Woodland Warriors

Woodland Warriors is a whole school initiative. It helps the children to learn about Geography in context but also develops them as citizens combining learning about the environment, community, sustainability,  ecological awareness and diversity.

 
Each child at Smarden gets a Woodland Warrior sash.  This sash stays with them throughout their time at Smarden.  When they participate in a particular Woodland Warrior initiative, they receive a badge which represents that theme.  They add their badge to their sash and create a collection of badges highlighting their achievements and reminding them of some of their responsibilities they have engaged in whilst being a Woodland Warrior.

Some initiatives we have worked together on last academic year were:

Water saving - we learned that if we turn the tap off whilst brushing our teeth for two minutes we can save a considerable amount of water. We also discussed other ways to save water in school and at home. 

Hedgehog homes - we learned about the parts of a hedgehog home, and how they keep hedgehogs safe. We build a range of hedgehog homes throughout the school grounds. 

Growing - each pupil received a runner bean to plant. We had to find a good location to plant our beans and we learned about watering and tending to the plants to ensure that they would thrive. 

Bird feeders - pupils created their own bird feeders after learning about what birds eat. We used recycled materials and hung our feeders around the school grounds to help the birds in the colder months. 

Previous years we have worked on;

Chicken keeping- we are learning together how to look after our new school chickens. The children feed the chickens on a rota basis and also are learning how to look after them. We are learning the best things to feed them, what they enjoy doing and what they like in their environment.

Diversity and what it really means.

The local shop had a collection tin and the school had a fundraising page, through donations we  collected money to expand on our library's collection of books celebrating differences, representing everyone and supporting the emotional wellbeing of the Smarden School community following a really successful children's mental health week. Once we achieved our target the Eco Committee met and discussed the books that are relevant to us, alongside taking advice from local charity Folkestone Books for Change and we purchased a vast array of new books to support our learning. These are displayed for use in our school hall and corridor. 

Sharing is caring.

One of our learning priorities here at Smarden is reading. We are lucky to have a wonderful library in school and a thorough phonics programme as well as a well-stocked reading scheme. However, we know reading doesn't just happen at school so this term we have been supported by a talented local carpenter Mike, and he has created a wonderful book swap library for us that is positioned at the front of the school. This enables us to bring in any unwanted books from home and swap them for something we might prefer. Please feel free to have a look if you are passing the school.

Future Topics...

We will also learn about the importance of recycling and how we can make sure we are recycling correctly in our classrooms.