Doctors meet superheroes at Newcastle school

Doctors, firefighters, and police officers rubbed shoulders with superheroes when a Newcastle school held a special day to celebrate ‘People Who Help Us’.

The Early Years Nursery and Reception class at St George’s Catholic Primary arrived at school dressed in an array of different costumes to represent those in helping roles, before spending the day enjoying activities based around the theme.

“We usually have the half-termly topic of ‘People Who Help Us’, but this was the first time we had organised a dress up day,” explained St George’s Early Years Lead, Christine Lawson, who dressed in scrubs, complete with stethoscope, for the event.

Activities in the run-up to the day included a hospital/vet role-play area; dentist-themed toothbrushing sessions; extinguishing ‘fires’ using hoses; making a junk-model police car and ‘jail’; writing, posting, and delivering letters as postal workers; planting seeds as farmers; and baking bread like the Little Red Hen in the children’s story.

On the day itself, the pupils made model emergency vehicles, decorated their own superhero masks, created a ‘People Who Help Us’ display, and considered what work they would like to do when they grew up.

“We focused on many different roles to learn how these people help us – police, firefighters, doctors, nurses, dentists, farmers, bakers, cooks, shop assistants, bin men, postmen,” continued Miss Lawson. “We also identified the staff in school who help us – teachers, teaching assistants, headteacher, deputy head, cook, caretaker.

“We made and designed our own hats, discussed jobs that we know people have, and decided if they were helpful jobs.

“We sang People Who Help Us-themed songs and nursery rhymes, such as ‘London’s Burning’, ‘999 Emergency Song’, ‘I’m a Firefighter’, ‘Wheels on the Bus’, and ‘Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake, Baker’s Man’.”

The children at St George’s, which is part of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust, also enjoyed a visit from a police officer, while firefighters are due to call in at the school next month.

“We had a visit from a local police officer with his police car,” added Miss Lawson. “He visits Early Years every year. He talks to the children about his role, shows them his uniform, lets them try on his hat and jacket, and then the children sit in the police car and in the back with the ‘jail’. He also turns the lights and sirens on.”

Fellow BBCET member St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary in Kenton also held a People Who Help Us Day, where children from Nursery and Reception dressed as doctors, nurses, vets, police officers, firefighters, builders, postal workers, teachers, farmers, and lifeguards.