Enrichment Activities

Heston Community School believes strongly that learning extends well beyond the classroom and that an outstanding education should offer all students an extensive range of enrichment activities which will support them to be successful in life.  Alongside an academically rigorous, challenging and thought provoking curriculum, extra-curricular activities, taking place during lunchtime and after school, are on offer. These activities provide opportunities for students to learn new skills, make new friendships and develop their confidence, teamwork and communication skills. 

In addition to the examples of the many activities listed in this document, one activity the school strongly encourages and which is within the grasp of every student, is reading. Curriculum time is devoted to develop reading skills and a love of reading through the DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) and the Accelerated Reading Programmes with all students, Years 7 – 9, reading for half an hour every day during the school week. The well-resourced school library with over 10,000 books, a variety of magazines and newspapers, is available to all students.  

SUPPORT FOR ENRICHMENT

• Engagement in fun activities creates a desire to learn, leading to a ‘development of engagement in learning’ - Bowdoin USA
• Soft skills are developed i.e. ‘the character traits and interpersonal skills that characterise a person's relationships with other people. In the workplace, soft skills are considered a complement to hard skills, which refer to a person's knowledge and occupational skills.’ 
• Further support for the development of soft skills: 'Grounding in soft skills gives people who went to independent schools their edge.’ - Dr Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College
• The impact of enrichment activities: ‘Enrichment is increasingly understood as having a potentially significant impact on the intellectual, social and psychological well-being of students.’  - Bowdoin USA

Detailed below are examples of the wide range of current and past Enrichment Activities

Developing Skills

• Interventions offered by Curriculum Areas
• Homework Clubs offered by Curriculum Areas and Year Teams
• Programming Club
• Animation Club
• Workplace visits and Career talks
• Art Club
• Cultural Fusion Show
• Lectures e.g. Anthropology, Physics
• ISSP Saturday Satya
• Eton Summer School
• Masterclasses e.g. Eton
• Debate Mate
• Voice lessons
• Lessons in Punjabi & Arabic
• Urban Scholars Programme
• Summer Schools
• Science Club
• STEM Club
• Stargazers at Night
• Isaac Newton Lecture
• Eureka Science in Action Day
• Medical Summer School
• Learning Mentor Clubs e.g. Sisters Club, Drama Club, Friday Club
• The Career Ready Programme
• Duke of Edinburgh Award
• National Citizenship Scheme
• Careers Fair
• Super Learning Days

Cultural

• Visits to Art Galleries and Museums
• Guest speakers e.g. Journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, past students, universities
• ISSP Sage in Residence
• Theatre trips
• ISSP Choir Project
• ISSP Art History Project
• Manga Club
• Book Fair
• Author visits
• MFL trip annually
• Dance
• Heston’s got Talent
• Trips abroad

Sports

• Basketball:  girls and boys
• Football:  girls and boys
• Netball
• Gymnastics
• Badminton
• Rounders
• Rugby:  boys and girls
• Cricket
• Visits to sporting fixtures e.g. rugby at Twickenham

Competitions

• Bank of England:  Economics
• Coca Cola Enterprise
• Writing competitions
• Poetry Trials
• Maths Challenges
• Borough Sports Competitions
• Olympiads:  Biology & Physics
• Institute of Physics:  Physicist of the Year
• World Space Week
• STEM Competition
• Heston Wildlife Photographer of the Year
• Rotary: Public Speaking Competition
• Jack Petchey Speak Out Competition