Lawn Manor Academy pupils have been given the opportunity to develop skills to support life outside of education thanks to a range of activities led by teacher Chris Fox.
The pupils on the Connect programme are those who need some additional support with their learning. Connect supports their education and gives them life and social skills ready for them to be successful when they leave school.
Lawn Manor Academy has developed a Forest School which Connect pupils will also leave with a woodland management qualification, enabling them to pursue careers in land-based industries, animal husbandry, as well as green woodworking, all routes which have proved to be successful for those who may find more academic paths a struggle. Through the Forest School, pupils are also encouraged to develop skills that cannot be taught in the classroom as well as skills such as teamwork, communication and social relationships.
Due to Chris Fox’s experience in archery, Connect pupils also now have the opportunity to learn this skill. They practise at school, as well as being taken to Chris’ archery school, Black Cat Archery, located at Roves Farm.
Chris explained: “Archery is a great option as it’s a fully inclusive sport. You can practise archery as part of a group or individually and you can easily measure your progress. It also teaches vital skills such as listening, following instructions and safety.
“Archery also links well to the curriculum and topics that the pupils will be studying in other lessons. For example, we’ve recently tied to their history lessons by looking at medieval English longbow archery and practising that style of shooting. Archery also gives them the opportunity to achieve the Duke of Edinburgh Award and the John Muir Award.”
The pupils’ visits to Black Cat Archery also enabled them to learn more about the whole process of archery and how local, natural materials form the process of making bows and arrows – wood from the yew trees on-site for the bows and feathers from their flocks of geese for the arrows.
