Community sits at the heart of every school. This strand is focused around how we use the ideas of natural and human made communities to ignite learning. Here you will find resources linked to this strand and to links across the curriculum.
Resource: As part of their Community Action project, all Greeenside students got to take part over the course of the year with cooking meals for the local homeless shelter. The aim of this project was to take surplus food from the community that would otherwise be going to waste and turn it into something delicious for people in need. This linked into the DT curriculum, provided children with an opportunity to apply their skills in a purposeful way and raised awareness of both reducing waste and the importance of helping others.
Curriculum Link: D&T, Maths, English
Resource: Netherbrook launched the Green Curriculum across the whole school at the start of September by using the text ‘The Odd Fish’. The focus for the project was taking community action with regard to cleaning our seas and waterways - something especially important as they are far from the sea. Each year group wrote poetry, completed artworks and technology projects linked to the text. Working like this really brought their curriculum to life and helped everyone engage with their green pledge.
Curriculum Link: Science, English, Art, D&T, PHSE
“We are already starting to see the impact of the Green Curriculum at Netherbrook. Our own mental health as teachers is improving as we take our learning outdoors. This then has a positive effect on the children’s behaviour and well being.” Class Teacher
“We learnt that fish and wildlife get mixed up thinking plastic is food. This means they eat and get killed. This makes me feel sad for all the dead sea animals. I tell everyone to recycle their plastic now.” William Y4
“We learnt all about how plastic is taking over the ocean and killing the wildlife. We all need to help stop this.” Harry Y2
Resource: At Eyrescroft, they mapped out their Green Communities planning alongside their existing curriculum themes. This planning is focused around growing food, living a healthy life and protecting the planet. Each half term term across the year there are learning experiences link to theme for each year group. Lots of their work is revolved around their school garden and seeing what can be produced to share with their community.
Curriculum Links: Science, D&T, PHSE
Resource: Over the course of the Spring Term, there was a whole school focus at Greenside on local geography. Each year group chose a different area of the local community to study. They looked at the human and physical features of the local area and their term of learning culminated in a series of protests that raised awareness of local issues from protecting the river to better access to locally produced food and saving the biodiversity of a park. Learning through geography helped the pupils to understand the complexity of these systems on a local and global scale.
Curriculum Link: Geography, Art
Resource: Food has the power to bring a community together. Greenside invited parents to come in and share the food of their community with the school at lunch. Parents were involved in planning the menu with the kitchen team, preparing and cooking the food on the day as well as serving it to the children during lunchtime. Families are also invited in to join their child for lunch during Family Lunch days. Here families can see what delicious food is served daily and can share in the lunchtime experience.
Resource: Greenside opened a micro bakery in their school. This means that good bread is available for school lunch each day. The bread is made from wheat that is grown in a way that supports a healthy planet and as the only ingredients are flour, water and salt, it means that is supports good human health too. In addition to the bread served for lunch, extra bread is made each Friday to share with the community. At 3.30pm a selection of sourdough, focaccia, challah and sweet buns such as cinnamon rolls are available for families to buy. There are no set prices, everything is based on a donate what you can afford basis with the money going back in the school kitchen fund. You need to get there in good time as it is very popular!
Resource: When the school got the bread oven, one of the ideas was to recreate the concept of the 'village oven' whereby members of the community could gather together and bake their own bread using the oven. Greenside did bread making workshops for families where they could come in and learn a new skill and they could come and showcase how to make the breads of their own communities. The breads created on the day were shared at school lunch and at the afternoon bread sale. This is a great way to bring a community together, learn new skills and share in something delicious.
Resource: Woodsbank have threaded the Green Communities theme across their curriculum. The theme of community was woven into geography sessions enabling pupils to find out more about their local area. This idea of communities has also been threaded into history and science learning providing opportunities for returning to learning. They are developing the Forest School and allotment areas from an overgrown green space into an area where the pupils can learn a variety of skills, grow food, explore the natural environment throughout the changing seasons and increase their resilience, confidence and problem solving skills. Families and the wider school community will also be invited to join in with these projects.
Curriculum Links: Geography, History, Science, D&T