April 12 - Woodlands Academy

Woodlands Academy
A day without pens!
There was none of the usual equipment checks at Woodlands Academy
on Wednesday 7th December, as it didn’t matter whether or not the
students had a pen as it was No Pens Day! By taking part in the national
No Pens Day, staff at Woodlands Academy successfully created a unique
opportunity for students to share their ideas and learn through talk as all
lessons focused on speaking and listening rather than writing.
Mrs Barker, Literacy Co-ordinator at Woodlands Academy, said: “We were
delighted to take part in No Pens Day in support of ‘learning through
talk’. Reading and writing are very important skills but people are often
not aware of the vital importance of speaking and listening skills. They
underpin everything. Not only have the students loved it, teachers and
parents have also benefited as well.”
Students took part in English lessons using playdoh to mould the item
their partner was describing, a wider key skills lesson making origami
cubes, a science lesson making The Möbius strip and an English lesson
where the students had to cut up words and separate them into word
class - verb, adverb or adjective. There were lessons in debating skills,
spelling games and collage making. All lessons centered around speaking,
listening and following instructions without the teacher or student using
a pen!
Learning about the Holocaust
Last December, the whole of Year 8 spent PSHCE day in preparation for
‘Holocaust Memorial Day’. The theme for the day was ‘Survival’. During
the morning, after a short introduction from Mrs Pearman, the students
worked in groups going through the journey of a young boy called Paul
and his family, a journey that lasted more than ten years, taking him
to several different European countries. Paul was 11 years old at the
beginning of his journey and did not understand the hatred being shown
to different groups of people at that time.
The students had to find out the reasons why the Nazis persecuted the
Jews, through the eyes of someone their own age. They also listened to
witness testimonies from survivors from all over Europe and learnt that it
was not just Jews who were persecuted but also Roma and Sinti gypsies
and Jehovah's Witnesses to name but a few. Some found it difficult to
understand why these events happened but they found it an interestring
subject to learn about.
Mrs Pearman said “The purpose of the morning was to look at the Holocaust without looking at pictures of gas chambers and their victims but by
understanding the individual stories of real people who survived to be able to tell their stories like Paul.”
In the afternoon, after reflecting on what they learnt, the students took it in turns to create a triangle of images from the Holocaust that were put
together to create three large Stars of David, a badge the Jews were made to wear. Other students created small shoes reflecting the symbols of
Auschwitz, the largest and most notorious concentration camp.
Mrs Pearman added “Hopefully next year we will be able to take this one stage further and invite a Holocaust survivor to come and talk to the students
about their own personal experiences as well as learn about Paul's journey.”
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