At Berry Hill Primary School, we often get contacted by secondary schools asking us to host work-experience placements. During the spring term, a work-experience pupil with aspirations to become a journalist spent the week with us, supporting pupils in class, around school and on an educational trip and also assisting with PE lessons. This was the summary of his time with us:

For the last week of term I have had the opportunity to work alongside the wonderful staff and children for what has been an unforgettable week of work experience at Berry Hill Primary School. I have seen the children in their PE lessons throughout the week and also on the Year 6 trip to the National Justice Museum. And what a wonderful school this is! All the children have made me feel so welcome with their manners and politeness. . All the students reflect the school motto of, ‘Be kind, work hard, be brave.’ And they do so every day they are at school which blew me away.

On Monday, I had the honour of sitting with the lovely Year 5 students as they went about an exciting morning full of learning before I headed off to help Mr. Wells in the PE department for Year 4’s lessons. The children received new and challenging work which they adapted to marvellously and smashed everything out of the park. Year 4 got up to some inverse muscle actions practicing their shoulder stand and bridge techniques.  

Tuesday again saw me with Year 5, but this time for their PE lesson. Where they were challenged in their map creating skills which they all excelled in! By using objects to create maps that they had just seen, the children grew their orienteering and teamwork skills as they did this in groups of  five to six. In the afternoon, it was Year 6’s turn for PE as they applied all the skills taught to them by Mr. Wells into a Tennis tournament for their final lesson on this sport. I also want to wish all the Year 6 children all the best for their new chapter at Secondary School. I know that they will smash it from just the short time I have known them. Good luck Year 6!

Although the weather let us down, Year 1 still had a fun and exciting lesson doing sending and receiving in the Hall. The children amazed me with their excellent skills and hand eye co-ordination. Year 2 also got affected by the rain, and they too adapted with superb behaviour as we played table hockey in the classroom before heading into the hall to continue their net and wall unit.               

Thursday saw me step away from PE to experience the Year 6 trip to the National Justice Museum. The students got to experience what a real life Victorian court case would have been like. The children’s acting skills were sublime and they really embraced the characters and roles they had been assigned which was really good to see. Aswell as the court case, students also experienced a look round the very interactive and exciting museum. This included live actors and a history of justice dating back hundreds of years. The children represented the school really well and they made everyone proud.              

On Friday, I observed the first class OPAL time that the children receive during lunchtime. The children have the choice of 'get creative', 'go loud and large', 'let's be active' and 'stay calm + quiet'. This encourages the children to mix with other year groups and build friendships with people who are interested in the same things. OPAL is a great thing which I wish was available for me at my Primary School as it is great for development and building resilience.                

I want to close by saying thank you to everyone at Berry Hill and I will hopefully see you all soon.

Will Harris