Enrichment Pledge
Enrichment pledge
Enrichment is becoming a major strength of Waseley Hills High School and Sixth Form. We believe our students experience a wide-ranging curriculum which is both academic and enriched with experiences beyond the classroom. Enrichment helps students to develop interests and abilities, provides valuable learning experiences outside their studies and promotes independence. Enrichment at Waseley ranges from after-school sports clubs, homework clubs to reading clubs. In addition to our fun and physically based enrichment opportunities, we also provide additional enrichment opportunities for our key stage 4 students on academic support and coping with exam stress.
All departments contribute to our program ensuring we offer an extensive range of activities to engage all. Students are consulted regularly thought student council leaders on further opportunities they would like to be made available. Throughout the academic year, there are numerous trips, visits, and external speakers from a variety of backgrounds available to our students to attend. We also believe that promoting leadership opportunities for our students contributes to the school wide community and provides opportunity to develop interpersonal skills in a fun and active way.
Spanish
In Spanish we include cultural activities every term, so ‘all’ students experience Spanish/ Latin American culture e.g., el Dia de los muertes. We also show Spanish speaking films to enrich student vocabulary. Our lunchtime and after-school offer concentrates on building up student confidence in Y10 and Y11. We also run revision workshops for Y11 in the Easter holidays.
Art and Design
All students build Cultural Capital through a curriculum that investigates and responds to the work of world artists, designers and makers from different time periods.
Further enrichment this year has so far included a Key Stage 3 Art Club and a Year 7 visit to RAF Cosford to participate in STEM/Art activities. Year 10 GCSE students have spent a working day at Birmingham City University School of Jewelry and will next visit the Glass House Museum in Stourbridge to work with an artist and in the gallery. Year 11 have experienced a day workshop learning Japanese woodcut printmaking with a visiting artist. GCSE support intervention is available after school each week.
Specialist enrichment opportunities are important and are often dependent on success in grant applications towards funding, all KS4 students will visit a gallery during their course.
Business Studies and Economics
Extracurricular activities and trips are a crucial part of the Business and Economics curriculum. Guest speakers and trip and virtual university lectures provide crucial contextual experiences for students then enable them to build and develop their understanding of the commercial environment and fast paced market environments.
In addition to these trips, there are enrichment support sessions to guide students through their GCSE and A Level course.
ICT and computing
Students will further enhance their programming skills using advanced Python programming language. The computing club will enable a group of students to work collaborate to design, implement, test and evaluate their system to ensure it meets the client requirements. They will also learn about project life cycle which is a great skill to adapt for careers in project management, web/game designers and programmers.
Science
A key part of our curriculum is to apply and reinforce expert learning through experiences: this is an integral part of the Science rationale and continues to grow and develop as staff are given opportunities to develop their own experiences to pass onto students and where we have the confidence to identify good experiences and share these with the students. This includes the classroom experience of practical's, discussion, challenge and team/group work. Good examples of outside the classroom experiences include, in recent years include GCSE Action in Science days, Medic training, Faraday challenges and CREST style science clubs engaging pupils from feeder schools. Our emphasis is on ensuring that we take the opportunities where we see them. We ensure that careers in science are also discussed and shared with students and continue to see this as an ongoing development within the department and School as we begin to focus our efforts on a STEM culture.
PE Enrichment
Within lessons pupils learn that the value of sport is multifaceted, and that success in Physical Education is about learning the key skills, techniques and strategic tactics to develop and improve. Students are assessed through physical performance in ability and personal knowledge of skills and techniques. They are encouraged to develop their ability to lead, coach, umpire and referee so increasing their communication skills and confidence. Personal fitness is inclusive of every lesson where students can increase resilience to physical movement and improve fitness for life.
Extra-curricular activities are for being wholly ambitious, social, competitive and about “playing a big match” We look to provide opportunities to extend learning and experience competitive situations within and outside of the school.
Geography
In geography, we experience fieldwork on site during KS3, with the opportunity for at least one local and one wider fieldwork experience currently being developed. For GCSE and A level fieldwork is an essential part of the course and this often leads to a residential trip in KS5. At A level, there have been visits to universities for special study days.
Sixth Form Enrichment
Today’s universities and employers seek well rounded individuals who have explored a range of experiences to develop their skills and character. To this end Waseley Hills offer an extensive range of extracurricular and enrichment opportunities for students to add to their package in a way that suits them.
Students are encouraged to participate in a range of opportunities that build skills and provide valuable lessons for life. All students are encouraged to choose one enrichment option to complete within their independent study periods, some students choose to participate in more than one opportunity if their workload allows. In addition, students are expected to complete relevant and valuable work experience in Year 12, typically for a week towards the end of the year, in order to prepare them for working life.
What Enrichment is Available?
• UK Mathematics Trust challenges
• Team building trips and activities
• Visits to national museums and galleries
• Geography and History field trips
• Trips to Universities and workplaces
• Workshops with visitors and guest speakers
“Leaders want every pupil to feel part of the wider school community. They are keen to ensure that pupils are part of ‘The Waseley Way’. Students enjoy taking part in sporting events and learning outside the classroom”
‘Ofsted Report, 2022’