A screamtastic day of fun and learning was a Halloween treat for little children at Ramsgate Arts Primary.
The Spooky Arts Day gave the four and five year olds from Reception classes the chance to enjoy a range of activities in specially decorated themed classrooms.
Pupils added to the atmosphere and were dressed and made up in their horrifying outfits including witches, skeletons, Dracula, dragons, ghosts, zombies and werewolves as well as less scary costumes including Spiderman and Super Mario.
Among the fun activities were learning a spooky song, getting creative and making stars out of sticks, skeletons from cotton buds, cutting out card to make a witches face and hat and then painting it ghastly green and black, and making pumpkin faces by printing in paint with cut apples.
Being immersed in lots of different arts activities for a whole day engaged pupils in a variety of creative styles using many different resources and techniques including weaving, chalk rubbing, painting and printing.
Sensory activities waited for the young ghostbusters in the outdoor play area where they delved into frightful foam and spiders to find eyeballs, spiders and worms (pasta).
They also cooked up a monster mixture in the outdoor kitchen making spells and using colourful mud in the creepy cooks’ cauldron.
Head of Early Years Sophie Spurrier said: “The Halloween art day was a great success with the 
children and it gave them a chance to really engage with all types of creativity with a specific theme in the morning and afternoon. They really enjoyed all the tasks and opportunities and worked well together.”
Head of School Nick Budge added: “Creativity is a central part of life at RAPS and having a full art day with so many different learning experiences is brilliant for these children. They have only been with us since September but they are really engaged with all of the different types of learning that our specialist arts primary can offer.”
To book a tour of RAPS and see the arts learning in action, contact Head of School Nick Budge on 01843 582847.
Ramsgate Arts Primary School is part of the Viking Academy Trust with Upton Junior School at Broadstairs and Chilton Primary School, Ramsgate.
This is a request for all your favourite family recipes!
We would like you to share the recipes that your children ask for time and time again, as we are hoping to publish your tried-and-tested, much-loved meals in a RAPS family cookbook, which will be illustrated by the children and sold to raise funds for the school. The money raised will go towards a Kitchen Garden!
We are sure that the book, a celebration of the food RAPS families love to cook at home, will make a perfect gift and will be packed full of inspiration for when you get stuck in a rut, thinking ‘what shall we cook for dinner?’
Covering everything from breakfast and lunch to snacks and dinner, we’d love you to send in your recipe contributions. Perhaps it’s the recipe for a dish you often make with your child, your legendary bolognaise, go-to curry, stir-fry or ultimate roast chicken? We are also looking for quick meal ideas, simple breads or homemade ice cream, perfectly sinful chocolate brownies or failsafe crumble, or it could be your family’s take on eggy bread… anything goes. If it’s a winner, we want to try it, and it’ll go in the book!
Please send your recipes (including ingredients, quantities and method) to lauranickoll@yahoo.com, including a picture of the dish (if you have one) and if there’s a story behind the recipe that you’d like to share, please do include it.
There may even be a teacher/parent ‘Cook-Off’, judged by the kids (brace yourself, they won’t hold back…) Teachers, we need your recipes, too!
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.
To help them on their voyage of discovery Reception classes at Ramsgate Arts Primary School had help from a whole range of creatures when Zoo Lab visited.
With the help of a Zoo Ranger the children met a range of magnificent mini beasts including Snoopy, the American corn snake; Nelly, the giant African land snail; Steve, the Madagascan hissing cockroach; Yoshi, the Leopard gecko; and Beatrice and Daisy, the rescue rats.
In the show called All About Me, the pupils came face to face and up close with the creatures and were 
able to touch, stroke and feel them.
They learnt about the animals’ similarities and differences to humans, their habitat, their favourite foods, and their special features.
Cleo said: “I loved meeting all of the animals and I never wanted them to leave,” while Annie added: “That was so much fun. I loved touching all of the animals and they like some of the same things that I do.”
Riley wasn’t too sure how close to get to Snoopy but his curiosity won him over. He explained: “I was scared at first but then I was brave and touched the snake. It was so soft.”
RAPS Early Years Lead Sophie Spurrier said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for our children and they learned a range of key facts about the creatures and how they differ to humans.
“Since starting school in September, the children have been celebrating themselves as well as the similarities and differences between each other. Zoo Lab’s visit was a perfect chance for them to see what makes the animals unique too.
“Young children gain so much insight into what they are learning with educational workshops that 
bring to life what they are discovering in the classroom.”
Zoo Lab say: “We explain the concepts of science in ways that children can readily see and touch. Children get the chance to see, touch and handle animals, and to understand more.
