Woodland View Primary School, a two-form entry school in Northhampton, have been using now>press>play to enhance their curriculum since February 2018. Class teacher Lucy Drake shares how they have used our immersive resource this year across the school and the impact it has had on pupils’ learning, from deepening their understanding to increasing topic engagement.
Enhancing our EYFS topics
The children in Reception have loved using the story-based now>press>play Experiences. They have used the headphones in conjunction with their English work. Their favourite Experiences have been:
We liked the story ones because they helped the children to listen well and use their own imagination that they could then use in their writing.
Exciting topic engagement in KS1
Year 1 have loved using now>press>play and they have used the following Experiences to support their learning:
- Jack and the Beanstalk used in English work to retell the story.
- Dinosaurs used during a whole school project last year about The Mystery Egg.
- Full Stops & Capital Letters pupils used the headphones and worksheets provided by now>press>play as part of their grammar lesson.
The ones we have done have been great — the children love them and they use great language in the stories.
Using now>press>play across our KS2 curriculum
Year 3 really enjoyed the Stone Age Experience as it linked to their topic. They used part of the story to write their own Stone Age newspaper article.
Year 4’s favourite Experiences have been Anglo-Saxons and The Tudors.
Year 5 have used the headphones in most of their topics. Their top Experiences were:
- Mission to Mars, which is a very interactive and exciting Experience and used at the end of their topic to consolidate learning.
- The Maya, which has an intriguing storyline all the way through and engages the children from the very start.
- Anti-Bullying was used to help reinforce PSHE lessons and enabled the children to imagine situations in more detail.
Year 6 have been busy utilising the Experiences to engage them in their topics and now>press>play has made learning meaningful and memorable. They used Dinosaurs alongside their learning about Darwin and Mary Anning, World War Two to inspire creative writing, Ancient Egypt to further understand the process of mummification and the SATs revision Experiences have been a great success.
The WW2 Experience was great as it gave the children the experience of being evacuated.
We wrote letters home from an evacuee in our WW2 topic. The children had more of an understanding following the Experience.
now>press>play has had a positive impact on English work and has helped pupils achieve a deeper understanding of their topics. The headsets have also been used so the children can listen to relaxing music during extended writing tasks and reading activities.
Many thanks to Woodland View for sharing this case study with us. We look forward to continuing to work with children and staff at the school and are excited about where they go next in their now>press>play journey.
