[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Friday 21st June saw Mrs Woods and Miss Theobald joined by teams from Toftwood Junior, Scarning, Beetley, Yaxham, Beeston and Garvestone to take part in an exciting numeracy and literacy project based around a theme park. Across the day there were a number of workshops requiring different skills. The teams were supported by Year 7 buddies Ellie, Bonnie, Oscar, Alyssa, Milo and Emma.
The aim of the day was to improve problem solving and team work skills, develop numeracy skills based on costings for the theme park and marketing budgets and develop literacy skills, through advertising and creating brochures to promote the theme park.
As the teams met their buddies it was time for the first session to start. It was explained that each team had a plot of land and had been granted planning permission to build a theme park. They had a business loan of £5 million the first session involved working together to plan out their theme park on a scale map according to certain criteria. This took careful thought, imagination and planning not only ensuring it would potentially attract visitors by having the right sort of rides and amusements but also stay within budget.
Session 2 allowed teams to create a mini brochure to promote the theme park. They had to think about information to include, how to persuade visitors to come including appropriate language to use, the names of their rides or attractions and how other features such as food outlets could be detailed in their brochure. The brochure worked on skills of writing, illustrating and persuasive features with students working collaboratively. There was certainly a lot of creativity on display here with theme parks called ‘Time to Time’ based on past, present and future zones and one where all the rides were based on a candy theme, relating to a book the pupils were currently writing in school.
Then it was time for a quick break and a chance to taste the school’s yummy biscuits!
Session 3 was back to some numeracy work and it was time to think about the running costs for the theme park. As a group, they had to look at the staffing costs per day and who might need to be employed, maintenance costs for the rides and attractions to stay safe and functional, electricity costs, stock for the food outlets, insurance costs and more. Teams had to budget for two weeks of operating costs out of their business loan, hopefully after that the theme park would start making a profit. Teams demonstrated good use of the calculators, with buddies checking over the calculations.
It was then a chance for a quick run around outside and lunch. It was a chance to reflect on progress made so far with the different tasks set.
Session 4 involved trying to work out appropriate entrance fees for the theme park and who their target audience might be. How many adults and children would they expect to visit each day? Will this affect what they charge? How much should be charged so they are able to make a profit but not turn people off so they don’t visit? Lots of questions to consider throughout this session.
The final session was aimed at marketing. Not only looking at budgeting for various forms of marketing such as advertisements, poster campaigns, radio, television etc but also looking at key features of different forms of advertising and creating the advertisements themselves. Pupils considered advantages and disadvantages of different forms of advertising before deciding on what to work on themselves. They had to think about the content included, how they could encourage people to visit, their persuasive language, what key information to include and more.
At the end of the day all of the teams proudly presented their work to each other with real confidence. Miss Theobald and Mrs Woods presented all pupils with a medal and certificate for their fantastic work. Overall winners of the project based on their team work, collaboration, ideas and superb numeracy and literacy work were Isla, Jaime-Leigh and Ellie from Gravestone. They were presented with a mini trophy to take back to their school.
All in all, it was a great day. We asked the Year 5s what they thought of the project and here’s what they had to say:
‘It was very fun and I would love to do something like this again.’
‘Our buddy really helped us when we got stuck and she was kind.’
‘I had lots of fun, I would like to do it again!’
‘It was really fun and the snacks were awesome. Everyone was kind.’
‘I enjoyed every activity as they were very interesting and we got to be creative!’
Milo, one of the Year 7 buddies said, ‘it was great to see how creative and passionate they were with their ideas and how much confidence they had.’ Emma, who worked with one of the teams commented, ‘there was great team work going on with lots of ideas being thrown in.’
A big thank you to the Primary Schools for allowing their students out for the day to work with us, to the Year 7 buddies who did a great job and to Mrs Woods and Miss Theobald for putting the project together. We look forward to working with the Primary Schools again in the future.
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