As schools begin the process of re-opening their doors to pupils, initially from selected year groups, we know teachers are looking once again for the high quality and engaging creative learning programmes that As Creatives can offer – but in the knowledge that safety is paramount. So we wanted to reassure you that almost all of our programmes can be safely delivered with good social distancing and in compliance with individual schools’ Covid-19 policies – please ask for details.

 

With the growing interest in Outdoor Learning, you might also be interested in our Outdoor Maths, Literacy and Science workshops – and you can still, of course, buy our Outdoor Maths Trails directly.

We have also developed digital versions of some of our most popular maths programmes, allowing you to run these in school yourselves, without running any of the risks associated with hosting external visitors: The Benefactor, The Race into Space and The Riddle of the Sphinx. 

The Race into Space

Despite all the changes to our lives that we’re all experiencing, one thing stays the same: the International Space Station, with astronauts still on board, still orbits the Earth every hour and a half. And now the search is on for the UK’s next astronaut – The Race into Space! The candidates have been whittled down to a shortlist of six – and it’s up to your pupils to select which one will be successful.

Probably the most challenging of our maths programmes, The Race into Space comprises a range of different activities, giving children opportunities to extend their mathematical thinking in context and explore some of the links between maths and science. In its digital format, it allows you to choose to either present it in one discrete block – or over the course of a number of days. If all the activities we provide were undertaken, classes would be engaged for between two and three hours.

The digital pack includes …

  • Two short films, to open and close the adventure …
  • Seven PowerPoint-based, whole-class activities (one for each year group), exploring age-appropriate examples of maths and science “crossovers”…
  • Printable Question and Answer Sheets for a carousel of questions linking maths with the science of space (all age-differentiated) …
  • Two activities combining maths with literacy (with printable Writing Frameworks).

“Our pupils absolutely loved having “Neil Armstrong” in school for the day, the workshops were really engaging and further embedded the pupils’ knowledge about the moon and the moon landing. It was a brilliant day that the children thoroughly enjoyed.”  Canons Primary School

The Riddle of the Sphinx

Our resident archaeologist, Dr Colorado Smith, has returned from Egypt with some exciting news: he's now collected all the clues required to solve the age old Riddle of the Sphinx - and open the Inner Sanctum in the Valley of the Kings. But as he can't do it by himself, he's on the lookout for schools to use their understanding of concepts of “measurement” to help him!

With a range of different activities, The Riddle of the Sphinx offers children contextualised, engaging and age-differentiated opportunities to further develop their understanding of “measurement”. The digital format that we’ve put together allows you to choose to either present it in one discrete block – or over the course of a number of days. If all the activities we provide were undertaken, classes would be engaged for between two and three hours.

The digital pack includes …

  • Two short films, to open and close the adventure …
  • Seven PowerPoint-based, whole-class activities (one for each year group), exploring age-appropriate aspects of measurement …
  • Printable Question and Answer Sheets for a carousel of measurement-based maths questions (all age-differentiated) …
  • Two measurement-based literacy activities (with printable Writing Frameworks).

“We absolutely loved our day solving the Riddle of the Sphinx. It definitely created a huge buzz in the school!” Broadsquare Primary School

The Benefactor

Eccentric millionaire Benny Factor has amassed a fortune over the last few years – and it’s now time to give something back to a village that’s very close to his heart: Amberton. The trouble is, though, that with so many community groups within the village to choose from, he can’t quite decide how to carve his money up! And that’s where you come in, as your pupils help him draw up a series of budgets …

Featuring a range of different activities, The Benefactor provides children with great opportunities to practise their understanding and skills with money in engaging and entertaining contexts. It exists in versions allowing it to be delivered to anything from a single class to a whole school – and its digital formats allow you to choose to either present it in one discrete block – or over the course of a number of days. If all the activities we provide were undertaken, classes would be engaged for between two and three hours.

The digital pack includes …

  • Two short films, to open and close the adventure …
  • A PowerPoint-based, whole-class budgeting activity (all age-differentiated) …
  • Printable Question and Answer Sheets for a carousel of money-based maths questions (all age-differentiated) …
  • Two money-based literacy activities (with printable Writing Frameworks).

“Lots of staff across the school have found me to say how much they enjoyed The Benefactor. They all felt it had a really strong impact on the children”  Deptford Park Primary School

Outdoor Learning

With research suggesting that Covid-19 transmits significantly less in open spaces than indoors, many schools are seeing the power of Outdoor Learning – as its approaches allow children to work in “bubbles”. Our Outdoor Learning programmes have long been both popular and successful – and are ideally suited to the current situation, providing children with fantastic opportunities to place curriculum areas in context, to enjoy all the myriad benefits of being outside and to engage in social (but safe) behaviour. All of them exist in age-differentiated formats from EYFS to Year 6 (P1 – P7) – and allow us to work with a number of groups in a single day.

 

Outdoor Maths

Outdoor spaces provide wonderful opportunities to explore how numbers and shapes create both the built and natural worlds. So our engaging (and very active!) outdoor maths workshops, utilising our specially designed portable Outdoor Maths Trail, feature a range of tried and tested al fresco activities, bringing home the relevance of numeracy to our everyday lives – and providing lots of scope for problem solving too!

 

Purchase Your Own Outdoor Maths Trail

Our Outdoor Maths Trail comprises ten durable, waterproof bags, each containing age-differentiated Outdoor Maths questions, challenges and activities - together with all required resources (plus a Teacher's Guide) - all contained in one easy-to-carry box. Available in formats for both primary and secondary schools, the Trail focuses on a whole range of mathematical areas including additive reasoning, multiplicative reasoning number patterns, fractions, percentages, properties of 2D shapes, properties of 3D shapes, money, positional language, multi-stage problem solving and logic problems. Find out more here. 

 

“All the pupils from Nursery to Year 6 enjoyed exploring how much fun Maths can be outdoors – and your after school family outdoor maths activity was a great way to engage parents and carers. Would definitely book again. Thank you.” Maths Teacher, Kirkdale St Lawrence C of E Primary School

 

Outdoor Literacy

From The Gruffalo to Alice in Wonderland, many of the “greats’ of children’s literature, of course, are set wholly or partly outdoors – inspiring our exciting and engaging Outdoor Literacy workshop - CSI: Bookmark … The Book Review Competition at Little Podmore Library received record entries this year – but someone snuck in before judging was complete, and jumbled up all the entries! In a series of age-differentiated workshops, your children will work in “bubbles” on a carousel supporting them in realising just how much they know about literature. And, as they explore to the full their creative connection-making skills, we’re sure they’ll be able to make sense of it all!

 

Outdoor Science

Rather than relying on “whizz bang” experiments or outlandish props, our creative science programmes use arrange of drama-based techniques to cement prior learning, clarify difficult concepts, introduce new content and extend thinking. So they provide a brilliant way of allowing your children to work in individual “bubbles” while safely interacting with others. We have different workshops for each year group, all developed in line with curriculum requirements – and, of course, we make use of age-appropriate strategies throughout.

 

Find out more

If you would like to find out more about our social distancing school programmes for Autumn term 2020 we would love to hear from you! please drop us an email at info@ascreatives.com or give us a call on 0151 708 8886.