Wider Curriculum Opportunities, Enrichment & Cultural Capital

What is Enrichment?

Education is more than just mastering English and mathematics – it is also about activities that extend children's learning through new experiences and opportunities. Enrichment opportunities help provide children with a rounded, culturally rich education through activities which enhance their learning and provide them with the opportunity to try new things and develop new skills.

Enrichment at Hadley Wood

Our curriculum extends beyond the National Curriculum and includes a wide range of enriching experiences and opportunities both within and beyond the school day. This includes an extensive programme of after-school clubs, that support the core curriculum offer, as well as those which develop specialist skills, such as Spanish and French, coding and art whilst also extending the range of children’s experiences (Cultural Capital).  A primary focus of our curriculum is to raise aspirations, engender a sense of personal pride in achievement, and provide a purpose and relevance for learning.

The school takes pride in providing a highly inclusive environment, where learners demonstrate high levels of enjoyment in their education and make good progress across the curriculum. Children at all levels are helped to achieve their potential. Those who are most able are challenged and supported through being offered tasks which provide opportunities for greater depth and those who find learning more of a challenge are encouraged and given targeted support to embed skills, to develop at their own pace or simply to learn in a style that best suits their individual needs.

In addition to our exciting and stimulating cross-curricular themes, we also provide a range of further enrichment opportunities to enhance children’s learning wherever possible.

These include:

Promoting Positive Mental Health & Wellbeing

At Hadley Wood Primary School, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing of every member of our school community and recognise how important mental health and wellbeing is to our lives, as is physical health. We recognise that children’s mental health and overall wellbeing can affect their learning and achievement.

A key aspect of our role in school is to ensure that children can manage times of change and stress, and that they are supported to reach their potential or access help when they need it. We also have a role to ensure that children learn about what they can do to maintain positive mental health, what affects their mental health, how they can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues, and where they can go if they need help and support.

Positive wellbeing is promoted through the wider curriculum and all school activities. Through a carefully planned approach to PSHE, RSE and Growth Mindset our pupils are helped to acquire the knowledge and develop the skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives, and to become resilient, informed and responsible citizens.

In addition, whole school approaches such as daily assemblies and circle time sessions are used to further develop the pupils’ knowledge of strategies. Whole school events are held including, Mental Health Awareness Week in May, CREW Week (Creativity, Resilience, Engagement and Wellbeing) in June and Anti-bullying Week in November. During these events, the focus is on mindfulness and resilience; teaching strategies for dealing with anxiety; and coping with change and transition.

What do we do at Hadley Wood Primary School to support children’s emotional well-being and mental health?

Hadley Wood Primary School is committed to creating a happy, caring and supportive environment. As well as a learning environment, the school ensures there is a positive, supportive and inclusive ethos where children can thrive and achieve their personal best. Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and our Values-based education is central to the curriculum across the whole school. 

• PSHE & RSE assists pupils to cope with the changes at puberty, introduces them to a wider world, manage transitions and enables them to make an active contribution to their communities.  The concepts covered in PSHE include identity, managing feelings and emotions, relationships, change, resilience and being healthy, which includes physical, emotional, and social well-being. 
• Nurture Provision. Children who experience domestic violence, bereavement, anxiety, and any other life experiences that may affect their emotional well-being are identified and supported by Mrs Davies, our Nurture Lead who will offer regular 1:1 or small group nurture support. The school supports the child in their specific needs, meaning the pupil is at the heart of the school focus and their learning is understood developmentally.
• Physical Education at least two hours weekly. The school employs two Sports Coaches who work across the school to ensure high-quality sports is offered to all children. We also offer a range of after school sport clubs.
• Extensive range of After-School Clubs support children’s social and emotional development, and their well-being all with a view to increasing the range of experiences that children have, enabling them to make informed choices for adult life.  Activities are designed to be fun and cater for a wide variety of interests.
• Healthy eating is promoted throughout the school. We have children’s garden areas with raised growing beds as well as a Forest School area.
• Disadvantaged and vulnerable children are closely monitored through a ‘Championing’ approach and ensuring barriers to learning are removed, and enrichment opportunities are encouraged and supported.
• World Mental Health Day and Mental Health Awareness Week is celebrated across the school and ongoing events and activities are planned for the whole school community.

