Schools Team Up to Clean Up
Children from Chilton Primary’s Tidy School Team and Ramsgate Arts Primary’s Eco Warriors teamed up with town mayor Raushan Ara for her annual spring clean.
Pupils from Year 4 in both schools were armed with bags and litter pickers to help the Ramsgate civic leader with her quest to keep the town looking neat and tidy.
Cllr Ara met her young team at the top of the High
Street and discussed the importance of community spirit. She gave the children the equipment they needed and they made their way down the high street picking up any litter they found.
Both schools are very keen on playing their part on maintaining the environment, both on their own sites and in the wider community wherever possible.
Chilton’s Year 4 teacher Michaela Gale said: “The children were so excited to be making such a positive contribution to the community. A number of members of the public commented on how well behaved they were and thanked them for their help in cleaning up the town.
“The project contributed to our wider work in school surrounding the environment. The children that went along make up part of our Tidy School Team. They litter-pick around the school each lunch time.”
RAPS teacher Kate Maclean who works with the Eco Warriors added: “Our pupils
were incredible. They worked very hard and tirelessly to hunt down litter and bag it up – they were even gifted with some biscuits from Corby's Tea Room for doing such a good job.”
And the end result was that working together with town mayor, the children from both schools played a big part for their community by teaming up to clean up.
*The Great Ramsgate Spring Clean is organised by the Ramsgate Litter Forum and every year it holds a series of short local litter-picks across the town, aimed at tackling the areas that attract lots of litter.
The forum brings together individuals, and groups of people, working with local businesses and Ramsgate Town Council and Thanet District Council to push for cleaner streets and more responsible disposal of waste.
Chilton Primary and Ramsgate Arts Primary are members of the Viking Academy Trust together with Upton Junior School in Broadstairs.
Children demonstrated their love and enthusiasm for the spoken word at the Viking Academy Trust’s challenging annual public speaking competition.
The competitors from Years 3 to 6 tackled their subject in a range of different ways to hammer home their arguments.
they wished. The content varied from rainforests in England, girls playing football to you wouldn't believe but, I have no idea what I'm going to say.
Judges assessed the tone, clarity and confidence of speech; how they hooked the audience; and the content of their presentation. They also gave feedback and after making their selections congratulated every participant for the way they put across their speeches and for the high standard exhibited throughout.
“Their confidence whilst delivering their speeches was outstanding. It was the kind of afternoon that reaffirms why we become teachers. The children really were phenomenal.”
The finalists were:- Holly, Savannah and Aliza from Chilton; Annie, Betsy and Willow from Ramsgate Arts Primary, and Esme, Isabella and Rose from Upton.
Children from Ramsgate Arts Primary have been working with artists behind the current thought-provoking exhibition called Banned! at the Turner Contemporary.
They also discussed empathy and understanding, social justice and equality, environmental awareness, and civic engagement issues generated by the exhibition’s theme.
“It was a wonderful opportunity for our children to work face-to-face with artists and to become part of this culturally-important exhibition.”
The importance of children’s communication skills – talking and listening – is at the heart of an ongoing initiative at Ramsgate Arts Primary.
sessions, while local poet Harry Baker was involved with workshops and a whole school poetry assembly.
“At RAPS we teach oracy in two ways. Firstly, discretely through a progressive curriculum that aims to help children develop knowledge and skills in oracy. Secondly, our teachers use a wide range of strategies to promote talk in every lesson to ensure children develop their vocabulary, articulation and confidence in speaking.”
children. He added: “It is important for us to provide lots of opportunities to learn and express learning through talk to become a strong and effective communicators.”
The wonders of Ancient Greece unfolded as children experienced an inspirational day celebrating the civilisation’s history, heritage and culture.
times, the winners of Olympic events were given wreaths instead of medals. We all thought they looked great.”
In an Ancient Greek drama workshop children became Olympians preparing for their events, with the competitors discussing a variety of sports that would be contested.
known legends from Ancient Greece.
Head of School Nick Budge agreed and added: “This was an important topic that offers a wealth of information and knowledge - our Year 5 were really engaged with such a strong and memorable creative learning experience.”
Exploring the differences and similarities between humans and other animals is a big exciting adventure for children as young as four and five years old.
RAPS Early Year's teacher Sally Small said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for our children, and they learned a range of key facts about the creatures and how they differ to humans.
Head of School Nick Budge added: “It was fantastic to see so many of them pushing themselves outside of their comfort zones when facing some of the creatures - they came away with a wealth of knowledge and interesting facts as a result of the sessions.
Primary School.
Creating cave paintings, writing instructions on how to make bronze and making round houses out of clay are among activities that have taken Year 3 children at Ramsgate Arts Primary back millions of years to the dawn of human civilisation.
who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC. Otzi was discovered in September 1991 in the Otztal Alps (hence the nickname Otzi) at the border between Austria and Italy.
Teachers Kiki Amin and Alice Mann said: “To enrich their learning experience, we took Year 3 to Dover Museum to see the Bronze Age boat in particular, but also to take part in two workshops.
A kinder and safer Internet experience is what children at Ramsgate Arts Primary School want to see developed.
* Safer Internet Day: Over the years, Safer Internet Day has become a landmark event in the online safety calendar. Starting as an initiative of the EU SafeBorders project in 2004 and taken up by the Insafe network as one of its earliest actions in 2005, Safer Internet Day has grown beyond its traditional geographic zone and is now celebrated in approximately 180 countries and territories worldwide.
Children at Ramsgate Arts primary and Chilton primary schools are enjoying a bigger breakfast to get the day off to an energised and healthy start.
“Our meal provisions across the board tie in naturally with our general wellbeing programme for all our children that gives them every possible support to make their school days as positive, healthy and happy as possible.”
until the end of July 2024. Schools will contribute 25% of costs. All pupils in participating schools are to be offered breakfast supplies at no cost to them or their parents.”
The contract for the programme is delivered through Family Action, who source and deliver breakfast food products to participating schools. All breakfast products offered through the programme meet the school food standards. Schools are able to choose and order the food products and quantities they need for their pupils.
Acclaimed artist Lily Mixe has teamed up with children at Ramsgate Arts Primary to create collaborative and inspirational work.
and tried to blend this into their background.
Inspired by numerous diving expeditions, and hundreds of notebooks and studies of animals and plants, Lily states that her work “examines life under the surface, the incredible unseen, silent beings we take for granted. I want to give a visual voice to the natural world. I want to celebrate nature in the same way we value precious stones and rare artefacts. I place nature as the highest currency on planet earth.”
Young warriors have gone wild about their learning at Ramsgate Arts Primary School.
process to sharpen flint and create tools and weapons. To understand how the process worked and how tricky it was they tried their hand at knapping using bars of soap – it wasn’t easy.
Then pupils were challenged to build it with their ‘talk partners’ using biscuits for the block work and icing to glue their structures together.
The magical northern lights natural phenomenon lit the way for an inspiring exploration of light at Ramsgate Arts Primary.
light using a mirror, as well as learning about what shadows are and how they are cast.
“And they also tried their hand at learning in the dark without light which was very exciting for them.”