Projects
Argyle Primary School
Filed under: Camden
Argyle Primary School
Argyle Primary's grounds are at the heart of their curriculum for citizenship and sustainable development. The school grounds bring learning to life. They offer a secure and safe space in the middle of King's Cross for pupils to celebrate and explore their environment. Pupils are fully involved in developing and caring for the grounds, providing a practical way for them to really make a difference to their world.
Use of the school grounds is embedded in the curriculum:
Outdoor play forms a key part of learning and teaching in Early Years. A carefully planned and landscaped area is designated to support the pupils in all key areas.
In Years 1 and 3 pupils plant, tend and harvest organic fruit and vegetables as part of their work in Science and design technology. This also links with their humanities topic: Farming.
In Years 2 and 4 pupils explore and manage a wildlife area which includes a pold, minibeast cities (stone and wood), wildflower/butterfly patch and small wooded/hedgerow area. This area is the key resource in their Living Things in the Environment (Y2) and Habitats (Y4) topics.
The school recently worked with local construction engineers to design and build the 듣i-High House This is a structure designed and built to model sustainable technologies. These include collection of grey water to irrigate the garden and use of renewable energy. Year 4 investigate how much energy is generated by the photovoltaic panel and wind turbines and test the energy efficiency of different appliances as part of their unit on Electricity. Year 5 use the pv panels as the starting point for a DT unit on Solar Technologies linked to an Earth, Sun and Moon unit in Science. Year 2 and 4 use the slide, fireman's pole and pulley in the Sci-High House to investigate the effect of gravity and friction as they study Forces.
Year 6 take a lead in running some of the systems that form part of our efforts to run the school as sustainably as possible. They manage the school's recycling of paper, plastic bottles and cans, bird feeding, composting (waste from the fruit tuckshop) and watering plants.
The school grounds have also been developed to support citizenship, co-operative play and support the school's work as a health promoting school. School council devise and manage rotas for the use of different areas of the grounds including kickabout area, quiet garden, champ boxes and moveable play facilities. Play equipment such as a climbing wall and frame and skipping apparatus help pupils exercise the full range of muscles while giant noughts and crosses and Connect Four provide opportunities for pupils to engage in less physically demanding play. Playground friends and peer mediators help to prevent and deal with minor disagreements between pupils and are an important factor in keeping the playground a calm, safe place.
The school grounds are valued by the whole school community. They provide a venue for some of the most important celebrations that are regular fixtures in our school year. Once the leaves have fallen from the trees, a tree dressing ceremony with decorations made by every child, adds colour over the winter months. May Day celebrations, including maypole dancing and multicultural music and dance herald the coming of summer. Our Refugee Week festival is a huge outdoor buffet of international food cooked by the children, families and staff. It has become such an institution that it almost runs itself.