Nurture Support

Our school offers Nurture Provision. Children who experience domestic violence, bereavement, anxiety, and any other life experiences that may affect their emotional well-being are identified and supported by Mrs Davies, our Nurture Lead who will offer regular 1:1 or small group nurture support. The school supports the child in their specific needs, meaning the pupil is at the heart of the school focus and their learning is understood developmentally.

Whole School Theme Days/Weeks

Throughout the year, themed days/weeks are woven into the curriculum to extend and enrich the breadth and balance of opportunities we offer our pupils. These include, Anti-Bullying Week and Internet Safety Day, CREW Week, World Book Day, Black History Month, Spanish Day, Outdoor Learning Week and more.  

Forest School & Outdoor Learning

Forest Schools is a Scandinavian initiative designed to encourage and inspire individuals of any age through an innovative, long term, educational approach to outdoor play and learning in a woodland environment.  As a school we are very fortunate in having our own Forest School area on site, and we work closely with Four Seasons Forest School who deliver our Forest Schools programme.

Forest Schools is offered to all children across the school in half-termly blocks with the exception of EYFS who access Forest School sessions on a half-termly basis. Sessions are designed around the needs of the group to ensure that they are learner-led.  Sessions are designed around a theme, themes are sometimes subtle such as evolving or exploring the site or more obvious such as butterflies, spies, fairies or nature investigators.  Many areas of the National Curriculum are intrinsically covered, in the Forest Schools experience without the programmes needing to be curriculum led. Teamwork skills are developed through games and activities.  Individual skills and self-esteem are heightened throughout activities such as hide and seek, shelter building, tool skills, lighting fires or environmental art, the list is endless.   Each activity develops intra and interpersonal skills as well as practical and intellectual skills.

As a school, we value the benefits of outdoor learning.  Children are stimulated by the outdoors where they can undertake a range of practical activities to support and enhance learning across the curriculum. Our Foundation Stage pupils also benefit from tending their own growing beds and flower pots in our Reception outside area.

Further up the school, opportunities are built into the curriculum for children to continue learning beyond the classroom including undertaking fieldwork and enquiry-based work in the local area.

Educational Visits and Residentials

School trips and visits are an integral part of the education of children at Hadley Wood.  We value the opportunities such visits offer our pupils and the commitment of staff and adults undertaking them.  Trips include class visits aim to bring curricular learning to life by providing first-hand experience.

When our children reach Year 6, they are invited to stay away from home in preparation for secondary school and take part in a residential visit. These are planned to provide new and exciting experiences which include orienteering, climbing, abseiling, archery and lots more.

Visitors into School & Workshops

Visitors have a valuable role to play and can contribute to many aspects of the life and work of the school.  They deliver talks, workshops and full day activities across a wide range of subjects, giving pupils access to outside experiences and expertise. Visitors provide a link with the wider community – children have the opportunity to work alongside artists, musicians, authors, health professions and others.

We plan for many workshops to take place across the course of the year which have included The Young Shakespeare Company, Air Ambulance, Barnet Fire Service, Magistrates in the Community in the last academic year. All workshops are planned to carefully complement learning in the classroom and help build the children’s knowledge and understanding.

After-School Clubs

At the heart of our ambition for Hadley Wood is our commitment to providing the very best for all children to enjoy and achieve. This includes having the widest possible range of opportunities both within and beyond the curriculum.  We offer extracurricular opportunities through various types of provision delivered by external providers, and independent clubs – all with a view to increasing the range of experiences that children have, enabling them to make informed choices for adult life. Activities are designed to be fun and cater for a wide variety of interests.

