Visits

At Westleigh Methodist Primary School, we believe that every child should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development whatever their age, ability or circumstances.

Visits enable our children to have first-hand experience of a range of topics and activities. These often are the most memorable learning experiences and help children to make sense of the world around them. Visits / visitors take place in each year group and change according to the curriculum.

Each visit is authorised by Westleigh Methodist Primary School's Educational Visits Co-ordinator (EVC). They ensure that the visit is risk assessed and supports the headteacher and governors  in their decision on approval.

Year 6 Visit to Wigan Athletic - Give Racism the Red Card - October 2024

At Westleigh Methodist Primary School, equality and fairness are so important. We share the importance of Protected Characteristics often and so a visit to Wigan Athletic to share in a project on racism was an amazing opportunity for our children.

Year 6 had a chance to meet football players and have a tour of the stadium. The inspirational visit allowed our children to take part in thought-provoking discussions about hate crime and stereotyping. They showed a great understanding of the topic and confidently presented their learning in the form of a speech and poster to the rest of the hall. Well done, Year 6.

Ten Pin Bowling

In Autumn term 2024, 6 of our KS2 children took part in a Ten Pin Bowling competition as part of participation in the School Games. The children showed great sportsmanship, encouraging one another and were positive ambassadors for our school. We were very proud of the medals and certificates they received and the new skills they developed. 

      

Year 1's Visit to The Hive - February 2025

Our Year 1 class visited The Hive which offers a unique space made up of a series of gardens adorned with natural play equipment. The Hive is a brilliant outdoor site for inspiring young minds with lots of opportunities for outdoor learning and natural play. We had so much fun doing a mini-beast hunt and working in small groups to make shelters using tarpaulins.

Visit to Bedford Hall Mehtodist Church for Education Sunday

In February 2025, a group of our children visited Bedford Hall Methodist Church. The two schools worked together to share information on our Infinite Eight project. This outlines our schools’ offer of eight opportunities for children to enjoy meaningful experiences beyond the taught curriculum during their time in an Epworth Trust school.

Mrs Coleman and I were so proud as the children spoke with confidence about activities such as residential visits, fundraising and hearing live music.

 

Visitors to School

Visitors are welcomed into school to further advance children's learning. They provide first-hand experience to deepen children's knowledge, understanding and skills. They are wonderful in engaging and exciting the children to provoke stimulus for further learning.

Examples of visitors in Autumn term 2024 - 25 included:

• Local councillors visit to Reception class
• DIAS visit to all classes
• History Alive visit to Y3
• Freddy Fit visit to Y5
• HH Kids
• WigLe Dance
• Navy Veteran
• TriKidz to Y4, 5 and 6
• Magistrates to Y 5 and 6
• Elvis the Elf
• Debbie, our local PCSO

A Visit From our Local Councillors

We had a special visit from the local councillors, who brought Reception children a library card and an invitation to join the library. We then offered them some bread we had baked!

DIAS

Every class has had a visit from Wigan's DIAS team. The sessions were to raise awareness about healthy and unhealthy relationships and implement prevention strategies in relation to domestic abuse in an age-appropriate manner. The sessions were designed by Women’s Aid and NSPCC. 

History Alive

History Alive visited Year 3 in Autumn term. Our children had an amazing Stone Age experience in the classroom - being immersed in their learning. The workshop was fun-filled and completely interactive. It really brought learning to life! It was lovely to see the children's passion and enthusiasm for history. They loved the costumes and artefacts.

Freddy Fit

Freddy Fit's visit to Year 5 in Autumn term had a hugely positive impact. The full-day workshop trained our Year 5 children to become Play Leaders. They now have a bank of activities to share with our younger pupils at break and dinner time. This adds to our children's leadership roles at Westleigh Methodist!

 

WigLe Dance

Here is an extract from one of our school newsletters in Autumn 2024 - 25. We had an amazing visit from Amy from WigLe Dance who got us all moving and dancing!

 

HH Kids

We work in partnership with HH kids as part of our statutory obligation to deliver Relationships Education and Health Education progressively throughout the school.

Children in Y5 take part in a workshop and Y6 take part in a series of puberty lessons delivered by experienced staff from an outside agency, HH Kids. The staff who deliver the lessons have worked within the field for many years and are highly skilled in their delivery. If you wish to find out more information about this agency, please view their website at www.hhkids.co.uk 

Delivering this content ensures we are fulfilling the legal requirements set out in the Department for Education statutory guidance 2020, which outlines our duty to deliver key facts about puberty and the changing adolescent body. 

