Students teach younger children

This followed a similar event held earlier in the week when over 60 students from Henfield Primary School also visited the school.

As part of this project based learning programme, Steyning Grammar School year 7 students gave lessons to the visiting primary school children, many of whom were experiencing our Church Street School for the first time.

The topic chosen for this learning event covered different types of Biomes. Biomes are climatically and geographically defined areas such as communities of plants, animals and soil organisms which are often referred to as ecosystems.

The student lessons covered areas such as mountains, coral reefs, rivers, waterfalls, forests, deserts, oceans, rainforests, caves, crystal caves, tropical rainforest, tundra, rocky deserts, grassland, woodland, Antarctic and The Alps.

Mrs Rita Tombs, learning support mentor, Steyning Grammar School said: “I think it is a wonderful experience for both the year 4 andyear 7 students. It is giving the year 7 students the chance to express themselves in a variety of ways as part of the new Project Based Learning technique. This is a new learning style where the students get to come up with all the ideas on how they want to present their project.

“It is also good for the Year 4 students to experience what a secondary school is like and as most are from our feeder schools, many may choose to come here to learn in the future.”

The students used quizzes, games, PowerPoint presentations, costumes and masks, models and artwork to teach their chosen topics. Some students even used prizes to make their lessons interesting.

Max Walton, year 7 student said: “It was fun sharing my work on The Alps. The students were all very excited and enjoyed learning. We played a snap game with the birds from The Alps and a game to name the mountains and their height.

“I did a quiz at the beginning to see how much they knew about The Alps, and repeated this at the end, and they did know more at the end. ”

Steyning Grammar School Year 8 Learning Ambassadors accompanied each learning groups of which there were 29 in total.

Mrs Jo Clear, assistant headteacher, KS3 said: “The Year 4, Year 7 and Year 8 student’s all worked fantastically well together and had a thoroughly enjoyable learning experience.

This is the first time that Church Street students have planned and delivered lessons in this way, and they have all gained many skills as a result. Myself and the Heads of the other primary schools are all very proud of all our students.”

Report and pictures contributed by Steyning Grammar School.