Outdoor Learning

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We are proud to have achieved the Woodland Trust's Green Tree School Gold Award here at Queen's Hill Primary School!

At Queen's Hill Primary School not only do we use the spaces within our school but also the areas in Queen's Hill Country Park, we have woods near our school which the children visit to explore and investigate.  The children enjoy growing vegetables and fruit in the school gardens. The work which takes place outside is very practical and delivered in a small group situation so that understanding can be monitored immediately and misconceptions dealt with. An intensive scientific, practical and environmental understanding will be built as your child moves through school and will offer a very firmly established appreciation of the amazing world in which we live. The work our children are engaged in outside the classroom at Queen's Hill is well-planned with built in continuity and progression.

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Miss Geschke is our Teaching Assistant here at Queen's Hill and will be running Outdoor Learning sessions with the children. 

Recent Outdoor Learning in School

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Year 1 Easter Gardens

This week Year 1 went to the woods to create Easter Gardens. We have been thinking about why The Cross is important to Christians and learning about the Easter story. The children confidently applied all of this knowledge to create some wonderful Easter Gardens! Great work Year 1!

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Outdoor Learning in Year 6

Over the past two weeks Year 6 have been learning about butterflies. They all had some great questions and wanted to learn more about different species of butterflies! Children had a trail quiz to complete and were challenged to find out the answers to their questions. Upon their trail, they found a peacock butterfly in … Read more

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Bug hotels Y5

Year 5 have been working hard on creating bug hotels this week. They have used materials they have found at home to create an inviting habitat for our creepy crawly friends.

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Outdoor Classroom visit

We have been learning about the changes that Autumn brings in Reception and so we decided to see if we could find any evidence of Autumn arriving in Queen’s Hills. The children worked in pairs and hunted for Autumn items from a checklist. All of the children did super listening and showed our 3 school … Read more

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Exploring Year 1

Year one have made a fantastic start to the year. They have spent the first week exploring the new outside resources. They have created delicious food in the outdoor kitchen and building hand eye co-ordination playing tennis. Children have enjoyed having a go at writing and phonics is underway!

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Year 6 Orchard Visit

Year 6 had a wonderful morning in the sunshine at the Orchard today. They were able to fix the tree labels they made last year directly onto the steel mesh of the tree guards using zip ties through pre-drilled holes. They also participated in a ‘hands on’ conservation work activity making bee hotels and signs … Read more

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Outdoor Classroom – YR

Reception had their first visit to the outdoor classroom. They were fantastic and walked carefully down. Once there they enjoyed den building, bug hunting and making nature bracelets and necklaces.

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Y5 Eaton Vale 2023

We had a fun packed few days at Eaton Vale this year. All the children were amazing and gave everything a go even if they were initially weary. We packed so much in that the photos below do not do it justice but hopefully you will get a snapshot of the lasting memories we built.

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Planting sunflowers

Children have enjoyed planting sunflowers and monitoring their growth.

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Y5 Curriculum Day – Earth Day

Today Y5 celebrated Earth Day. We were tasked to look at the issue of ‘littering’ and how this impacted on the Earth. We decided to go on a litter pick around the school grounds. Due to the amount of litter found the children felt compelled to do more so they decided to write letters to … Read more

Learning Outdoors: School Trips

We make use of the amazing local outdoor facilities we have both in Norwich and Norfolk and allow children to experience new activities wherever possible, for example, Norwich Ski slope, seaside trips and walk into our local country park. Pupils in Key Stage 2 have a yearly camping residential as part of their curriculum entitlement.

Whitwell Camping Trip: Years 3, 4 and 5

Every year the children in Year 3, 4 and 5 go to Whitwell Hall to experience camping, cooking on fire and becoming more independent. The Year 5s stay for five days and are the Young Leaders - this means they have a special job to do every day and they also help the younger children to become more confident. The governors subsidise this school trip as they have been impressed with how the children show more resilience and maturity following this camp. We come back smelling of smoke but with some fantastic memories too!

Eaton Vale Camping Trip: Year 6

Annually our Year 6 pupils visit Eaton Vale where they stay for 3 days. The children get to take part in a wide range of outdoor pursuits, including rafting, kayaking and abseiling.

Learning Outdoors: Curriculum Days and Visitors

During our topic curriculum days we ensure where possible we take full advantage of making use of the outdoor spaces within the school. Some sessions are taught outside and we love having visitors into school to talk to us about wildlife and nature.