Lost in Legoland

Ninety years after its invention, Lego retains a remarkable power to grip children's attention, as photographs of our 8s lunchtime club show.

Every Friday lunchtime this term, 20 or so 8s pupils (Year 4) have enjoyed building 3-dimensional objects in a Lego Club led by Mr Saller. With screen-based activities now vying for much of their attention, many of them have relished the opportunity to reconnect with old-fashioned play. The benefits have been manifold as noted by Mr Saller who has seen an improvement in their team/communication skills, motor skills, spatial ability, problem-solving and creativity. 

"The children just love building Lego. It has such an impact on their ability to work with others and really encourages them to unleash their creativity, " he says.

Every week there has been a different theme to their assignment. From building and creating animals, crowns/royalty, robots, vehicles/transportation there really has been something for everyone. The most recent underwater theme (as photographed here) featured some highly inventive creations ranging from a 'Crusty Crab' restaurant and Spongebob Squarepants (because apparently he lives under the sea!), to the Lost City of Atlantis, a shipwreck, shark and an underwater clean up operation to stop pollution. 

Just before the club finishes, Mr Saller asks each of the children to present their creations and explain their ideas behind it to the rest of the group, which they undertake with both confidence and articulacy. 

But it's not just the children who are benefitting, as Mr Saller points out, "This club has been a great way for me to get to know some of the 8s children in a less formal setting outside lessons.' With this level of mutual enjoyment, it is no surprise that he wants to keep running the club and is adamant when he says, "I plan to run 8s Lego club next term and the summer term and hopefully all the academic years following that! I can't wait to see what creations they produce and look forward to welcoming new members in the New Year too."

Harrodian runs a full programme of clubs, many of which are voluntarily led by members of our staff. As well as offering clubs in sport, dance, music, drama, art, STEM/science clubs and other academic subjects, there are also specialised options available like Manga, Disney appreciation, mindful colouring, karate, chess, bit bot car racing, cinema club, yoga and Japanese, amongst others (please note that club choices change from term to term).To download a full list of clubs this term, please access the relevant PDFs on the Edulink noticeboard.