Holy Rood 42

The Holy Rood 42 is an exciting programme of additional opportunities and experiences that are made available to all pupils at our school. For each of the seven years in their primary school lives, our children take part in six different activities: 6 x 7 = 42!

The variety of opportunities is designed to give children experiences across a range of areas: creative, cultural, physical, knowledge of the local community, outdoor learning and essential life skills. This is in addition to the curriculum - we recognise that learning does not stop at the classroom door.

Through these experiences, our children learn new skills, discover hidden talents and develop the cultural capital needed to prepare them for the next stage of their education. The chart below shows the range of opportunities currently on offer. Please look through the photographs to see what we have been doing so far this year!

Year 4: Be money-wise! We calculated the total cost and change of the ingredients we needed to buy to make our fruit smoothies for our DT project.

Year 4: Local Sporting Event - Swindon Town Football Club! We were very fortunate to see behind the scenes of the County Ground stadium, visiting the changing rooms, tunnel, dugout and directors box areas before taking part in a football coaching session and finishing with some football matches on the 4G pitch at Foundation Park.

Year 6 - Making Christmas Cakes!

Year 4: Outdoor learning - Eco Bingo!

Year 6 - Cadbury World 2024-2025

The Year 6s had so much fun on their school trip to Cadbury World as a launch into our new enquiry topic – The Aztecs. They learnt all about their hierarchy system, their interesting culture and beliefs and some of them were lucky enough to dress up as a very important Emperor – Montezuma II!

In Year 5, we had so much fun on our trip to Buscot and Coleshill Estate. We worked with the National Trust to learn more about our wonderous rivers, including the importance of keeping them fresh and clean. The children thoroughly enjoyed river dipping - they found many amazing creatures in the river!

Year 3 - Visit a place of worship for another world faith

Year 3 had a wonderful visit to the Swindon Hindu Temple & Cultural Centre. We learned all about the origins of the Hindu faith and the key beliefs that guide Hindu people in their lives. We were lucky enough to go into the prayer room and listen to Hindu prayers being said before having the chance to view the deities more closely. The children impressed us with their excellent behaviour, thoughtful questions and respect for the faith of others. Thank you to the members of our local Hindu community for your kindness and warm welcome.

Year 5 - Late Night Film Night in School!

Year 4: Visit a Museum - Chedworth Roman Villa

Year 3 - Visiting a place of historic interest in Wiltshire

Children in Year 3 visited the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes to find out lots more about the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age heritage in our local area.

Year 4: Bushcraft - Survival skills team building day!

Year 5 - Enterprise Teambuilding Day

Pupils in Year 5 took part in an Enterprise Teambuilding Day. During the morning, they completed orienteering and compass navigation tasks. Success was rewarded with team points, that could then be spent on resources for the afternoon's catapult building challenge. Year 5 showed real resilience, teamwork and creativity despite the summer sun!