Each half term, the whole school also participates in themed days and weeks planned to develop a particular aspect of the curriculum in an exciting, interactive way.
My Place in the World
At the start of the school year, children participate in citizenship and locality days called My Place in the World that help them to see their role in the world. Using the United Nations Rights of the Child, all classes discuss their rights and devise their own Class Charter to follow for the year. They also recognise the importance of their opinion and voice and write their own manifestos to join one of our pupil groups. The rest of the class then vote to choose their representatives for the year. As part of their locality focus, children learn about their new environment and local area by studying and creating their own maps to extend their map work in Geography.
Enterprise Week
Our annual Enterprise Week helps pupils to apply their mathematical knowledge and experience in a real life context. Each class is given a budget and must design and make a product that they can sell to other pupils in order to try and make a profit. They also receives a £25 loan from the school with which they can buy all the resources they need to make their product. The children learn the importance of budgeting, team work and market research. They apply their mathematical skills by creating detailed budgets, drawing tables and graphs during market research and calculating their profit or loss accurately using calculations. They practise their persuasive writing by making an advert for the rest of the school to showcase their product. The class work together as a team to make as much of their product as they can, ready for the sale on Friday. All children can then bring in £3 to buy from any of the classes. Each class then calculates the amount they have made, pays back their loan to the school and then can spend their profits on something for their classroom.
In addition, during this week, we welcome visitors from HMT Treasury and Metro Bank. HMT Treasury lead a presentation into life in the Treasury and always answer many questions that the children have and Metro Bank teach the children about budgeting, taxes and careers within finance! We also welcome lots of our parents into the school to talk to different classes about their careers to inspire children and to help them understand a range of different jobs.
Anti-Bullying Week
Antibullying Week shines a spotlight on bullying and encourages all children, teachers and parents to take action against bullying throughout the year. Each year we follow the theme set by the Anti-Bullying Alliance for National Anti-Bullying Week. During this week each class will participate in lots of different activities and assemblies, which promote anti-bullying. However, at St. Vincent’s we recognise that this focus should not just be for one week and we are committed to long-term sustainable measures to prevent and deal with any form of bullying behaviour, working together with children and parents to address this important issue. We also have Odd Socks day to help raise awareness around anti-bullying. Odd Socks Day is designed to be fun! Children wear odd socks to school as an opportunity to express themselves and celebrate their individuality and what makes us all unique!
World Week
The aim of the special themed week, World Week, is to encourage children to recognise that they are global citizens and begin to think about their responsibility for the wider world, beyond our School community and immediate surroundings. It’s also a great opportunity to reinforce the message that we are called by God to work together for the common good of all humanity as well as celebrating the wonderful world that God has created for us. We consider how we interact and connect with other across the world by celebrating Safer Internet Day. Two days will be spent for the children to focus on their wellbeing with Children’s Mental Health Days, to help them to look after themselves as well as the world around them. The week always ends with our Cultural Day where children dress up in colours and clothes from their home countries and spend their PSHE lesson understanding and celebrating that people come from different places. We end the week with a wonderful International Assembly to celebrate our many different home countries. Children in all years can choose to perform different traditional acts from across the world celebrating a variety of languages, countries and cultures.
Science & Engineering Week
Each year we celebrate Science and Engineering Week and follow the national theme. During this week we aim to encourage children to become inspired and excited by Science and Engineering, to provide opportunities for a range of exciting, practical Science activities which are accessible to all and to enable children to understand the importance of Science and Engineering in their everyday lives and to consider these as possible future careers.
Art Week
In the summer term every year we hold an Art Week. Each class produces a piece of art work which is then sold at the school auction! In the Summer term 2022, we are working with Queens College and welcoming in Mr Allen to work with some of our classes. Lots of our classes already know him as he brings in some sixth formers to help teach different classes their Art lessons focussing on different art skills and techniques. This year we are celebrating art and Mr Allen has helped us to create some beautiful pieces of art. Some classes are also doing a project led by the National Portrait Gallery called ‘Faces and Spaces’ while other classes are having workshops in the Wallace Collection. The children were very proud of their art pieces and they were certainly popular for the bidders at our school auction! You can see all of our art auction work by clicking here!
Health & Fitness Week
Health and Fitness Week shines a spotlight on leading a healthy lifestyle. The children participate in lots of activities throughout the week that encourage them to engage positively with health and fitness. An example of an activity is the ‘Healthy Swap’ Challenge-instead of spending 30 minutes using technology, the children were encouraged to spend 30 minutes engaging in an activity that contributes to their health and fitness e.g. spending time outdoors, a physical activity or preparing a healthy meal. Each class also participates in a workshop lead by the charity MIND to help promote healthy mental health.
A highlight of Health and Fitness Week is our annual Sports Day! This is always a fantastic day where the children enjoy a range of games and races-some competitive and some fun-giving everyone the opportunity to excel. Many family members and past pupils also join us for the day and we always enjoy a huge school family picnic!
At. St Vincent’s we encourage children to demonstrate brilliant sportsmanship and team work and this is evident during Health and Fitness Week.