St. Anne’s Upper Primary’s Pure Imagination Day

As part of World Book Day celebrations, the pupils and staff at St Anne’s Upper Primary School participated in various book-related activities throughout the week.

Embracing an initiative from a colleague at the neighbouring Notre Dame school, year 5 and 6 pupils welcomed visitors from years 1 and 2 and took showed them the school library and answered their questions about life at St Anne’s.

Towards the latter end of the week, the school celebrated its first Pure Imagination Day, which set the teaching staff the challenge of creating workshops based on children’s books that inspired them and take the students ‘beyond the cover’.

Furthermore, they were informed that their workshops would include a mix of pupils from all four year groups and, therefore, had to be appropriately pitched, accessible to all and encourage teamwork and communication.

As a result, there were groups examining ‘Nancy Drew: Child Detective’, ‘Potions 101’, ‘Times Table Trattoria: A Math-Fueled Restaurant Adventure’, ‘A Closer Look at Comics’, and ‘Bringing Fairy Tales to Life Through Drama’ to name a few, with the 34 workshops covering disciplines such as character studies, illustration, mindfulness, dance, storytelling and plenty of practical workshops where pupils leaving with keepsakes like BFG dream jars, Willy Wonka chocolates, or participating in team challenges.

The opportunity was also taken to promote the study of different languages, with titles such as ‘Osito Tito’ and ‘First 100 Words in Italian’.

One year 5 pupil said “being able to mix with children from other year groups was really cool because we don’t normally get to mix and it was exciting making new friends in every workshop.”
Another pupil, from year 3, commented that he “had lots of fun and really liked making my own chocolate and never knew storytelling could be so funny.”

A year 6 pupil who accesses the Learning Support Facility at St Anne's said, “It was a great day because there was lots of stuff to do that we don’t normally get to do and learning more about comics was awesome.”

Commenting on the entire experience, St Anne's Head teacher Lizanne Andrews said “there was an infectious energy buzzing around the school on Pure Imagination Day.”

“It was heartwarming to see our older pupils supporting and encouraging our younger pupils as they moved from workshop to workshop - a testament to the impact of our new behaviour policy.”

“The entire experience far surpassed expectations and of course, that would not have been possible without the creativity and imagination of the incredible team of teachers that I feel blessed to have here at St Anne’s.”

“They really know how to go above and beyond for their pupils!”