What is the Thornhill Enrichment Programme?

From Autumn 2 until Summer 2, every single child spends 20 Friday afternoons, across the year, from 1:30-3 pm taking part in a myriad of activities. Each block lasts between 4 and 6 weeks, so the children can spend some time developing a skill or applying a skill in a more in-depth, focused way. It opens our pupils’ eyes to the wealth of opportunities open to them and provides a vital insight into the world of work. As a Silver awardee for Skills Builder, we develop transferable skills that are progressive from EYFS to Y6.

These skills are: Speaking, Listening, Problem-solving, Creativity, Adapting, Planning, Leadership, and Teamwork.

SKILLS BUILDER

Rationale

• At Thornhill School, we believe that lifelong learning is crucial for successful, happy adults who have a vast skill set that they can use to benefit society as well as themselves. We believe that learning is so much more than attainment and grades on a page, but a myriad of attitudes, emotions, beliefs and skills. We aim to develop the “whole child” as every child matters.  Our enrichment programme develops all  8 benchmarks identified by the DfE in 2026 and has been developed over time since 2017.

The enrichment project aligns perfectly with our intent, relating to breaking down barriers, challenging stereotypes and developing lifelong skills. It also aligns with the Five Core Enrichment categories released by DoE:

• Civic engagement,
• Arts and culture,
• Nature, outdoors and adventure
• Sport and physical activity
• Wider life and future skills

The Thornhill Enrichment project gives pupils the opportunity to develop a wide range of essential skills by widening and opening up the curriculum. Some key beliefs and attitudes about learning we promote at Thornhill:

The best learning is enjoyable and challenging;

• Learning needs effort as well as ability;
• Effective learning needs persistence and resilience;
• Learners should be self-motivated;
• Learning should relate to real life.

For us, enrichment benefits are many:

• Promotes and supports emotional well-being for our students. Happy, engaged students are more ready to achieve the best from the teaching and learning within our setting.
• The curriculum is enhanced as pupils have opportunities to learn and work in different ways.
• Whilst the programme does not form part of our curriculum coverage, it allows pupils to be more successful within the curriculum by developing the whole child, their resilience, their communication skills, collaboration and exploration.
• Enrich pupils' lives, giving all pupils equal opportunities
• Developing a sense of social responsibility, active citizens.
• Breaking barriers for our children.
• Introduction to the world of work
• Leadership time for teachers- allowing time for standards to be monitored and feedback to be provided.

Timeline

In 2017, Ms Lewis and I ( Ms Ryer) attended a school in Waltham Forest where they had decided to close the school down on a Friday for 2/3 of the population in order to enrich pupils’ lives. Having discussed if we wanted to think about how we could deliver this enrichment for our pupils we knew that we would not be closing the school early but would be thinking about a whole school project.

Our next steps were to put a proposal together for the governors, explaining the rationale and how it would work across the school. Having been given approval by the governors, we set about trying to organise the sessions.

Providers

It is essential that we build links with long-term providers to ensure sustainability of the project and to build up our community links. Providers come from a variety of sources, local businesses, local community projects, programmes run by our own TAs and HLTAs and groups run by parents and neighbours.

Providers have included:

• Central St Martin
• Mears
• Bolt Burdon Law Firm
• Muriel Street Care Home
• Planet Drum
• Islington Boat Club
• Three Discovery
• The Almedia Theatre
• Freightliners Farm
• Woven
• Massage and reflexology

Impact Statements

Parent Voice

Hi Miss Ryer,

We just wanted to write to let you and the school know how highly we regard the enrichment program that you're running on Friday afternoons. Both Clarice and Gabriela LOVE Fridays because of it!

A few Fridays back Clarice was a bit unwilling to go to school in the morning, but was like a different person after, saying she'd just had the best school day of her life! She went on to describe her experiences in Barnsbury Wood that afternoon.

We strongly believe that the enrichment activities that have been set up really contribute to the beginnings of an education that is more rounded, and make the association that the children have between school and learning and enjoyment a positive one that can only help with their all-round education and transition from children to pre-teens to teens and on.

Thank you so much for all the work and effort that goes into making these kinds of great ideas a reality, and credit to the parent community. If I had free time on a Friday, I would also be keen to volunteer!

Many thanks,

Oliver and Carolina

Hi Louise,

Otis has loved cooking enrichment this term; the food he has brought home has wowed us all. But he has also found a new enthusiasm for cooking and asked me if we could bake cakes together. Of course, the answer is always yes in our house, so we made some blueberry muffins inspired by the delicious cake he made in the first week.

Let’s hope they taste as good!

Thanks so much for enrichment; they always do such amazing things and gain exposure to things they wouldn’t have at home or in the classroom.

Many thanks,

Lucy

FAQ

Schools and organisations that have visited our school to understand how we run our enrichment programme:

• The Big Alliance Islington
• Islington Council 11 by 11 team
• Islington Square
• Tufnell Park