Activities and Clubs

Music plays an important part in the life of Nursery and Infant School pupils. Children enjoy a range of musical activities and experiences throughout their time at Red House. Their lessons include listening, singing, movement and music making with emphasis placed on participation by all.

During the year, there are special occasions when children perform musical items. Our Christmas service is a much loved occasion, with each class singing their own song and playing an important part in the proceedings. Year 3 provide musical accompaniments to many of the songs, and take the main acting roles. Christmas 2006 will involve a performance of ‘Jesus Christmas Party’, which is a musical adapted from the story of BAFTA winning author (and visitor of Red House Nursery & Infant School), Nicholas Allan. It tells the Christmas story from the viewpoint of the innkeeper and his wife. Nicholas Allan will be visiting the school on the day of the performance and will take part in proceedings. For more information, visit the News & Events webpage.

At the end of the year Red House includes musical items in the Festival of Achievement, with lively performances from all of the year groups, and some individual and group instrumentalists.

All children in Year 2 are taught to play the recorder in lessons, but they may also take individual lessons from specialist musical staff. At present, we have children learning piano, cello, clarinet and violin within the Nursery and Infant School.

Year 3 have additional ‘choir time’ and sometimes offer their own musical concert at the end of the summer term, for family and friends to enjoy. They also have the option to attend an after school Music Club where they can play together in a musical group.

Red House Nursery and Infant School have a musical workshop during the year to enhance appreciation of music from different cultures.

Each year a musical production is staged within the school and children in Year 3 are given the chance to sing in the chorus. This is an exciting opportunity to take part in a whole school activity, helping children to feel at home in the Main School buildings and to meet children in other parts of the school.

ICT at Red House Nursery & Infant School

Children are provided with a wealth of opportunities to engage in and develop their ICT skills. They enjoy the benefit of using the latest high quality technology and are given a wide variety of experiences by the time they leave us. ICT is taught not only as a subject, but also to enhance learning in other subjects.

Enthusiastic staff undertake regular training in order to keep abreast of current developments in ICT teaching. Children learn both independently and collaboratively, actively engaging in lessons using interactive whiteboards and the very latest exciting software.

ICT facilities include:

Spacious air-conditioned computer site with interactive whiteboard, laser printers and safe internet access
Interactive whiteboards for each year group
Classroom computers with internet access and laser printers
Digital cameras and software
Modelling and control equipment
Sound recording equipment

The following are just some of the activities children will have the opportunity to engage in:

Computer modelling of real or imaginary situations
Communicating and handling information
Keyboard skills and word processing
Simple programming of controllable devices
Various forms of computer graphics
Locating information from CDs and the internet
Communicating and composing musical ideas
Safely creating and responding to emails

Red House believes that when children leave the Nursery and Infant School they will be equipped with the necessary ICT skills in order to progress to the next stage of their education.

Art & Craft Club

The Art & Craft Club is attended by a group of enthusiastic amateurs. You do not have to be an artist to join! The club, which encourages handwork in its widest remit, helps pupils design and plan their work with plenty of advice given as they progress. Creations include drawings and sketches, water-colour paintings, collage, tie & dye and clay modelling. Textile work includes sewing hanging decorations and making rag-bag puppets. Art sessions are greatly enjoyed by Red House children and mini-exhibitions are regularly viewed by parents and children.

Design & Technology Club

Design & Technology Club members meet after school on a Wednesday afternoon to design and construct a model of their choice. Having access to a wide variety of construction materials, children learn to create, share, cooperate and support one another while design models. Finished models are displayed at the end of design sessions.

Club activities are fun, engrossing and stimulating, and open to all Year 2 children.

French Club

French club is a new club for Year 3 children to enjoy. Pupils are presented with the opportunity to gain confidence in speaking French phrases. Children are encouraged to engage in simple conversation and use French phrases around school. A variety of everyday French words based around food, numbers and animals (to name a few) are taught to Red House pupils.

Using the internet and DVDs, children explore life in France and are given a taster of French life by sampling French foods! As children are discovering French at an early age, teaching is carried out in a fun and interesting way using French children’s stories with English translation and engaging in interactive Primary French websites. Children also learn French songs as part of their studies.

