‘Classroom escapes’ at Barrow Hills School – thinking outside the box!

Imaginations were fired up when children at Barrow Hills School engaged in an immersive learning experience at a special interactive workshop held at the School on 4th March.

Children from Year 5 and Year 6 (Middle Prep) took part in ‘Classroom Escapes’ – an innovative way of learning where players solve a series of puzzles. Designed to encourage problem solving, logical reasoning and teamwork, the children had to think fast as they raced against the clock to unravel the mystery and break out of their classroom.

Created by ‘School Escape Rooms’, who visited the School to provide the learning experience, Classroom Escapes is based around National Curriculum subjects, such as maths, history and science – which are brought to life through participation in a physical adventure game.

At the start of the session the children were shown the ‘escape boxes’ and told how they work. On first sight, they look like ordinary locked wooden boxes. Everything needed to solve the puzzle including keys, padlocks, codes and riddles is provided within the room. Only when the codes have been successfully cracked and the riddles solved can the children gain access to the box and make their escape from the locked classroom.

Comments from children who took part in the activity included:

Year 6 Mia: ‘I enjoyed working with people in the school who I wouldn't work with usually. My favourite task was the sky crane after the escape box because it was a challenge outside of my comfort zone.’

Year 6 Barnaby: ‘I felt as though I improved my hand-eye coordination with the sky crane. In the escape box, it was great to have the opportunity to apply my scientific knowledge in a different setting. We had to demonstrate curiosity because we needed to find different codes from a large selection of clues. We also had to be brave in our teams and have the confidence to explain the connection which would break the codes. It could be frustrating as we didn't always solve it on the first go, so we had to keep trying.’

Head of Middle Prep at Barrow Hills Josh Andrade, who organised the workshop, said, ‘This type of learning fits perfectly with the “brave, curious and resilient” traits that we uphold in the Barrow Hills pupil profile. School Escape Rooms provide a unique experience and encourage a fresh way of learning, taking the children out from behind their desks and urging them to follow their imagination and develop creative thought processes. As well as linking to a number of national curriculum subjects, the exercise has been extremely beneficial in helping to develop communication, problem-solving and inference skills as well as promoting team building and encouraging perseverance. Great fun was had by all!’