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Granby Academy

Granby Academy gives us the opportunity to use the talents and interests of our staff to enrich our pupil’s education and experiences.

Pupils attend Granby Academy in their four colour teams, from 1.30 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Friday afternoons. Each colour team is divided into three groups to create 12 mixed age and ability groups. We ensure that siblings are placed in the same group, so that they have the opportunity to work together. There are 8 blocks of activities for each group to experience throughout the year and these provide pupils with variety of learning opportunities and activities, that either enrich the school curriculum or provide new opportunities to experience, learn and enjoy a new subject.

The activities are various and include sessions on:

  • Puzzles, Philosophy and Riddles, which further develop our pupil’s thinking and problem solving skills.
  • Art, Drama, and Paper Craft sessions enrich our creative curriculum.
  • Science Investigations and I-pads sessions which are both taught by the Subject Leaders, who are therefore able to have an impact on the teaching of Science and Computing across the whole school.
  • Teambuilding sessions enable pupils of all ages and abilities to work together with tolerance, understanding and mutual respect.
  • The Design and Technology Curriculum is enriched by Construction sessions and by also two different Cooking and nutrition sessions. 
  • Cooking and nutrition: In these sessions children learn how to safely prepare and cook food, which are important life skills.
    • The Fruit and Vegetables sessions concentrate on the safe preparation of a variety of fruit and vegetables to create interesting and healthy food.
    • The Cooking sessions enable pupils to follow a recipe and experience different baking and cooking techniques to create mainly savoury food.
    • Through these sessions and other Curriculum work, pupils are taught how to apply the principles of nutrition and healthy eating. This includes:
  •  understanding where food comes from
  •  understanding and applying the principles of a healthy and varied diet
  •  preparing and cooking a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking techniques
  • understanding seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.
  • learning about foods from different cultures
  • understanding different cultural and allergenic needs

At the end of the sessions, pupils are given the opportunity to eat the food they have prepared. We ensure that parents are aware of the food being prepared and take account of any food allergies from which pupils may suffer.

The results of a Pupil Survey highlighted the popularity of Granby Academy, with pupils explaining how much they enjoyed the fact that they could have lessons with their brothers and sisters, and that they liked being taught by other teachers. Feedback from parents shows that cross-age friendships made in Granby academy have lasted into secondary, supporting transition. 

It is also enables staff to have the opportunity of regular pupil voice feedback in their subject area.