Enrichment session brings Year 6 learning topic alive
Challenger Troop was asked to provide an enrichment session as a reward activity for Year 6s following SATs, which combined teamwork, resilience and communication, and included a competitive element.
The Primary School in Kent tasked us with helping every participant feel that they could
- Collaborate effectively with their team-mates,
- Take on different roles within the team as required
- Follow instructions correctly and swiftly while also ensuring that they asked for clarification when needed
- Develop their knowledge of survival skills and putting them into practice.
To support this, we devised a round-robin set of activities focusing on basic survival skills. In the first part of the session, each team, supported by an individual Challenger Troop instructor, was taught how to light a fire, build a basic shelter and how to use blow-pipes and catapults. In the second session, the teams had to compete in a series of challenges using their newly-learnt skills in a competition against each other. Their instructor was on hand for health and safety and encouragement only. The teams had to choose four members to take part in each of the three challenges, so that every team member had the chance to play a leading role at some point. To stand the best chance of winning, each team had to identify not only which of their members would be the strongest at the tasks allocated, but also who would work best together.
The session was a great success; all participants thoroughly enjoyed the activities and participated with great enthusiasm. Mr Hardwick, Year 6 teacher, said “the enrichment session with Challenger Troop was exactly what I was hoping for. The instructors led all the activities with confidence and humour, truly getting the best out of every member of my class. I was really impressed that Neil and his team were fully prepared to plan a session that fitted perfectly to our Learning Journey, currently based on the book ‘The Hunger Games’. The survival skills that the children were taught were valuable, and made all the more memorable by complementing our Learning Journey.”
All the participants developed their observation and listening abilities. Many of them were learning basic survival skills, which they had never experienced before. The competitive element encouraged them to work together as a team, and to discover and evaluate each other’s strengths. They were forced to pause, reflect and plan before undertaking the tasks set and they learned to focus on the task in hand in the face of competitive pressure from the other teams.
Participant Olivia (age 11) said the day was “really, really, really awesome and I learned that teamwork is really important”. When asked what her favourite part was, she said “making camp and winning!”
If your school would like to book an activity session, please contact us on 0845 548 5070
Share this article with others
Enjoyed this post?
Please sign up for updates directly to your inbox