Ship Ahoy

What a lovely day for the Level 1 Blue Skies Students from Ferndown Middle School to visit HMS Victory for a brilliant tour with Colour Sergeant Steve Bacon RM.

We learnt so many interesting facts about the warship and where some sayings originated like ‘Slush Fund’ – money paid by the sailors to the cook for some pork fat to flavour their porridge! ‘Flash in the pan’ was what happened on the guns to fire the cannon balls.

The students took particular notice of how Steve gave his talk and they learnt how to give a good presentation in preparation for their Blue Skies graduation. Good teamwork was evident as the students helped each other to write their practice presentation about what they had learnt on board HMS Victory. Lizzie, 13 said that she felt her confidence had increased by presenting to everyone and it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be.

Ferndown teacher Jerry Whitton said “It was really good to see the very obvious effect that the project is having on our pupils. One thing that I did notice was the way they all made eye contact with each other before they spoke to the group. They are taking on board the things that they are learning and it is showing.”

Thanks to the Royal Navy for making the day so special.