Co-curricular Programme

Our co-curricular programme offers nearly 70 different before and after school activities to our students each week. Engagement has been fantastic so far this term, but there are still spaces for new students to get involved.

In music, 13 different music groups meet before school during the week and over 150 1:1 instrumental lessons are taught each week in strings, woodwind, drums, guitar piano and singing.

In sport, there are 3-4 fixtures a week in a variety of sport disciplines, both in school and off-site, and 26 sporting clubs before and after school offering football, cricket, boxing, rowing, fitness, athletics, tennis, table tennis, swimming and fencing. Over 54% of students at the school regularly participate in a sporting activity and the number is growing.

In drama, there are currently 6 different clubs running throughout the week, including Improv club with Ms Robinson on Monday evening, Drama club with Ms Russell on Wednesday evening, and the Devising Club with Ms Dodson on Thursday evening.

There are many other clubs such as cooking, debating, chess, coding, creative writing, book club and mindfulness open to students of all ages.

Exotic fruit sampling at the 50 things to do before you are 15 Club

Spotlight on new club: 50 Things to do before you are 15. This is held after school on a Monday, run by Ms Rayner. This club celebrates  the sights and wonder of the natural world through ecology, horticulture and culture. The broader philosophy behind this club is best summed up by a phrase in a poem “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?’”

Last week, students prepared leaf skeletons to use for gift cards and sampled some of the more exotic fruits available in our supermarkets, whilst learning about their agricultural production.

This week, students studied the apple fruit, by sampling a range and comparing their flavours, they went on to make the ever-popular toffee apples.

In the coming weeks, we have two visits planned. One is to the local cemetery where we will be hosted by the local gardening team and one visit is to Wesley House and Chapel. We have a spider session coming up, nicely timed to take place just after Halloween!

Spotlight on coding club. This is held after school on Tuesday’s, led by Ms Nazareth. Students have been learning blocked based coding. They have been coding micro bits to perform simple functions like displaying various shapes and text. They then moved onto building their own games on their micro-bit. Some students have also started to build on their text-based coding skills.

Chess Club

Spotlight on chess club. This is also held on Tuesday’s led by Mr McCosh.  This is an opportunity for students to relax and unwind over a board game after the school day whilst also improving chess moves and strategy. This is a peer led club where students learn tips from each other and in order to hone their chess skills.

Drama Club

Drama club. This is held after school on Wednesdays, led by Ms Russell. Creativity meets collaboration, as students work together to create original, powerful theatre from scratch—exploring stories, ideas, and emotions in a space that’s all about teamwork, imagination, and discovery! Students will perform their pieces at the Winter Shorts performance in the final week of term before the winter break.