Springfield students get to the heart of the matter

​Valentine’s Day will never be quite the same again for Year Six pupils at Springfield Primary School in Sunbury after their recent learning project ‘Blood Heart’, a themed study all about the workings of the heart and the crucial role it plays in the body.
 

​The project came from the Corner Stone’s Curriculum and the Year Six team wanted an engaging start to the topic for the whole year group to get involved with. This included a visit from a company called Hands On Science, whose workshops on healthy bodies, the heart and dissection played a central role in the day’s activities.
 
“At the start of the day, some of the children thought the prospect was (in their words) ‘gross’ but by the end of it they were all drawn in and fascinated,” explained Year Six teacher Ms Isaac.
 
“They covered topics like healthy eating and the circulatory system, and then moved on to dissecting lamb hearts to study the components and look at how hearts work.”
 
“It wasn’t just conventional science teaching, either – they also constructed models using blue and red wool to show blood flow and we even enjoyed some drama activities- to demonstrate the circulatory system- out of the day as well.”
 
Although the Hands On Science visit may only have been for one day, that does not mean the topic is finished at Springfield, a member of the GLF Schools multi-academy trust.
 
“Since the day, we have delved further into the topic and studied things like blood groups, analysed heart rates, learnt about the effects of drugs on the body, cooked healthy heart food and made artificial hearts out of clay,” said Ms Isaac.
 
“To round things off, we are going to learn about the work of the British Heart Foundation and look at ways we can help support the work of charities in that field. The fact there are so many different aspects to this topic across the curriculum just shows what a rich subject it is for learning. It has really caught the imagination of the children, and we are very pleased about that.”