Year 6 visit Sutton Life Centre…

On Tuesday Year 6 went to the Sutton Life Centre for the Life Skills Tours which help children in this year group to make the transition to secondary school and to take on the new challenges and opportunities they will face.The children visited the 4 zones at the centre.

At the Urban experience they were faced with an urban setting with real shop facades. They had to deal with some of the dilemmas and difficult choices that growing up may throw at them, including peer pressure, alcohol, smoking, street crime, gangs, knives and bullying.

Then they moved on to the transport experience which looked like a train station. Here they learnt about keeping safe on buses and trains, platform safety, personal safety, robbery, respect for fellow passengers and the impact of anti-social behaviour such as littering.

Next came the home experience, where the children entered a fully fitted apartment with a kitchen, dining room, living room and bedroom. This area covered healthy eating, fire safety, and how to manage issues such as domestic violence, broken families, cyber-bullying and online friendship.

They finished with a trip to the Virtual Experience which was a 360° white room which uses video, graphics, sound and lighting to recreate a range of virtual worlds from derelict buildings to the tropical rainforests.

In here, they found themselves in the middle of a digital immersive environment like no other, with a series of short documentaries covering topics on urban safety, including trespass on the railway, exploring derelict buildings and playing with fire. Green issues were also covered, including recycling, sustainable living, climate change and the environment.

An informative morning was enjoyed by all with many life lessons to take away.