Games and Hobbies

Using the excellent Stop Motion iPad app, children get creative with all sorts of media to make their own animations and cartoons.

Play dough, plasticine, paper, modelling sticks, Lego figures, action figures and pipe cleaners are all available to use to create short movies which can be displayed on the ‘big screen’ (the interactive whiteboard) to see and review.

This activity clearly provides an innovative outlet for children’s creativity and imagination, but it also supports important skills and qualities such as patience, framing a photograph, editing and a steady hand.

Fancy making a glider or a treasure box?

Then Balsa Wood Builders is the club for you! This activity will teach you the importance of having a design plan, how to measure and safely cut the balsa wood with craft knives and how to assemble the parts with balsa cement without getting your fingers stuck together!

Six weeks is just long enough to make a glider, which at the end of half term can be tested to see how it flies down the corridor.

During Spring and Summer when the days are longer, it is the perfect opportunity to utilise the close location the school has to the beach.

During this activity we make our way down to the beach and stroll along the seaside as we enjoy being outside.

If we are lucky, the tide may be out and we can have a look as to what lives in the rock pools below the water.

With lots of prizes on offer and two nerve-wracking games per session, Bingo has become a very popular choice of activity.

Each child has the opportunity to take on the role of ‘caller’ over the course of a term and pupils enjoy the tense and exciting atmosphere as the game nears its end.

Board games are one of the best ways to test your problem solving skills whilst also socialising.

The club is more popular than ever and sees pupils playing iconic and classic games like Monopoly, Scrabble and Ticket To Ride. There’s no question that board games are an excellent way to spend time, but it’s surprising how much they can teach you, whether that be sharpening your Maths skills, teaching you the names of people and places or, most of all, honing your capacity for lateral thinking.

Book Talk is the place to talk about books!

It is open to all pupils from Years 3 to 8 and takes place once a week. 

Book Talk gives pupils the opportunity to discuss the books they have been reading and share their opinions. Children can also recommend books to other pupils and find out about new books and authors. There is also the opportunity to take part in book-related activities such as games, puzzles and quizzes.

If you love books and reading, please come along!

Card game club is aimed at children from Years 6 to 8.

The main aim of this club is recreational and children play games from classics such as Happy Families, Uno and Old Maid to Monopoloy Deal and the more adventurous Exploding Kittens!

The children can choose to play games as a whole group or split into groups to play a variety of games. The card games are designed to take 20 minutes to play, giving children the option to play numerous games in one activity session.

The Bede’s Prep chess club welcomes pupils of all abilities.

We play internal tournaments, solve puzzles and have fun whilst improving concentration, memory and logical thinking.

The chess club is run by Rasa, an experienced chess player and coach. She is a female FIDE chess master and ex Eastbourne and Hastings chess champion.

The club aims to give you a much deeper understanding of this very old and wonderful game. The skills learnt in chess will be applicable in day to day life!

The activities programme has recently seen the return of climbing, as result of the appointment of our new climbing instructor, Darren Wakeford.

Climbing a wall teaches children great hand, feet and eye coordination. They must look, plan and then move their hands and feet to the chosen spot.

Climbing is not only great exercise, but also helps children to develop resilience and problem solving skills.

The climbing activity teaches children core skills through fun games such as ‘Simon Says’ where they have to think quickly and remain off the ground! In the boulder wall challenge, children are required to get to a designated point in the fewest number of moves; it is amazing how flexible some children become!

Several members of staff enjoy taking cookery club, all teaching their favourite things.

Mr Entwisle runs cookery classes with a Spanish theme whilst Mr Fasciolo-Barnes’ lessons have an Italian twist. Mrs Brown is an expert baker and the children enjoy making cakes with her.

At Bede’s we think that cookery is a really important life skill and it is one of the most popular options that pupils choose within the activities programme.

A professional qualification in flying drones is now on offer on Wednesday afternoons at Bede’s Prep.

Prep bus driver Roy is a professional commercial pilot and is now offering his time and expertise to teach pupils in Years 6, 7 and 8 the basic manoeuvres and safety aspects of flying. 

The first sessions start in the classroom, where pupils become familiar with the UK Dronecode which assists drone users to fly safely. After that, pupils will be given the exciting opportunity to learn how to fly the drone.

