“A week is a long time in politics but seems to fly by when delivering our Primary Future Goals programme,” so says Paul Withams, Senior Education Delivery Officer at Wycombe Wanderers Foundation.
Monday
Off to Oakridge School to work with Red Kites and Eagles Year six classes. Today is working with my mentoring groups on multiplying and dividing fractions, followed by a guided reading session based on ‘Carrie’s War’. After lunch, we ‘played the world cup’! Using dice to predict the score of every game, we had a range of winners from England through to Canada. The focus was on working together, being able to use flow charts along with having a bit of fun! After school football club with Year Three was chilly (actually freezing), but great to see the enthusiasm and enjoyment.
Tuesday
A different type of day as I’m at Chiltern Way Academy in Aylesbury. Working with small groups of pupils, who have a range of special needs, collaboration and listening to each other is key. Today was about playing top trumps – both ‘World Stars’ and ‘England’s Lionesses’ – working out the highest, lowest and winning values. Every session is finished off with a game of football.
Wednesday
The first of two days at Carrington Junior School, spending the day with Year Five. The whole class PHSE sessions covered the value of Respect – a word that is used a lot but what does it actually mean when you are 9/10 years old and how can we show respect in school, sport and in everyday life? The pupils came up with lots of well thought out answers, culminating in how they would like to see respect within the classroom. Mentoring groups today undertook ‘Bodger’s times tables challenge’ – 100 questions in as quick a time as possible, the best being all correct in 4 minutes, 12 seconds.
Thursday
A mentoring day with small groups from Year Four and Year Six. A variety of activities, depending on the needs of the groups, including hearing readers and playing the ’24 game’ where the answer is always 24, but only using the given four numbers, how do we get there?
An excellent way for developing mathematical thinking and problem solving.
Friday
The final day of the week and a visit to Lane End Primary School, working with all three Key Stage Two classes. Today in PHSE, we looked at Challenges and how to overcome them, developing resilience and strategies to cope. Again, lots of great discussion and ideas. In the afternoon, it was time for some country dancing. With a visit from the ‘Marks’ – Foundation CEO and Head of Education, I had to get them joining in! We then moved onto the ‘Lane End Wanderers’ playing their first league game of the season against Burford School, looking resplendent in brand new kit, we slipped to defeat, losing 8-1. Despite the score line, every person played with a smile on their face and with a great deal of effort.
This is the third academic year that the Primary Future Goals has been running in our local primary schools, continuing to go from strength to strength, making a difference to the lives of many young people.
WWF wishes all of our children a very Happy New Year and look forward to more learning in 2023.
