Learning Beyond the Classroom

We believe that children need to have first hand experience of the local environment and due to our excellent location next to Cullercoats Bay and Tynemouth we believe that our children should use this valuable resource to enable real and relevant learning. Children also benefit and learn a great deal from meeting different visitors in school.

Various organisations are involved with our school. These include - the Youth Sports Trust, The Dove Marine Laboratory, Bike4Health, Marden Quarry, RNLI and St George’s Church.

To support children’s learning beyond the classroom, the school organises visits to a variety of places of interest. Visits have included Grace Darling Museum, Sunderland Climbing Wall, The Great North Museum, Beamish, The Rising Sun and The Centre for Life.

The school organises two outdoor and adventurous residential visits each year. A three day, two night visit to the High Borrans Centre in the Lake District for pupils in Year 4 during the autumn term and a five day four night visit to Dalguise in Scotland for pupils in Year 6 during the summer term.

The staff follow the Education Authority’s Policy when planning, organising and risk assessing educational visits. The Governing Body approves all visits. Mr Jones is the Educational Visits co-ordinator. When new children start school, parents and carers are asked to complete a consent form to enable your child to go on local visits within the school’s local environment. These visits do not include transport.

Parents and carers are sent a separate letter if your child is going off the school site AND it involves transport. Charges for School Activities and Resources Parents and carers are expected to meet a part or whole of the cost, where necessary. The Education Reform Act 1988, sets out criteria for charging for school activities. Activities such as those mentioned above will be costed out and parents and carers will be asked to make a voluntary contribution. Unfortunately, if insufficient funds are raised through voluntary contributions, the activities may have to be cancelled.