Every summer term Y6 pupils work on a transition project, which involves singing, dance and drama. The last two productions have grown in ambition and inclusion! We have made great use of Y8 and Y9 from Tapton School to develop choreography, drama, scenery and props. The support of the Music and Drama Department and the co-operation from Mr Bowes the Head Teacher and other school members was greatly appreciated. The production also called on the services and talents of other year groups, teachers and parents. Gifted and Talented pupils helped write the script. Other year groups

in the school made the costumes, scenery and props. Parents took on the mammoth task of creating over 40 togas and accessories...known as 'Baldwin's Beauties' they presented a formidable but professional task force! Staff were persuaded to become actors, a first for most! Parents who watched the performance were amazed at the hard work of their children. Pupils learned a lot about themselves - confidence, belief in their abilities, talents they didn't know they had and the taste of success. For some this has led on to joining drama groups, or having a more self assured attitude.

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM 'JOURNEYS' PROJECT ~ As one of our EAZ focus areas is developing writing opportunities, so we were able to work again with Ann Hamblin. This time the theme was 'Journeys'. Pupils covered a range of work during the week: Foundation children went for a walk in an enchanted garden; Y1 children retold their version of a Greek legend linked to the journey of the sun across the sky. The children in Y2 wrote letters to loved ones from Florence Nightingale's Crimea and Y4 explored the feelings of refugees and their journeys to safety; Y3 and Y5 wrote 'senses' poems about recent field trips and Y6 pupils travelled back in time to Oliver Twist's London. Work is on display throughout the school and will be used alongside work from other schools in an EAZ exhibition in the summer of 2005.