Pupils are also supported to gain their Unmanned Aircraft Qualification (UAQ). This is a professional qualification which is acknowledged by the Civil Aviation Authority and marks the beginning of a series of qualifications which lead to a commercial license.

As well as being able to make safe basic manoeuvres, pupils will also be taught how to video and take photographs using the drone.

The Eastbourne Civilian War Memorial Trust has renovated the moat surrounding Eastbourne’s Wish Tower into a Peace Garden, providing the setting for a new memorial to the town’s bombing victims in WWII.

Pupils have the opportunity to support this local project, helping to maintain the grounds by weeding, planting bulbs, deheading flowers and learning about the seasonal maintenance of a garden.

In movies and on television actors walk through fantastic landscapes and settings which don’t exist.

All of this happens with the help of a green screen. The background can be replaced by anything. In the green screen activity the children experience the magic of finding themselves in the strangest places and use their creativity to record mini films. This term, the children have prepared a quiz for European Languages Day using the green screen technology.

If you are looking for a relaxing and therapeutic activity, then Hama beads may be the club for you.

You can create many large or small pictures, using the beads of your choice or you can use the ready-made boards - of which we have many - ranging from unicorns to dinosaurs. At the end of the activity, these will be ironed and then your creations are ready to take home with you.

Hama beads allows you to be as creative as you wish whilst improving your fine motor skills.

It’s not as magical as Hogwarts itself but it is full of aspiring witches and wizards!

It is a club where we solely focus on the sequence of Harry Potter, following the lives of the three best friends; Harry, Ron and Hermione and all the troubles they face throughout their time at Hogwarts. Pupils use Pottermore to sort into the four different houses and create house badges. From quizzes and potion making to writing ourselves into the story, how can you not love Harry Potter club?

Riding at Bede’s Prep School is facilitated through the Glebe Field Riding School at Carrbrook Farm in Chiddingly.

As a licensed City and Guilds Training Centre, Glebe Field offers children a huge range of opportunities, including entry-level lessons, hacks across the Sussex Downs or training in Eventing and Gymkhana. Set in 60 acres of beautiful woodland, Glebe Field offers formal Riding and Stable Management qualifications should children be interested in them.

One of our many exciting activities is kayaking.

We have an external kayak coach who comes into school to run the sessions in the warmth of our pool.
Specially made pool kayaks are used for the comfort and safety of the children.

The first skill children learn is how to capsize. This is to ensure the children not only have the skills to get out of their kayak safely, but it is also a great confidence booster.

Each week the instructor teaches the children another skill or technique to enable them to control their craft, or how to rescue a capsized kayaker.

Whilst there is a lot to learn, there are also lots of games to play. From Frogs vs Minnows to Battleships, each game played uses the skills gained in the sessions.

All the skills and confidences learnt in these sessions follow British Canoeing guidelines.

Once these skills are demonstrated on open water, the children gain a nationally recognised kayaking certificate of competence. This hopefully starts their journey into a great sport!

We run two classes, one for Years 3-5 from 2-3pm and one for the Years 6-8 from 3-4pm. Each session can take up to eight children.

If you like to build games, play games and share games, this is the club for you!

Kodu is a visual programming language developed by Microsoft specifically for creating games for the Xbox console and PC.

It is designed to be accessible and fun for everyone. You can build a game on the PCs and then use an Xbox controller to test it. Anyone can use Kodu to make a game, even those with no programming skills.

We provide the Lego, the children provide the imagination!

Lego Builders is an activity open to children from Years 3 to 6. The children are set a weekly challenge which they are able to work on either in pairs or as a larger group. Lego builders is excellent for developing fine motor skills, encouraging team work and improving creativity. It also develops problem solving and mathematical thinking, improves communication skills and self-esteem, as well as developing persistence, lateral thinking and planning. It is also lots of fun! 

Come along to Lego Builders to see what amazing things you can build.

Our pupils have certainly been enthusiastic about magic.

Magic is open to pupils in Years 5 and above and each pupil adds their own individual flair to the club.

We can’t reveal the exact details of what we have been learning as we are all bound to a code of secrecy, The purpose of the club is simply to have fun. The children can have the pleasure of figuring out tricks for themselves or simply being bedazzled. We aim to amaze and amuse!

Take a moment out of your day to enjoy mindful colouring.