Although the club is informal, it is hoped that bringing French into children’s lives at such an early age, will develop their confidence when they have more formal French lessons in the future.

Table Top Games Club

Table Top Games Club gives Red House children the opportunity to play a variety of games, with their peers, in an informal environment. The Club aims to provide fun and informative activities in which children can learn how to play new games alongside their friends. The main benefits of the Club are developing social skills such as turn taking, sharing resources, listening to others, following rules and collaborating with others. Playing games allows children to have fun and learn at the same time.

Physical Education

Children in the Nursery and Infant School participate in a wide and exciting range of activities including: Dance, Gymnastics, Games, Athletics and P.E. activities.

In Dance, Nursery children are encouraged to explore their responses to music and move in a variety of ways. They learn dances in response to stimuli such as nursery rhymes and fairy stories. This is developed further in Reception. Key Stage 1 children move onto exploring their drama skills and ideas using gesture, mime and facial expressions. In Year 2, the children have lots of fun learning traditional dances. By Year 3, the children are using music or imagery to choreograph their own dances with partners. Photographing stills of their work and videoing the performance of others for evaluating purposes ultimately improves their ideas.

In Gymnastics, the focus is on learning and developing the children’s skills in:

Nursery: co-ordination and control of their bodies as well as basic movements such as hopping, skipping, galloping etc.

Reception: the children begin to learn specific movements such as forward rolls and they are introduced to the large gymnastic apparatus, which they are taught to lift correctly and help one another construct into working pieces. The children thoroughly enjoy being able to run, jump and land, complete with arms in the air, for the first time!

In Key Stage 1, the children move onto higher pieces of apparatus where they learn to practice and improve their ideas and work. They link some of their ideas together in a sequence and show awareness of quality in the control of their bodies.

By Year 3, they are performing complicated sequences. Practice leads to refinement, control and quality using such skills as backwards, forwards, pencil rolls, cartwheels, handstands and headstands. They begin partner work and perform their skills for other children in the school.

Throughout the Gymnastics programme the children are focussed towards improving their own level of ability and their confidence in what they can achieve grows tremendously.

In Games, the younger children focus on developing their awareness of space and their basic skills in throwing, catching, rolling, kicking and controlling and hitting a ball with a raquet. They play simple games that allow them to have fun and yet the games develop many skills such as rule learning, awareness of others, listening skills and awareness of space. All of these skills form the basis of good team players. More importantly, these skills enhance their general ability to co-operate, their teamwork abilities and allow them to become more aware of other children’s needs and abilities.

By Year 2, the children are ready to develop these skills in team games, which include netball, football, tag rugby, basketball, cricket and rounders. Most of the children are ready to play sport in a competitive situation towards the end of Year 2 and continue throughout their time at Red House School.

Year 3 children go across to the Main School every Thursday to participate in Games lessons with Year 4 children. They are taught by the Senior School P.E. teachers, this being a first stepping stone towards moving across to the Main School in Year 4.

In Athletics, the younger children practice the skills needed for Sports Day in a fun way, and yet they are beginning to become aware of the idea of competition. By Year 2, the children design and create their own obstacle courses, which they plan using computers. They then test their own courses on each other. Year 3 children develop basic skills in hurdling and thoroughly enjoy using foam javelins!

Two annual Sports Days are held for the younger and older children. Years 1 to 3 go across to the Main School to take part in races and games that involve teamwork.

There is a Sports Club, which is open to older children at the Nursery and Infant School, and this allows the children who love P.E. to play games regularly and improve their skills in football, netball, tag rugby, basketball and rounders, in the first and third term. In the second term, anyone in Year 2 or 3 is invited to learn basic Tang Soo Do Karate, which can be followed up at local classes out of school.

In all P.E. lessons and extra curricular activities, the children are always enthusiastic. We teach them, first and foremost, to enjoy physical activity of any kind, from dance to riding their bike! After all, we want them to be fit for life and a love of sport as a child will hopefully inspire them to be an active adult.