Year 6 Skills Week and Facing the Dragons!
Once the year 6 exams are finished and results are in there is a comprehensive programme of enrichment activities for our Year 6 children. Part of this programme is Skills Week and Young Enterprise which takes place during the last week of the Spring term.
The week began with Life Skills and the Chandlings Prep Bikeability Course. Pupils were in the capable hands of Mrs Biggs and Mrs Hanslip on the tennis courts looking at safety, turning, stopping and various other biking techniques to increase both knowledge and confidence. In Life Skills pupils were learning how to make beds, knot tying, (this would become important later in the week for Den Building), Touch typing and tying a tie. Some pupils knew more than others but it was a good collaborative approach in which pupils both developed and shared their existing knowledge.
Tuesday was a Young Enterprise day with the pupils in their groups working on their products, making their table designs for Friday and working on their sales pitches to the all important Dragons! The pupils also had presentations from Mr Wahid, Mrs Brown and Mr Elwood on their areas of expertise in business and they kindly answered questions from their very eager audience.
Oxfordshire First Aid visited on Wednesday. Children learnt about the Recovery position, CPR including defibrillator, bleeding and bandage application as well as other topics. It is such an important life skill and the pupils learnt a great deal during the sessions.
Thursday was the outdoor day and on arrival in Bluebell Wood in the morning, the snow arrived to greet us! It was such a beautiful setting and the pupils loved being in the outdoor environment. Pupils took part in a rotation of fire building and safety, den building and completed the low ropes course. We had 3 or 4 flurries of snow which really added to the fun and snuggling around a campfire with a cheeky marshmallow certainly helped.
Friday morning was a carousel of personal survival and water safety run in tandem with Team Building and Leadership Games. It was interesting seeing how some groups went about it and how team dynamics came to the fore. The winning team were, to be honest, the ones that listened to one another and made a plan! Life lessons indeed!
In the afternoon the dragons arrived! The pupils speeches and pitches along with the quality of their products were certainly the best we have seen in recent years and the Dragons pitched their responses and questions superbly. A huge thank you to Mrs Jones, Mr Wahid, Ms Patel and Dr Ramesh for their time and expertise.
An amazing week offering great life experiences and creating more good memories from Chandlings Prep.