With music to unwind and relax, mindful colouring aims to focus the mind on the present and enjoy choosing and applying colours to designs.

Whether you are good at colouring or not, this activity serves to calm you at the end of a busy day at school with a beautiful set of drawings to colour in. You will be sure to find an image that will inspire you!

It may seem strange to run an activity in which the pupils appear to be simply ‘playing a video game’, but we at Bede’s Prep use the customised educational version of the block building game Minecraft which has many features designed especially for classroom use.

Participants in the activity sessions begin by exploring the basic building tools within the game where, unlike their playing experience at home, a coordinated approach to the in-game challenges is the key to success and educational objectives are set which otherwise ‘lock’ in-game content.

Minecraft is now seeping into the wider curriculum; we have recently used the software to explore ratio in maths, community planning, science and much more besides.

Minibridge is a simplified version of the game Bridge.

Children will be introduced to the basics of Mini Bridge and as the session continue, they will learn more about the game and start to develop winning strategies.

Mini Bridge helps children to improve their ability to concentrate and to develop their numeracy and problem solving skills. It is a very social game and helps develop team working skills as children have to co-operate and communicate effectively with a partner in order to succeed in the game.

Mini Bridge is for anyone who wants to learn a challenging and engrossing game.

Model Casting is an unusual way for the pupils to get creative.

Throughout each session, we first mix up the plaster, which is made of Plaster of Paris and water, and then pour it into our moulds. Once it has set and dried, they can paint and decorate them however they like. We have seen rainbow elephants and purple gorillas so far!

Do you enjoy designing and making using paper?

Do you have ideas for the ultimate paper aeroplane? If so, this might be the club for you! We will have fun turning a humble piece of paper into a soaring jet. The activity will start by following tried and tested designs before creating our own innovations and testing them out. Each week will focus on a new task from making the plane that flies the furthest, to the most imaginative plane. Children are welcome to bring their own designs from home for us to try.

In this activity, pupils use the Rollercoaster Tycoon computer application to simulate the design and running of their own theme park.

Pupils start by learning how to add and customise rides, ensuring real world problems like queue management and guest satisfaction are handled accordingly. They learn how such businesses administer their finances, confirming that incoming monies are balanced against outgoing costs, such as park maintenance and staff wages. Pupils go on to learn about managing shops, water rides, animal enclosures and firework displays. They then design their own virtual rollercoasters, taking into account their knowledge of forces, and what the human body can handle to build the ultimate thrill-seeker’s trip.

In this activity children get to experience where video gaming started, with the chance to learn about historic games from the 1970’s to 1990’s.

The children learn about the pioneers of a discipline that is ubiquitous in their lives today. Games such as Space Invaders, Pac Man and Donkey King are discussed and analysed, and the children have a chance to experience the excitement their parents felt when playing these classics.

They even have the opportunity to see how the games are coded and ‘hack’ them in order to gain more lives or make the challenge harder!

Hopefully through this activity children will experience the thrill felt by generations past when gameplay mattered more than fancy graphics, and the high score holder was king!

Scoubidou is a knotting craft which originated in France.

It has become very trendy and popular in the Prep School and we now have some experts in Years 3 to 8, teaching other children how to do it. So far children have learnt the square stitch and the spiral knot.

Warhammer is a miniature war game where military tactics, dice and art combine to form an absorbing, addicting, challenging hobby.

Dice are used instead of actual bloodshed and lovingly painted miniature figurines are the only casualties. This has attracted both the avid painters, and the serious generals, keen to throw their armies into battle!

Pupils are welcome to come and try your hand at these games, constructing and painting the miniatures, war gaming in the future or the fantastical past.

Warhammer is running on Thursdays and is open for Years 6 to 8.

XBox Club is aimed at children from Years 6 to 8.

The club runs on a Tuesday and the children have the option to play lots of different games ranging from FIFA to Guitar Hero or Rock Band. There is the option to use the XBox Kinect motion sensor device for more active games (including golf, hang gliding or being a Jedi Knight). The sessions are designed so that children can have fun, but also work together.

Yu-Gi-Oh is a Japanese trading card game which involves battling against an opponent using a deck of cards.
The game sees players using a combination of monsters, spells and traps to defeat their opponent. The game itself comes with some great educational benefits, namely reading and maths. Children are always reading what each card does in detail in order to use the cards in the best way possible.