Primary Challenge 2010

30th June 2010

As a Training School, Cirencester Deer Park has links to the universities of Gloucestershire, Bath, Bath Spa and Bristol and we tend to have more trainee teachers on placement than most schools. This extra staffing not only enables us to have two adults in many classrooms but means that we can do things we would not normally be able to do.

On Monday 14 June our team of trainee teachers hosted a Primary Challenge Day for more than 50 pupils who will be joining the school in September. The day was particularly aimed at pupils from some of our smaller partner primary schools, some of whom may be the only pupil from their school coming to Deer Park, to help them make new friends before joining us in September. The team of trainee teachers – Mr McCrindle, Miss Bullingham, Mr Dark, Mr Jones, Miss Gordon, Miss de le Cadena, Mr Cockram, Miss Cosimetti and Miss Hawkins – organised a day of challenges with a World Cup theme.

On arrival at the school, or 'Oliver Tambo Airport' as the Hall became for the day, our new pupils checked in, left their belongings in baggage reclaim and boarded their flight to the various challenges.

During the day they went through a series of challenges including testing fabrics for a new kit, comparing running speeds and finding the best type of soil for a football pitch in Science, talking about the countries in French, finding out more about the competing countries and, of course, playing in a mini world cup tournament.

The pupils all said how much they enjoyed their day and we hope it will help them feel more comfortable on their first day in September.

We are extremely grateful to all our trainee teachers, who worked very hard to put together the day, and wish them all well in their future careers.