RAPS Young Explorers - From Prehistoric Man to Kent’s Bronze Age Boat
Creating cave paintings, writing instructions on how to make bronze and making round houses out of clay are among activities that have taken Year 3 children at Ramsgate Arts Primary back millions of years to the dawn of human civilisation.
As part of their history topic 'Stone to Iron' the year group has explored the important historical and social developments that spanned millennia from the Stone Age, through the Bronze Age and Iron Age leading up to the Roman invasion of Britain.
They heard how archaeologists believe they may have uncovered the first evidence of Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain in 54BC. The discovery of a defensive ditch and weapons led them to identify Pegwell Bay in Thanet as the place they believe the Romans landed
Activities have also included writing newspaper articles about Otzi the Iceman, the natural mummy of a man
who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC. Otzi was discovered in September 1991 in the Otztal Alps (hence the nickname Otzi) at the border between Austria and Italy.
Pupils have also found out Skara Brae in the Orkneys, one of Britain's most fascinating prehistoric villages that was built and occupied between 3000BCE and 2500BCE, during what's called the Neolithic era or New Stone Age.
They have also been engaged in creating adverts publicising the monoliths at Stonehenge and writing diary entries by children from the Mesolithic era.
A fact-finding outing was made to Dover Museum to see the historic find of a Bronze Age boat that was unearthed in 1992 by construction workers building the A20 road link between Folkestone and Dover.
Teachers Kiki Amin and Alice Mann said: “To enrich their learning experience, we took Year 3 to Dover Museum to see the Bronze Age boat in particular, but also to take part in two workshops.
“One workshop saw the children channelling their creativity into making their own clay boats with museum creative Hannah which they can keep; the other was an interactive artefact investigation workshop led by Diana from the museum where they could explore various artefacts/replicas. This included handling tools that were many thousands of years old which amazed our pupils.
“It was particularly rewarding for the Year 3 team to see how much knowledge, confidence and excitement the children demonstrated in each session when asking and answering questions and handling prehistoric artefacts.
“They have absolutely loved this topic work, especially with its links to Caesar and our coastline, and because of the 'mysterious' origins and discoveries linked to Skara Brae, Otzi the Iceman and the druids.”
Staff also praised the Southeastern rail staff at both Ramsgate and Dover Priory Stations. They added: “Big thanks go to them all, especially Warren who supported us with our return back to school amidst possible disruption. He was incredible and we were very grateful for his advice. “
Ramsgate Arts Primary is a member of the Viking Academy Trust together with Upton Junior School, Broadstairs, and Chilton Primary.
For more information contact Head of School Nick Budge on 01843 582847.
A kinder and safer Internet experience is what children at Ramsgate Arts Primary School want to see developed.
* Safer Internet Day: Over the years, Safer Internet Day has become a landmark event in the online safety calendar. Starting as an initiative of the EU SafeBorders project in 2004 and taken up by the Insafe network as one of its earliest actions in 2005, Safer Internet Day has grown beyond its traditional geographic zone and is now celebrated in approximately 180 countries and territories worldwide.
Children at Ramsgate Arts primary and Chilton primary schools are enjoying a bigger breakfast to get the day off to an energised and healthy start.
“Our meal provisions across the board tie in naturally with our general wellbeing programme for all our children that gives them every possible support to make their school days as positive, healthy and happy as possible.”
until the end of July 2024. Schools will contribute 25% of costs. All pupils in participating schools are to be offered breakfast supplies at no cost to them or their parents.”
The contract for the programme is delivered through Family Action, who source and deliver breakfast food products to participating schools. All breakfast products offered through the programme meet the school food standards. Schools are able to choose and order the food products and quantities they need for their pupils.
Acclaimed artist Lily Mixe has teamed up with children at Ramsgate Arts Primary to create collaborative and inspirational work.
and tried to blend this into their background.
Inspired by numerous diving expeditions, and hundreds of notebooks and studies of animals and plants, Lily states that her work “examines life under the surface, the incredible unseen, silent beings we take for granted. I want to give a visual voice to the natural world. I want to celebrate nature in the same way we value precious stones and rare artefacts. I place nature as the highest currency on planet earth.”
Young warriors have gone wild about their learning at Ramsgate Arts Primary School.
process to sharpen flint and create tools and weapons. To understand how the process worked and how tricky it was they tried their hand at knapping using bars of soap – it wasn’t easy.
Then pupils were challenged to build it with their ‘talk partners’ using biscuits for the block work and icing to glue their structures together.
The magical northern lights natural phenomenon lit the way for an inspiring exploration of light at Ramsgate Arts Primary.
light using a mirror, as well as learning about what shadows are and how they are cast.
“And they also tried their hand at learning in the dark without light which was very exciting for them.”
Christmas celebrations got off to a happy and Elfy start for children at Ramsgate Arts Primary.
The RAPS tradition of a giant Christmas tree once again took centre stage, while pupils helped dress it with an array of colourful and sparkly decorations.
Head of School Nick Budge said: “The visit to see Elf was a great start to our end of term activities and festivities. It was a cracking performance and really got our busy programme under way in style.
our children, families and friends a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.”
Children from Ramsgate Arts Primary are on the right track when it comes to learning about railway safety.
get older, and become more independent.
Children and families at Ramsgate Arts Primary have worked together to create a giant mural that celebrates sea life and the shoreline.
She said: “Our children and families came together to create a large-scale drawing based on sea flowers and marine life. They then had the opportunity to use a variety of bold, bright colours to create a large scale art piece.
Head of School Nick Budge described the Big Draw project as “an important event for our school community.” He added: “There was a lot of support from our families and it was great to see them working together. The mural is colourful, bright and bold and we hope to put it on display in the school to celebrate the success of our Big Draw initiative.”
The work of acclaimed street artist Banksy and conceptual artist Barbara Kruger are inspiring creative children at Ramsgate Arts Primary.
whole range of themes including littering, looking after our planet and animal cruelty. 
Head of School Nick Budge was impressed at the diversity of entries for the competition. He said: “Using two prominent and focussed artists as a basis for their work certainly encouraged our children to produce a raft of thought-provoking images.
Classrooms and the library at Ramsgate Arts Primary are gaining a new series of books thanks to the generosity of staff and shoppers at the Tesco superstore at Westwood.
Pupils already have their sights set on the visit. Sophie in Year 4 said: “I would really like to get some more David Walliams books as he is our author of the term and my class are really enjoying reading his books.”
Ghoulish games and creepy creativity gave young children a Halloween to remember at Ramsgate Arts Primary School.
learning while in the outdoor play area there were different kinds of sensory and art challenges. They also enjoyed role playing such as making gruesome food concoctions in the kitchen or making spells using the colourful mud in the mud kitchen.