Broader curriculum

From Cedars School

For one afternoon each week pupils in P7 and S1 take part in a range of broader curriculum activities. So far these activities have included:

• Gardening
• Fishing
• Sculpture
• Christmas around the World
• Cooking
• Curling

The activities are designed to be very practical and without a large written component. Often the activity blocks will involve trips to and visits from outside agencies. Pupils are involved in choosing the activities and they also help to decide on the learning targets to be achieved at the end of each activity block. Assessment takes the form of a presentation or digital record.

For example, by the end of our fishing block, the pupils wanted to be able to say:

• 'I can set up my own fishing rod'
• 'I can identify types of fish in Ardgowan Fisheries loch'
• 'I can name various pieces of fishing gear'
• 'I can cast from a safe place on the bank'
• 'I can look after live bait'
• 'I can fish with bait'

The assessment was a group presentation to the school assembly where they demonstrated the skills and knowledge they had learned.

At the end of the sculpture block they wanted to be able to say:

• 'I can work with different materials'.
• 'I can use different ways of joining materials'.
• 'I can name some various sculptures'.
• 'I can name some modern sculptors'.

The assessment was the range of sculptures they had produced.

Here is what the pupils have to say about it:

• "This is so brilliant! I'm loving this topic!" Lauren and Lauren
• "It was great! I learned a lot more about fishing. It was really good fun. I particularly learned about bait fishing which I had not done before. I'll go fishing much more often now." Angus
• "Well good man!" Rhys

Here are some picture of the actual activities:

At Ardgowan fisheries.	Rhys waiting.....	Angus with his catch of the day!	Buying the gardening materials.
Just keep digging...	Green fingers!	Making a gingerbread house as part of the Christmas around the World topic.	The finished creation!
Yum Yum!	Learning about an Italian Christmas.	Part of the sculpture block involved working with clay.	The theme was superheroes!
Curling.	More curling!	Masterchef!