What is ‘Let’s Explore’?

 

‘Let’s Explore’ has been a part of the school culture for nearly 2 decades and, over this time, has grown and changed to reflect the deepening of our Big Question curriculum. Each class has 2–3 days in Fairy Woods on Bath Skyline every Autumn to explore ideas quite literally without ceilings. Through this, they build a sense of belonging and community year-on-year.

We choose Autumn to have our Let’s Explore time as it allows each newly formed class to build connections and understanding of one another’s strengths. It also helps to establish the tone of our values of ‘Care’, ‘Believe you can’ and ‘Cheer each other on’. Not only this, it creates a point in the children’s journey where they connect thinking from previous Big Questions and create a new thread of thinking that will take them through the year.

The aim is always to learn through teamwork, play and experimentation outdoors in the beauty of the Bath Skyline as well as have a great deal of fun, yet the planning and purpose has very real and significant intent. We believe that our children can explore some complex issues and build connections between big ideas because they are experiencing them through play.

For example, we can lead the children to consider some big philosophical ideas of humanity and community by building on key concept year-on-year. In our ‘What is Home?’ Big Question in Year A, in George Class (rec/Y1), explore how Stickman’s search for his family tree tells the story of our need to connect with others and care in family groups; using Roxaboxen in Bythesea (Y1/2) leads the children to understand how communities are built and how love forms the basis of healthy communities. In KS2, the concept of ‘Home’ is taken forward in Ashe class (Y3/4) through understanding what might have made a home to early people in Mesolithic times and how archaeology can reveal facts, but also reveals the concept of family and community. In Mill (Y4/5) the class forms Celtic tribes that would have lived in Bath, develop pride and understanding in Celtic way of life, and then experience what it might have been like to have your home invaded by Romans. Finally, in Joyce (Y5/6) through Armin Greder’s book, The Island, the children move towards understanding migration and leaving one’s home, how we treat strangers, what it feels like to be on the receiving end of intolerance and from there to understand for themselves the relevance of Human Rights.