Enrichment
Enrichment at Birchwood:
At Birchwood we provide a wealth of extra-curricular and enrichment activities, which are open to ALL of our students. We are incredibly proud that these are built into our school day and so engagement and participation levels are at 100% for our students and staff members. Clubs and activities are based around being creative, sporting, cultural, enterprising and student voice collection means that they link to the hobbies and interests of our students too, thus enriching the learning experience of our students.
Through these opportunities, we aim to develop students’ character, engagement and love of learning, allowing them to pursue their passions and raising their aspirations.
Twice weekly enrichments activities, which are carried out by ALL students allow our students to gain new experiences, enjoyment and skills outside of academic lessons.
We offer a range of sports, art and other opportunities, social time, plus additional sporting and creative clubs after the school day has ended too.
Some clubs are subject‐related. These include Maths Club, IT Club, Seasonal Science and Birchwood Bolts Engineering Club, but our staff have really entered into the spirit of enrichment and so most of our clubs are experiential and play into the interests and hobbies fond within our school community.
Wider enrichment clubs include, Nature Club, Gothic Club, Pride Club, Origami, The Detectives, Diamond Diggers and Dragon Slayers Minecraft Club, Warhammer Club and various wellbeing and mindfulness offers.
The music‐based activities offered include; Pop Choir, School show rehearsals, Ukulele Unison and externally led peripatetic instrumental tuition.
To supplement and extend the work covered in lessons, many visits are arranged by subject teams and departments, usually as day or evening excursions to places of interest. These include theatres, art galleries, museums and musical concerts. Numerous overnight visits are organised by staff. Visits to Iceland, Poland, New York, Italy and Switzerland have taken place in recent years.
Additionally, a full programme of musical concerts, dramatic performances, art exhibitions and sporting fixtures enables our students to showcase their many talents.
Our enrichment offer:
Our enrichment offer is updated on a regular basis and shared via form time with students, using the brochure below, and also with our parents/carers via Class Charts.
2024 Autumn timetable:
Feedback from our school community:
“I am so impressed with how many clubs and activities are on offer at school and I can’t wait to see all of the new ones added in term 2 too” – Year 7 student.
“Taking part in a variety of club has helped my daughter to thrive at secondary school. She has made new friends, found new interests and developed new skills in sewing and playing a new musical instrument” – Year 8 parent
“Being able to share my passion for David Attenborough with the students at school brings me so much joy. The club is well attended and I look forward to it every week” – Staff memberQ
Extra-Curricular at Birchwood:
As a school, we are committed to providing high quality opportunities outside the usual curriculum time through extra-curricular activities.
These activities are an important and exciting feature of school life and contribute enormously to our student’s academic and social development.
Students who wish to attend are to are to arrive at their chosen activity for a prompt start at 3:10pm. Most activities will finish for around 4:10pm and students are to make their way home.
Please take a look at the timetable below to see what students can get involved in this academic year.
Please note: While we do try to keep our timetables as up to date as possible the activities listed are subject to changes each term and there maybe some delay in updating them. For one-off events and school holidays please take a look at our term dates.
