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Year 4 discovered how people get around Southbourne

The whole school outdoor learning topic, 'Discovering Southbourne', started off quite dramatically in Year 4, with an ‘official’ letter from Southern Network!  This letter informed the children that half of their school playing field was being appropriated to build a car park for Southbourne train station.  What ensued covered drama, debates and persuasive writing, all in an attempt to make sure Southern Network change their plans.

In Maths, the children measured car parking spaces and debated as to whether trucks and small cars should pay the same car parking fees and whether large and small cars should have the same size parking space.  They also looked at the pricing of car parking and solved mathematical problems in relation to this.

Within the STEM topic, we have also looked at transport and roads.  The children conducted a survey on Main Road, Southbourne, and tallied how many vehicles use the road over a 10 minute period.  The children then presented this data in bar graphs and pictograms.

We enjoyed a great day at Amberley Museum where the focus of learning was on road surfaces and specifically tamac.  If the new car park at the station was to get the go ahead, then the children had to research and investigate which surface was the most suitable for the parking spaces.  We travelled to Amberley via train, which for some children was their first experience.

As part of this technology and engineering project the children looked at the possibility of a footbridge over Southbourne train station.  This led to looking at how bridges are made, which materials are best suited for bridges and why bridges do not fall down?

It has been a fantastic experience donning the hi viz jackets and exploring our local area with a specific objective in mind.

We would like to say a huge well done to the children, who have really embraced this outdoor learning topic and behaved particularly well when discovering and exploring Southbourne.