Here at Oldmixon, we are really proud to be able to offer so much more outside of the curriculum to all of our children.  This is an extension to the curriculum. High quality activities and experiences are an essential part of school life. They provide opportunities to enrich and deepen children’s learning beyond the curriculum and are an excellent medium to foster good relationships between staff, pupils and parents. They develop children’s social skills by providing a forum of interaction between children across different ages and schools.  These opportunities are matched to our staff’s expertise and interests and make the most of the resources we have in school. We are constantly striving to improve our extended curriculum and, to this end, we are in the process of remodelling our provision for the children through the year.

Our extended curriculum aims to:

• give our children life-long skills in supporting their mental and emotional well- being through our mind-up programme.
• develop a positive attitude in children towards sport where competitive games are encouraged and carefully balanced with activities that provide enjoyment for all.
• provide our children with practical knowledge and experiences (meal planning, cooking, gardening and growing fruit and vegetables) so that can make positive choices for a healthy lifestyle.
• give them an appreciation and deeper understanding the natural world (linked to the national curriculum) in which we live and develop team building skills through weekly forest school sessions.

Through our extended curriculum, we want ensure that knowledge, creativity and problem-solving, which are highly-valued can be put into practice in. These, coupled with our values such as resilience, responsibility, determination and kindness, as well as physical development, emotional well-being and mental health, are key elements that support the development of the whole child and promote a positive attitude to learning and life.

Play Leaders

Play Leaders is a structured, fun and engaging programme for primary school pupils. It is designed to develop leadership skills and achieves a nationally recognised Play Leaders award.

Each week the children will learn a skill which will help them deliver games and activities to other groups of children.

Mini Police

Mini Police is part of the National Volunteer Police Cadets (NVPC) programme and is aimed at children aged 8 to 11 years old.

Mini Police is an innovative police engagement programme, which is delivered in schools with the support of local Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs). The scheme provides a fun and interactive way to introduce children to a positive experience of policing and to get them involved in the local community.

Benefits of the scheme

Children

• A way to build confidence and learn new skills.
• An opportunity to develop their sense of social justice and moral responsibility, safety and policing through a fun and engaging programme of activities.
• An opportunity to positively engage with their local community policing team.

Schools

• The Mini Police programme links in with the statutory Key Stage 2 requirements of Personal, Social, Health, Economic (PSHE) education.
• An opportunity for schools and pupils to build positive relationships with the police and share this learning.

Bikeability

Bikeability is today’s cycle training programme. It’s about gaining practical skills and understanding how to cycle on today’s roads. Bikeability is the Department for Transport’s national award provider for cycle training in England.

We care about our environment

At Oldmixon we are constantly thinking about how we can be more environmentally friendly and protect our planet. Through our Pupil Voice meetings we asked the children how we as a school can do that little bit extra to be environmentally friendly. The children came up with some fantastic ideas, which we put in place straight away. One of which was to have a recycling squad who collect plastic from lunchboxes, wash it and then it is reused in Nursery and Reception, any that isn't suitable is recycled in the school recycling bins.

During the lunch break, the children have regular conversations with the staff about how they can have an environmentally friendly lunchbox. Certificates are given out to children who are helping to protect our planet.

Environment litter picking club

Each year group in Key Stage 2 is also able to support the school environment.  Children from these year groups volunteer to spend time during their lunch break with Mrs Parker to pick up litter, look out for any issues and remind other children how to take care of their school.  

Children are very proud to be part of the club and are keen to keep their school neat and tidy.  The children are interviewed by Year 6 to ensure they are the right candidates for this important role.  Each volunteer wears a special uniform consisting of a yellow jacket, gloves and each have their own litter pickers to ensure they gather litter safely.

Environment committee

Following on from Pupil Voice meetings with the children the environment has been raised as being very important to them and how they can do more to be environmentally friendly. 

The Environment Committee is made up of 2 or 3 children who volunteered to join from each year group from years 2-6.

At our first meeting we discussed the events that had been planned for the coming terms. It had been arranged for a visitor from Greenpeace to come into school to do a whole school assembly and then a workshop all about the environment with each class. The committee members decided at this meeting who would show the visitor around school and to each class.

It had also been arranged for another visitor to come in and make a whole school soap where each class would make a different layer of soap. When the soap had set each child would then get a piece of the soap. All the ingredients used in the soap are environmentally friendly.

Unfortunately both these events had to be cancelled due to the current situation. We are hoping that both of these events will be rescheduled for another time.

Forest School

Here at Oldmixon Primary School, we aim to provide a range of different activities for all of our children. This includes providing Forest School for every class in the school. Each class has one term of Forest School. It is led by Mrs Parker, who instills a love of the outdoors for all our children. Some of the activities include making dens for small animals, bug hunts, leaf searches and also making book marks using leaves, sticks and branches. The children are given many creative opportunities to take their learning outside such as making their own paintbrushes and creating mud faces. As an end of Forest School treat, we have hot chocolate and biscuits in the woods! 

We are part of the North Somerset Healthy Schools Network

Homework club 

An invitation only club for our Key Stage 2 children.

We have two sessions a week, a Monday or Wednesday until 4:15pm. These are led by Miss Wilson.  

These sessions provide the children with a quiet and supportive space to do their homework. This may be of benefit to children who do not have a space at home to sit and do their homework, or where parents/carers struggle to find the time to help and support their child with their homework or where children struggle to concentrate at home. 

It is also available to those who do not have access to electronic devices. 

If you think your child may benefit from homework club, please speak to their class teacher.

Mile a Day

Here at Oldmixon we strive for every child to be given opportunities to access physical activity. Since 2018, we have introduced the 'mile a day'. Children from all year groups participate and children show great enjoyment whilst participating. 

We aim to reach a 'mile a day' by walking around the playground or the MUGA. We do this for 10 minutes between 10:40 and 10:50. Children have the freedom to run, walk or jog. As well as the children, all adults from the school take part. Although it's main objective is to provide physical activity, it has allowed social skills to develop, as while children are walking, they are engaging in conversation with each other or members of staff. 

You are able to sign up and enjoy lots of different activities from the daily mile, to do so, please follow this link: https://thedailymile.co.uk/ 

Sporting Events

We are very lucky at Oldmixon to have the opportunity to take part in a number of different sporting events throughout the year.

We have events in school, such as skateboarding sessions with Team Rubicon, sponsored fun runs and of course, sports week.

In addition to our in school events, we regularly take part in sporting events and fixtures with the other schools from our MAT. To find out more about these fixtures, why not visit our fixtures page?

Swimming

Here at Oldmixon Primary School we offer a broad and wide curriculum. This includes offering swimming as part of our provision. It is a government requirement that by the end of Year 6, children are able to swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of 25m and use a range of strokes effectively. Children in Year 6 are given the opportunity to go swimming until they are able to achieve this goal, giving every child the opportunity to succeed. We also send a group of Year 5 children swimming with the Year 6 cohort, allowing them more time to grasp the crucial life skill of swimming. Once children pass, we invite different children to attend swimming lessons, for example, we currently have children from years 4, 5 and 6 attending swimming.

Our current pass rate is 97%, which is an amazing achievement.