Enrichment and Life Skills

Enrichment at Whatley is an opportunity for students to engage in a range of structured activities that are outside of the main school curriculum. Enrichment runs 3 times a week and over the whole term, students will participate in all of the activities on offer on a round-robin basis. This provides students with a chance to develop a range of social and communication skills in several engaging activities with a range of teaching staff that might not typically team them. 

The Enrichment programme is developed with feedback from the students themselves and feeds into the wider school environment and curriculum. This input helps to ensure that students have an opportunity to raise their opinions, have some ownership of the ideas, and have their thoughts heard.

Our Enrichment offer is broken down into several key areas covering the Arts, Sports, Healthy Lifestyles, Hands-on Activities, and Citizenship. Each of these areas builds a holistic offer where students undertake a wide range of activities over the whole year. It allows them to develop their social and communication skills through an engaging project.

Each term the offer changes, linking to feedback from students and supporting them all to engage in a broader variety of activities.

This year we have added to the offer The Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award at KS4, where students will learn a new skill, develop physical fitness, and undertake some volunteering as well as go on an overnight expedition. Younger students will work towards several levels of The Princes’ Trust Achieve Award which helps to boost confidence, learn new skills, and work as part of a team on a group project. 

Each Enrichment activity consists of a project-based task that takes place over the half term. A target is set along with the students at the start of the half term which they will work towards throughout their session. This allows the students to see the development they have made and also the impact of the activity on the wider school community.