‘’Being excited to try new things, even if you don’t know that you will excel’’: Ocean Academy students release their spirit of adventure

At the start of each new term pupils at Ocean Academy look forward to a day of celebrating.

The occasion in question will always be one of the Aspirations Conditions and one of our learning skills.

Last term it was Curiosity & Creativity and this half term it was Spirit of Adventure and the learning skill was resilience. It was explained to the children as ‘’being excited to try new things, even if you don’t know that you will excel.’’

The children stayed in their class groups and rotated around the school to try out 6 different activities which were linked to different themes such as adventure, problem solving, having fun, shared experiences and resilience.

Some of the activities that took place were:

  1.  Figuring out how to make an origami banger to attract attention in case an adventure went wrong (skills: listening, team work, following instructions, helping others, having fun, perseverance).
  2.  Working in pairs and back to back, one children had to describe a picture to a friend to draw. (skills: speaking, listening, precise instructions).
  3.  On adventures there can be times when you need to be able to entertain yourself without any tech – so knowing how to play board games
  4.  Blindfolded challenges – each having a number and then getting into the right order of 1-7 giving away which number they are.
Then leading a partner around an obstacle course. (skills: listening, team work, following instructions, helping others, having fun, perseverance, resilience, communication).
  5.  Solving a maths tessellation puzzle – problem solving.
  6.  Linkee word games – word association games – problem solving.

Kelly Jordan, a teacher at Ocean Academy said the regular event is important because the theme links to the ethos of the Aspirations Academies Trust and ‘’brings together all our aims about mind set, teamwork and communication.

‘’The children really enjoy it and look forward to it. It shows the school’s spirit and the coming together for a common aim. They also share what they’ve learnt and enjoyed the most at the end of the day in assembly.’’