| A special message for a very special Ship |
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It’s almost the end of another busy year in school, but this one has been very
special, and it’s all thanks to HMS Endurance and the Tracking Project website.
It began back in October as my brother prepared for his first deployment on board Endurance. A very short conversation took place along the lines of: Pete: Hey, show your class the tracking website; one or two of them might be interested. Me: Yeah, I’ll do that. And when you get there email a few photos and I’ll show them to the children too. Neither of us had ANY idea of what that short chat would lead to!
The children were enthralled from Day 1 and their enthusiasm and interest grew and grew every day. At some point every day we checked the Tracking Project for updates; ‘Latest Position’ maps were printed out for the classroom noticeboard and the location of the ship marked on a large map of the world. The children drew pictures and wrote letters to send to the ship and in return received emails, photographs and video clips from Pete at various parts of the journey. Each piece of news, every photograph, every email and letter caused great excitement amongst the children; the classroom walls quickly filled up with pictures and emails and the children would spend hours going through them and finding places mentioned on the globe. The project became the focus of most of the work we did in class; typical school topics went out of the window, and were replaced by this amazing, interactive experience. It provided learning opportunities across all curriculum areas; lessons were vibrant and fun, children were motivated and inspired to find out more; it was real, not out of a book. The project delivered a wealth of Geography skills. The children learned how to use maps and plans, how to work out scales and distances and about how the climate and weather changed as the ship travelled south. They learned about the location and features of the various stop-over points; not many 8 year olds can find South Georgia and the Falklands on a world map and talk for hours about what it is like there! When we received a photograph of the first iceberg sighting we knew they were getting close…
We also learned about the Antarctic treaty, about how the continent is protected and the environmental issues surrounding it. This would never traditionally be part of lessons for primary children, but it was real and relevant and the children soaked it up. The project delivered Maths skills – measuring and comparing the heights of different penguin species, how to read thermometers and temperatures (and understand the concept of negative numbers!), how to measure and compare distances when considering how far the ship had travelled and grasping the relationship between units of time when working out how many days/weeks/months the ship had been away for.
Throughout the whole project, contact was maintained with the ship with the children writing regular letters, sending Christmas messages and so on. The children’s enthusiasm never waned as there was always something different and something new to learn. Even the unscheduled visit to dry dock resulted in learning more about Argentina and what it means to be ‘on strike’! The project also infiltrated many homes with the children involving their parents and families in their work. Most of the parents of Class 3 children can now name every species of penguin too! When Endurance began her journey home, the children tracked her progress as before, and became more and more excited as she neared home. On the day of her return, the class watched a live Portsmouth Harbour webcam; as the first glimpse of red came into sight there was a huge cheer and great excitement. The children felt a real connection with the ship and some were very emotional to see her home safe. One child however, seemed quite upset and when questioned replied simply ‘I’m so sad because now it’s the end isn’t it?’ But it wasn’t the end. Unbeknown to the children, Pete and I had been arranging a trip to take all the class to spend a day on board Endurance in the dockyard. When it was announced to the children the whole room erupted, great cheers, jumping up and down, rolling on the floor and floods of tears – you name it! As the day of the visit neared it was very hard to keep the children calm! Many described it as a ‘dream come true’.
Anybody involved in teaching or education will agree that the key to successful learning is motivation. Find something which interests, enthuses and inspires, and the learning will follow. It is difficult to find the words which will fully convey just how incredible this project has been. From start to finish it has captured the children’s attention and imagination; they have learned so much more than I could ever have imagined at the beginning and the whole year has been a staggering success; the partnership between Endurance and the school has enriched the children’s lives and created a lifelong love for learning and discovery. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the Royal Navy will have an influx of applicants from our village in the years to come!
Rachel Peddie Deputy Headteacher & Class 3 Teacher St Ippolyts CE Primary School |
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