College News

24th January 2012

Animal-azing day out for St Alphege pupils

Students at Solihull College, who are currently training for a career in the Early Years sector, put their learning to the test this month as they taught a class from St Alphege Infant School for the day.

The students, who are currently in their final year of the HND Advanced Practice in Work with Children and Families, focused their class around an Animal Antics theme, with lots of different activities for the Year 2 pupils to get involved in.

From making sock puppets and masks to playing musical animals and farmer in the den, the students arranged a variety of sessions for the 30 young people, which allowed both the students and pupils to practice a range of skills.

Student Sophie Lawrie comments: “Organising this day for the pupils has been a great experience and a fantastic opportunity to put our knowledge into practice. We have to carry out work placements in schools and nurseries as part of our course but we’ve never had complete supervision of a class, so we are grateful to St Alphege Infant School for providing us with this opportunity.”

In addition to classroom-based activities, the pupils were also treated to a tour around the College’s Land Based Centre to visit the animals and watching a show in the theatre from the Performing Arts students, before being taken back to school.

Deputy Head Teacher at St Alphege Infant School, Rosemary Hope, comments: “This was a super opportunity for our Year 2 children. They were able to be involved in a lot of craft activities, as well as seeing some very interesting animals, including a water snake and a very large snake. It was fantastic for our children to be able to work in a different environment and to be exposed to some new experiences.”

The HND Advanced Practice in Work with Children and Families is a two-year programme which focuses on areas such as child development, communication, language and literacy, inclusion, health, and management issues in early years.