Over the past few weeks, the ARP classes have been taking their children out on local walks around the area and further out to a number of places. This is something that we have always wanted to try with our children, and with a lot of support from parents/ carers and staff, we have been successful!
We began by just talking our children on a local walk around the school. This was to get them used to walking in public with us to prepare them for a bigger trip they will have coming up. We also linked our local walks to our topic of ‘Transport’ by looking for different cars, buses, vans and bikes. For some classes, we also looked to see what colour vehicles we could find on our walks, giving them a tick sheet or tally chart to jot down what they saw and how many times.
The children were very well behaved on their local walks. They were careful of the roads and completed the vehicle tasks very well with some support from staff in the beginning. Some children were able to complete the tally chart independently too, and they were so excited when they saw a new car or van.
For another local trip, one of our classes took a trip to the Coop at Becontree to buy some ingredients for their learning this week. They started by getting the 62 bus to Upney station. From there, they got on the train and travelled one stop to Becontree station, to get off and walk down to Coop. The children paid for the ingredients themselves by handing over the money to the coop staff, which also helped them get used to buying things.
Another class took a trip to Build-A-Bear at Stratford Shopping Centre. This was, again, to focus mainly on the transport side of the trip, but also to buy a bear for the children to take home on Friday to keep over the weekend and return for another child to take home the following week. Again, the children did really well with the transport and travelling. We were so impressed with their patience on the platform and walking through Stratford, which is a big, loud and slightly scary place to go if not been there before! The children went into the shop and enjoyed choosing and collecting the bear to bring back to school. The staff were so good with the children and were calm and patient with them. We are very grateful for their support during the visit!
The whole purpose of these trips are to get the children used to using public transport. Yes, it is linked to our topic this term, but we also want to help the children get used to using these forms of transport for future travel and for families to take them out to different places more easily. We were really impressed and proud of the children for the way they conducted themselves on the train and the bus, listening carefully to adult’s instructions and sitting so calmly and safely.
We have a few more trips coming up next week to Dagenham Heathway library, and they will be shared on the website next Friday.
