Fossil fun for Newcastle pupils

It was back to the Stone Age for a group of Newcastle school children when they swapped classroom theories for hands-on experience.

The Year 3 pupils from Our Lady and St Anne’s Catholic Primary School visited the Great North Museum in Hancock, where they enjoyed a range of exhibits related to their curriculum studies of Stone Age to Iron Age Britain.

“They looked around the ground floor exhibitions – dinosaurs and fossils, Stone Age and animals,” said class teacher Susan Hogson, who accompanied the 30-strong group on the trip, along with teaching assistant Anna Bartle.

“They attended a workshop on fossils, and the fossil workshop and the genuine Stone Age artefacts were the highlights of the trip.”

The visit also gave the children a head start on their next project, as they are about to start studying rocks and soils as part of their science work at Our Lady and St Anne’s, which is part of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust.

“Excursions to local museums are very important,” added Miss Hodgson. “They provide visual evidence and artefacts and objects that individual schools can’t, and give the children an opportunity to learn in a different manner.

“They also help the children to understand that learning is not just in school and for children, but is a lifelong process.”