School Trips and Outings

We believe that school trips and "hands on" activities do much to reinforce classroom learning. Our digital cameras get packed on all trips and, as most venues have websites, our interactive whiteboards mean that we can squeeze plenty more mileage from each outing back in the classroom.

Typically each year, classes go on a range of local outings by foot, plus a main trip that's related to one of the year's topics. (Venues that have been visited recently are listed below.) As a small school, we are also able to arrange "whole school" outings. In the last year, these have included visits to the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Gardens  and to Polesden Lacey.

The Weald and Downland Open Air Museum has rescued from destruction over 45 houses, farm and rural industry buildings. By carefully dismantling, conserving and rebuilding them to their original form, the homes, farmsteads and rural industries of the last 500 years are brought to life . The children can walk into medieval, Tudor and Victorian buildings; a recreated Tudor farmhouse with livestock and gardens, furnished Victorian cottages and an authentic Tudor kitchen.

Brighton's Sea Life Centre  has over 30 modern marine and freshwater habitats and features one of the longest underwater tunnels in England. As it's also right next to the beach near the Palace Pier, it's a great venue to support work for the children's Seaside topic.

We try to time our visit to Ladyland Farm during the spring term so that there's plenty to see, feed and stroke from baby calves, lambs and piglets to fluffy chicks, rabbits and kittens. There are historic links too because the beautiful farmhouse was built for a Tudor yeoman in the early years of the sixteenth century.

We include a visit to a hands-on science centre that is located with other resources that support a particular topic. Depending on the topic being emphasised, teachers might opt for:

• the London Science Museum, which also has plenty of space-related exhibits making it a great venue to support the "Blast Off" topic;
• the Look Out Discovery Centre, which is set in Bracknell Forest making it ideal for supporting nature-related topic work;
• Brooklands Motorsport and Aviation Museum, which is the place to go locally to discover the history and science of transport.

To support our RE curriculum, the children visit our 12th century parish church, St Nicholas' and Woking Mosque, Britain's first purpose-built mosque.