Trips and Visits
At St Thomas of Canterbury, enrichment opportunities are at the very heart of our curriculum, and workshops, trips or unique experiences take place in each year group. School trips and workshops are curriculum driven so that the children gain in knowledge through their experience. If appropriate, the trip or workshop is at the beginning of term so that the children have been given a hook into their topic. As a further incentive, children are given the new topic as a theme over the half term holidays to prepare them.
We have a Forest School which connects our children to nature and the great outdoors. It gives the children the opportunity to act successfully in a variety of challenging situations and so increase their self-confidence and self-efficacy. It impacts on the children’s attitudes, beliefs and self-perceptions including independence, confidence, self-esteem and coping strategies. The Forest school lessons also provide them with interpersonal and social skills, such as communication and teamwork skills as well as providing an insight into how important it is to look after the environment.
Trips and Visits - Academic Year 2023 - 2024 (So Far)
Trips and Visits - Academic Year 2022 - 2023
Trip to the Alliance Française of Manchester!
This term, we had the opportunity to visit the Alliance Française and have lessons from a native speaker! The children enjoyed the sessions and have learnt lots of new vocabulary.
Poet Matt Goodfellow inspires pupils! November 2023
Matt Goodfellow joining pupils in school today to share his published poems. He explained how he uses poetry as a way of expressing himself. Pupils in Y4 and Y5 took part in a classroom workshop, where they were inspired to write their own poetry.
Thank you Matt for your inspirational visit!
Year 5 - Victorian Trip to Salford Museum September 2023
Year 5H Trip to Khizra Mosque 13/9/23
This year, in Year 5, the children will be learning about Islam and today we took the opportunity to visit a local Mosque. We began to learn about the Islamic faith and looked around.
Year 4/5’s Visit to the Manchester Civil Justice Centre
Some select pupils from year 4/5 were given the opportunity gain access in to a ‘real’ working courtroom and take part in a mock trial, where they got the chance to dress up in wigs and gowns to re-enact a real trial. They also got the opportunity to meet and ask questions to a real judge.
Year 3 visited the wetlands !
The Year 6 residential to Ambleside
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Year 5 visit to Salford Museum and Art Gallery
As part of our Victorian’s unit, we took the children to Salford museum at the beginning of the Autumn term to give them an insight into this exciting topic. They were given the opportunity to explore Victorian artefacts, view original Lowry pieces in the art gallery and walk down a Victorian street. A great time was had by all!
Year 6's Visit to Our Lady's High School: Electricity lesson
A walk to the River Irwell for our Year 5 ‘Rivers’ topic
The children had a wonderful day exploring some of the features of the River Irwell. We walked both there and back from school and we saw the Irwell meander, an example of erosion, deposition and how the river flows in its lower course.
Year 4 Trip to Manchester Jewish Museum
Year 6 visit to Salford Watersports Centre
Year 1 Circus Skills Workshop
Clitheroe Castle Y1CL
What a fantastic first school trip we had to Clitheroe Castle on Tuesday 29th March! We were amazed to see a Motte and Bailey castle in real life. From the motte to the keep, bailey and arrow slits, we remembered so much from what we had been taught in class! Many of us could give reasons as to why Clitheroe Castle had been built in that particular location (high up and on solid ground), and we also learnt some other reasons, for example, it being near to a major road and river. They would have needed the river water for lots of things like washing their clothes.
A highlight for everyone was definitely when we were knights in training with our swords!! We also thoroughly enjoyed making our own Motte and Bailey castles using sand and sticks. It was fun when we tried to knock our castle down with the catapult and rock (bouncy ball!)!
Soldiers in Training!
Soldiers in Training!
Don't Look Down!
Attack!
Year 1 Castles and Knights - Trip to Clitheroe Castle
Y1 Animal Handling Workshop
To mark the end of our first Science topic in Year 1 'Animals including Humans' we took part in a workshop, which involved us being able to handle real animals! We listened carefully to Lynsey who shared her expert knowledge about all the animals, including snakes and frogs! We were also able to answer many of her questions about the different animal groups, using the knowledge we had gained throughout the topic. We were very inquisitive, asking many sensible questions to further our understanding.
Y2 Great Fire of London Workshop
We had a special visitor in to school this term in Y2. The team at ‘make the classroom disappear’ came in to carry out a Great Fire of London workshop with the children. We worked as history detectives, looking at extracts from newspapers from 166 and from Samuel Pepys diary to piece together clues to solve the history mystery. We explored and compared maps of London from the past and today. We role played the events of the day of the fire, operating a cart fire engine and using gunpowder to blow up some of the houses! It was a fantastic day!
