Saviour CofE Primary School
Character Education
Forest School
“Children make good use of a stimulating outdoor area. Boys and girls make imaginative use of equipment to explore their surroundings.”
- Ofsted, 2016.
At Saviour, we are passionate about the holistic development of our pupils and enabling them to become happy, responsible citizens. We believe that Forest School sessions help us to achieve these goals. At our very own purpose-built Forest School, children can explore the pond, mud kitchen, fire pits, fruit trees, a willow den and tunnel, a den-building area, and so much more! Forest School sessions encourage children to learn, play and investigate their surroundings independently. They also learn new practical skills, such as den building, knot tying, fire making, outdoor cooking and using tools.
Forest School specifically aims to develop children’s:
- Emotional intelligence
- Communication, language and social skills
- Confidence
- Resilience
- Independence
- Imagination and innovation
- Problem-solving skills
- Respect and understanding of the environment
- Life skills and the ability to manage risks for themselves
Inspired? Explore the great outdoors with your child at these local areas!
- Blackley Forest
- Alkrington Woods
- Boggart Hole Clough
- Heaton Park
- Forest Bank Park
- Clayton Vale
- Prestwich Forest Park
Eco Council
Get to know our amazing Eco Council, Bee Green. They are passionate about environmental issues and meet weekly to take part in discussions and activities.
Save Our Soil
The Bee Green Team is currently working with Manchester Environmental Education Network on a soil project. The children are bursting with knowledge from these sessions and have many ideas they want to develop.
During this project, the children have visited Salford University to test the quality of the soil from school grounds. They took a cluster look at what lives in our soil using digital microscopes and conducted an archaeological dig on the school field. They have learned how to make good quality compost, worked with clay, and considered life from a worm and hedgehog's point of view!
Finally, the children have learned about the damaging effects of herbicides and pesticides to the soil, the animals, and to us. They are currently preparing to share their findings with the rest of the school and work towards becoming pesticide free.
Food Waste
The Bee Green Team are joining forces with The Bread and Butter Thing to help tackle food waste. We are going to support them with weekly packing and distribution at Saviour Church. We encourage everyone in the community to make use of this fantastic service.
Recycling
At Saviour, we are keen to recycle as much as possible, including pens, batteries, paper and food waste. The children enjoyed taking part in the BIG Battery Hunt after Bee Green led a whole school assembly on the topic.
Reusing
For the school fair, Bee Green made pencil pots out of old tins to promote the message of reusing waste.
Palm Oil Project
The whole school took part in the Chester Zoo Palm Oil Project, where we learned about the effects that palm oil plantations are having on the animals' habitat. We learned to be sustainable and always read the labels.
Litter Picking
After an environmental review of the school, the Bee Green Team found that littering around the school is a big problem. They held a whole school assembly highlighting the issue and wrote to the school council to request funds to buy litter pickers. They were successful in securing funding, and classes are now regularly conduct litter picks.
Commando Joe
At Saviour, we are extremely lucky to have our own Commando Joe who works with our classes each week. He also offers an after school club and joins in with our breakfast club!
Commando Joe delivers a character curriculum that is linked to other curriculum topic areas being covered. The COJO character curriculum is based on the following four principles:
- Character development is a right for every child.
- Character education will empower young people.
- Character will inform the ethos, direction of learning, and culture of the school.
- Character should be developed in partnership with staff, pupils and parents.
The character curriculum also embeds the RESPECT behaviour traits:
Resilience
Empathy
Self Aware
Passion
Excellence
Communication
Teamwork
Rights Respecting School
Saviour C of E Primary strives to be a school where children’s rights are at the heart of our ethos and culture, to improve wellbeing and help every child reach their full potential. To support this commitment, we are working towards recognition as a “Rights Respecting School,” an award given to schools on behalf of Unicef UK.
Unicef is the world’s leading organisation working for children and young people to defend their rights. In 1989, governments across the world agreed that all children have the same rights by adopting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). These rights are based on what a child needs to survive, grow, participate and fulfil their potential.
At Saviour, pupils will learn about their rights by putting them into practice every day. A “Rights Respecting School” models rights and respect in all its relationships.
Learn more by viewing the document below or following the links.
School Council
Meet this year’s School Council!
The School Council is responsible for listening to pupil voices and ideas; holding assemblies and raising awareness for important issues and events; and making decisions about how the school can improve and better serve the local community.
Farmer Time
We are delighted that Saviour Primary is now part of the Farmer Time initiative. Children get to learn all about the agricultural industry and see what life is really like in the countryside.
We are matched with an organic dairy farm in Ayrshire, Scotland. Year 2 currently has fortnightly communication with Farmer Rob, who keeps us up to date with what is happening on the farm, reflecting the topics we are learning in geography and science.
Take a look at what’s been going on at the farm in recent months!
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November: Fox and deer tracks found on the farm.
December: Olive sent a thank you for the Christmas cards!
February: A new calf with a heart-shaped marking on Valentine’s Day!
March: Farmer Rob heard we were learning about rivers, so took us to see the river on his farm. This is Annick Water.
April: We met some new calves out on the field. Three bulls and one heifer join the herd.
Here’s Sally feeding her calf as she grazes.
More about the farm…
Meet the animals!
Where does our milk come from? Farmer Rob sent us videos and photos to explain.
What different materials can you spot on the farm? What are they used for?
What do cows eat to stay healthy? Silage - we received some very smelly samples in the post!
In Geography, we looked at an aerial view of the farm and spotted human and physical features.
