An exciting adventure at Simon de Senlis Primary

In addition to the broad curriculum, the children also experience many additional opportunities over the year and this year, these opportunities have been grouped together to create the ‘My Simon de Senlis Adventure’ a commitment of at least 50 additional exciting opportunities that every child will complete during their seven years at school.

Joanne Fennelly, Headteacher, said, “This exciting adventure includes 50 wonderful opportunities and experiences that every child in the school will take part in during their journey from Reception to Year Six. These opportunities include visiting art galleries, museums and universities in order to explore art, artefacts and engineering.

"We know that music is such an important part of a child’s life and so this is added to the adventure, where children will learn to play a variety of musical instruments including the violin, the trumpet, the African drums, the ukulele and the recorder; along with listening to and watching professional musicians perform. The performance element of music is such an important part of all children’s development and so included in the adventure, children will have the opportunity to perform on a stage in front of a live audience. This will take part throughout the years to families and friends but also to wider audiences at local theatres such as the Derngate.

"At Simon de Senlis we never forget the simple wonders of the natural world and how important these are for children’s wellbeing and happiness, and so we included these in our adventure- a visit to the seaside, building a sandcastle, making a mud pie, building a den, roasting marshmallows on an open fire and travelling on a zip, we know will be loved by everyone.

"Leadership is another quality that the children at Simon de Senlis will develop, where every child will be given the opportunity to become a leader and to vote for their leaders across school. Democracy, being so important, is also included, with children voting for their own school council leader to represent them in whole school decision making, they will also meet their local MP and amazingly, culminating in Year 6 pupils visiting the Houses of Parliament.

"At Simon de Senlis, we love reading and it is an important part of every child’s development at our school. We all love to read, and the joy of reading can be seen across our whole school, where every child has access to thousands of books within class libraries and within our vibrant and exciting whole school library. In addition to these books, as part of their adventure, children will read 100 of the most influential children’s literature from Reception to Year 6. These wonderful experiences within our Simon de Senlis Adventure, in addition to our amazing curriculum, will aid every child’s emotional and social development, along with enabling them to grow into responsible and driven young people as they progress through the school.”

Rachel Rosevear Deputy Head added “Our curriculum is robust and exciting, and children learn through carefully planned sequential lessons throughout each subject and across the year. On top of this wonderful curriculum, the amazing opportunities each child has to widen their knowledge and to open their eyes to new things, within our adventure, makes sure that every child is given the highest quality of experiences and amazing opportunities at Simon de Senlis.”

Joanne Fennelly, Headteacher finished by saying, “Simon de Senlis is such a wonderful school, the teachers, children and families are an amazing community and a great family. Our school family is one where together we are ensuring that all children are able to succeed and achieve. On top of our amazing curriculum, the introduction of the ‘Simon de Senlis Adventure’ ensures that every child will experience exceptional opportunities on top of the wonderful teaching and learning that takes place each day. It has been wonderful to welcome the children back to school after the summer holidays and after the amazing successes of the previous year, we know that this year will continue to be another superb year at Simon de Senlis.”