“Zoo Lab is about fun and imagination – we take the children on a voyage of discovery. In everything we do, animals are at the centre of things.”
To book a tour of RAPS and see the arts learning in action, contact Head of School Nick Budge on 01843 582847.
Ramsgate Arts Primary School is part of the Viking Academy Trust with Upton Junior School and Chilton Primary School.
Bach to the Future took children on a musical journey through time at Ramsgate Arts Primary.
Kent Music’s professional musicians Colin, Graeme and Lori conducted a packed hall of pupils on a sonic trip from the days of Bach around 300 years ago to the present.
They demonstrated the woodwind, string and brass sections of the orchestra and explained how instruments react to sound vibrations whether caused by blowing, plucking, strumming or bowing.
The trio also showed how the most basic of home-grown instruments can be played – a length of hose and a funnel became a brass instrument; a series of straws joined together and played like a rudimentary clarinet; and a broom pole, string and bucket upright bass.
The fourth section of a traditional orchestra is percussion and this was shown on a large screen where performers The Blue Men created a range of drum sounds using different length of plastic piping.
The roadshow included live demonstrations of music from film, TV and musical theatre, and a range of different styles from classical and jazz to popular music.
Richard Davies, Kent Music area manager for Thanet and Canterbury, visited the RAPS show. He said: “This school has quite an extensive music provision and I understand it is being broadened in the coming school year.”
The Roadshow aims to inspire children to learn a musical instrument and to encourage an understanding of just how valuable music is to our world and to our everyday lives.
Head of School Nick Budge said: “The roadshow was brilliant – it had all the pupils enthralled and it really supported the type of learning that we are offering. Music is one of our cornerstone subjects as an arts specialist school and Kent Music is very supportive of what we are achieving.”
Ramsgate Arts Primary School is part of the Viking Academy Trust with Upton Junior School at Broadstairs and Chilton Primary School, Ramsgate.
To book a tour of RAPS and see the arts learning in action, contact Head of School Nick Budge on 01843 582847.
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Children at Ramsgate Arts Primary are choosing an artist they want to work with them in creating a piece of public art for the town.
The next stage of the three-year Pioneering Places project with partner Turner Contemporary gallery, Margate, has seen pupils who worked on the programme last year gaining valuable creative experience now become Young Arts and Heritage Leaders.
In this school year they are driving the project forward and are selecting the person they believe has the best concept from a shortlist of talented national and regional artists. The RAPS children are working in partnership with St Laurence Juniors from Ramsgate as part of the project.
Working with Project Manager Jo Martin and Turner Contemporary ‘navigators’ Jo Ursell and Lucy Pettet, the children explored the diverse proposals and considered what they felt was best to be installed in the town when completed.
They discussed which of the options they thought would be best at home in Ramsgate, which artist has best met their criteria, which artist they feel the Ramsgate community would like best, and which was the best idea overall.
After much deliberation through discussion and a range of activities, they let the Turner Contemporary team know their choices.
The next step is for the artist with the preferred scheme to be contacted and to meet the young arts leaders in the coming weeks – the artist’s name will be announced then and the next step of Pioneering Places will begin.
Jo Ursell from Turner Contemporary said: “The ideas the children considered were all different and each had something very interesting to offer. It is a tough selection challenge for them and they take their responsibilities very seriously.
“They have developed their arts appreciation and creative skills in the first part of the Pioneering Places programme and are now making considered choices. They are fulfilling their roles as young arts leaders very well.
Jo Martin added: “This process is one that we believe to be a first in child led arts commissioning.
“After working with the children for a year, we have now reached a huge milestone, where they are currently appointing an artist to deliver an artwork in response to their brief. It’s been remarkable to see how thoughtful, decisive and united they have all been through this process, and I think that will reflect in the success of the final work.”
The three year project was launched in 2018 and it is planned that Pioneering Places will result in a major new artwork being commissioned and installed near Ramsgate harbour by the end of venture.
The regular sessions at school and at the gallery are part of the Pioneering Places East Kent project and the nationwide Great Place scheme.
Head of RAPS Nick Budge said: “It is a fabulous opportunity for our children to be part of this pioneering project. As an arts specialist school it is important that our creative talents are recognised not just within school but in the community – this project certainly gives us the chance to play a central role in the creation of a piece of public art.”
Ramsgate Arts Primary School is part of the Viking Academy Trust with Upton Junior School at Broadstairs and Chilton Primary School, Ramsgate.
To book a tour of RAPS and see the arts learning in action, contact Head of School Nick Budge on 01843 582847.
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