Remembrance Day November 2024

Mr Pilkington, a Navy veteran, visited Westleigh Methodist on Remembrance Day this year. He worked over 4 weeks with Year 3 and Year 6 to rehearse a 'march past' for our special service on Monday 11.11.24. The children laid wreaths for each class and families, members of the community and The Trust came to show their respects with the children. 

TriKidz

TriKidz visited children in Y4, 5 and 6 on Monday 25th November 2024. The aim of this initiative is to support children’s stamina, endurance and resilience over 3 triathlon sports. The children replicated swimming using resistance bands and cycled on an adapted, static bike. Running made up the third part of the activities. It was lovely to see the children have so much fun as well as developing key skills such as resilience. 

Local Magistrates 

Our Year 5 and Year 6 children were visited by ‘Magistrates in the Community’ on Friday 6th December. Both classes had an amazing opportunity to learn all about magistrates. They discussed the role of magistrates and the skills needed to take on the role. They took part in quizzes and had lots of brilliant questions. The children were really engaged and took a keen interest in the law.

Elvis the Elf

The children of Westleigh Methodist received a present from Father Christmas this year...along with a special letter. The gift was left under our hall Christmas tree for the children to find during our Monday morning worship time. Father Christmas asked us to take good care of one of his mischievous elves. Throughout December 2024, the children helped Elvis the Elf to follow the school rules of being ready, respectful and safe.

•  Visit from Debbie, our local PCSO, 20.12.24

We continued to support Elvis the Elf to make the right behaviour choices. Autumn term culminated in Elvis and his fellow elves bursting Y3's balloons and scattering the Christmas tree, baubles and advent calendar across the carpet! The children and Debbie, our PCSO, helped the elves by talking to them about respect and care of the environment. Debbie has now sent Elvis back to the North Pole and will speak to Santa before Elvis returns next year.

• Methodist Circuit visit - Open the Book - December 2024
  Members of the Methodist Circuit visited us to share the Nativity story with our children. Here is an extract from our newsletter to share the experience with our families.
  

Spring Term 2024 - 25

Bikeability

Year 6 have taken part in Bikeability sessions. The children have learnt how to check their bikes and surroundings. They have also moved safely and communicated their intentions to other road users. This is all part of keeping our children safe.

A Visit From an Olympian!

We are having a visit from an inspirational athlete through the Great Athletes Project.

 A top GB athlete, Emily Ford - an Olympic rower, visited Westleigh Methodist Primary in February 2025. She worked with each class to complete a fun sponsored fitness challenge. Emily also delivered an inspiring assembly to the whole school and shared her resilience, work ethic and achievements. 

The aim was to motivate the children to be more active and to see that everybody is able to achieve greatness with hard work and dedication...no matter what their starting points. 

Road Safety Assembly - March 2025

In March 2025, our younger children took part in a road safety assembly. This was a really fun way to learn how to keep ourselves safe in the community and on local streets.

     

Year 4's Visit to Whitefield Synagogue - March 2025

Year 4 had a wonderful time on their trip to Whitefield Synagogue. They enjoyed touring the synagogue and seeing all the fantastic features. They even got to sit in the upper tier! The trip was very informative and the children learnt lots of facts about Judaism and about Jewish festivals such as Shabbat and Hanukkah. We loved exploring the artefacts too and even got to see a real Torah from the ark, a cedar plate and a kippah and tallit (prayer shawl).

SCARF Visit - March 2025

The children in Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 took part in workshops focussing on identifying the benefits and risks associated with being online, online behaviours and developing critical thinking skills. Trained SCARF educators visited school to deliver fun, engaging and memorable workshops to our KS2 children. 

 

Science Careers Talk - Raising Aspirations as Part of March 2025's Science Week

Rebecca Williams, a former Westleigh High School pupil, came to visit us during Science Week to share her journey to becoming a scientist studying a PHD in neuroscience at Cambridge University. She talked about the adventures she’s had, such as teaching in China, and how important it is to follow your dreams to find a job that you love. The children had some fantastic questions for her and hopefully took some inspiration from her story about never giving up.

Open the Book Worship - March 2025

We were visited in worship by Open the Book, an exciting storytelling project, where Bible stories are shared with children in a way that is fun, interactive and memorable.

They shared the Bible story of ‘Temptation - Jesus in the Wilderness’ with our children.