Robins and Chaffinches classes ventured out to explore Old Anston and to discover all about life in our village over 300 years ago! We were joined by Dr Bob Gellatly, our resident expert on all aspects of Anston’s history, who told us all about the village’s interesting past. We explored Greenlands Park and found out that it was originally a quarry whose limestone was used to rebuild the Houses of Parliament after a fire. We visited Anston Hall and discovered that the row of shops, known locally as ‘The Ponds’, was originally a large farmhouse, which belonged to Squire Wright, who lived in the Hall.

We were interested to see all the different houses on The Green and then we dropped down to explore ‘The Wells’, which provided fresh water for the village. Finally, we walked to Ryton Road to see how much it had changed in 300 years. We had a very memorable, fascinating day and the children were, once more, excellent ambassadors for our school.

What a fun-packed day at Creswell Crags!  Robins and Chaffinches took part in several activities.  We learnt about instruments from the Stone Age, this was a very hands on workshop and we made quite a din playing instruments made from shells, bones and antlers.  We also made shelters and took part in target practice, throwing spears at a dummy reindeer.   The highlight though for most of us was the visit to the caves.  We imagined what life would have been like all those years ago and turned the lights off on our helmets to experience the darkness of a cave.  The weather was beautiful, so we benefited from having a picnic outside in the sunshine.  As always, the children were exceptionally well behaved and great ambassadors for our school.

As part of our investigation into Stone Age life, Robins and Chaffinches classes went on an exploration of Anston Stones Wood, what an exciting time we had!

The children took part in many activities, including exploring Dead Man’s cave, making woodland music, creating natural sculptures, a scavenger hunt, games at the park and playing pooh sticks too.

We were joined for the day by a local councillor, Mr Ireland and Claire Moseley, a park ranger.

We learnt a lot about the early history of Anston, the excavations that have taken place and the artefacts that have been discovered there. We have used this information back in school.

We were extremely lucky with the weather and had a super day in the sunshine and a picnic on the park. There were many highlights to the day, but here are a few photos to remember the day.