We want to offer the scope for each child to find a passion, develop a talent, spark an interest, or simply find pleasure in doing an activity with others. After-school clubs are a fantastic way of achieving this, and we are excited to offer a wide range of clubs, including sport, art and craft, drama, coding club etc.

Music, Art & Drama

Hadley Wood Primary School provides opportunities for children to take part in a wide range of musical activities and performances where they are encouraged to sing, compose, and work creatively with sound. Through active listening, pupils’ awareness, understanding and appreciation of a wide variety of music are developed. A range of opportunities are provided within and beyond the curriculum for children to showcase their musical skills and talents, for in Year 4 are all provided with the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, the clarinet, throughout Wider Opportunities programme. Our half termly Arts Trophies celebrate art, drama and music and all pupils are given the opportunity to showcase their talents in our annual Hadley Wood’s Got Talent Show which is performed to parents.  

Homework

Homework can make an important contribution to a child’s progress at school.  As well as reinforcing learning in the classroom, homework helps children to develop the skills and attitudes they will need for successful independent lifelong learning.

Homework is set in-line with the school’s policy, with tasks planned to appropriately challenge all pupils.  Weekly activities focus on English and Maths to reinforce and consolidate skills taught.  O8ur comprehensive Homework Policy outlines further our approaches to homework.

Pupil Parliament & Voice of the Child

Volunteering is an activity that everyone can get involved in and benefit from.  At Hadley Wood, we promote and encourage pupils’ active citizenship and positive contribution to the school and wider community. We offer lots of opportunities for pupils to take on new responsibilities and be involved in successfully supporting the life and work of the school.  These include elected representatives on our School Council where children are responsible for working alongside the School Leadership Team to improve our school.  Older pupils can also apply for positions such as Playground Buddies, House and Sports Captains and Assembly Monitors and Librarians. Within classes, children can volunteer to take on various responsibilities including book monitor and line leader. All children are able to contribute to our pupil newspaper, The Hadley Wood Voice which is produced on a half-termly basis.

Involving children as volunteers is very empowering:

• It helps them to develop self-confidence
• It promotes self-esteem
• It develops their skills as leaders
• It involves them in making their own decisions
• It gives them a voice in the life and work of the school
• It offers them opportunity to take responsibility
• It enables them to make a positive contribution to the work of the school and wider community
• It helps to prepare them for the challenges and opportunities of adult and working life

Pupils tell us that they enjoy the opportunity to volunteer to help make their school an even better place to be and rising to the challenge that additional responsibility brings.

Year 6 Weekly Booster Sessions

Children in Year 6 are invited to attend a range of early-morning booster sessions for both Maths and English.  These are run by Mrs Christophorou, our Year 6 teacher, and members of the Senior Leadership Team. Children benefit from bespoke teaching in small groups.  These sessions are a great opportunity for the children across the phase to work together in different groups whilst further supporting their learning.  They are very much a social time when children can further enjoy a range of approaches to learning including problem-solving and reasoning.  Speaking and listening is very much promoted as a result, children hugely value these times with almost all pupils attending.

After-school Reading Boosters Sessions

Children from across the school are invited to attend after-school reading boosters. These are run by the support team and provide a wonderful opportunity for children to work together in a small group to build their confidence in reading. Sessions run twice-weekly and have positively impacted on the reading ability and comprehension of pupils who attend regularly.

Charity & International Aid Support

Children at Hadley Wood are actively involved in charity work and fundraising for various local, national and international charities.  We hold annual events such as Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, Children in Need; Comic Relief and our Harvest Festival.  Often children will approach teachers with ideas to further raise money for different causes, in particular responding to an international issue.  Recent fundraising events have included a fundraising event for the Turkey and Syria Earthquake appeal.

For further information on the full range of trips and enrichment opportunities we offer, please download the whole-school overview below or visit each individual class page.