One hundred and twenty children and their dads (and one older brother) spent an action packed Saturday morning at St Peter’s Catholic School, Merrow, Guildford when they attended a transition morning for Year 6 children who will be starting at the school in September.
The event provided an opportunity for fathers to spend quality fun time with their children, and participate in a wide range of activities; some learnt African or samba drumming, whilst others joined in an energetic boxercise session or made gingerbread footballers. Other fathers and children made rockets and fired them a great height into the air on the school field. The highlight of the morning for some children was using a range of design technology resources to turn their fathers into robots who then had to compete in a series of challenges – with many of them getting very wet in the process!
All the children, from twenty five primary schools, learnt circus skills whilst their fathers were told about the pastoral care and support offered to their children by St Peter’s School and were given the opportunity to discuss what they and their children felt about the move to secondary school. One of the fathers commented: ‘I can really see how I can get involved and make a real difference to my child’s education. It’s something my parents didn’t do for me and I want to be better for my daughter.’
The morning was organised and funded by East Guildford Confederation, a group of nineteen schools working together to meet the needs of children and families in the area. Sue Giddings, Manager of the Confederation said ‘We organised this event again as the pilot morning last year proved so successful by increasing children’s confidence in starting at a new school, providing opportunities for dads to meet and chat and for children to make new friends and learn different skills. It was marvellous to see so many children having fun with their dads and getting to know the school and its staff in an informal, fun setting.’
Our annual Technology Family Learning day was once again a magnificent success. The number of families attending this year’s event broke all records, doubling last year’s turnout by 100%.
Parents accompanied their children for a morning of festive fun, designing and making an assortment of unique and exciting products.
The events were hosted by our Resistant Materials, Graphic Products and Science Departments, in our excellent Technology school facilities.
In the Science labs there was the sound of plink, plink, fizz, as families experimented in making bath time bombs that were truly ‘lush’! The bath time beauties matched anything found in the famous high street natural cosmetics store.
In the workshop, the ‘Cutting Edge Christmas Decorations’ utilised modern materials and the latest laser technology, to create amazing contemporary craft that could adorn any Christmas tree or dinner table this festive season.
In the Graphic Products studio, families had the opportunity to get crafty with card, engineering an assortment of decorative and unique Christmas decorations, using a selection of holographic and ‘smart’ graphic materials.
It was wonderful to witness our students, helping their parents and younger brothers and sisters, in an exciting and rewarding way.
If you would like to be involved in Family Learning at St Peter’s, we have a number of fun and exciting events planned for the New Year. So keep an eye out for our programme of events that will be published early next year.
