At Henbury View, we believe in developing the whole child. Our creative and knowledge rich curriculum forms part of this, but we also endeavour to support our curriculum with various enrichment activities and opportunities that support the personal development of our children and help develop their cultural capital. Our enrichment curriculum highlights some of the different opportunities and experiences we aim to provide our children with during their time at our school.

Our curriculum extends beyond the National Curriculum and includes a wide range of enriching experiences and opportunities both within and beyond the school day. This includes a programme of after-school clubs, that support the core curriculum offer, as well as those which develop specialist skills, whilst also extending the range of children’s experiences (cultural capital). 

Please also see our enrichment blog that will keep you up to date with all the things we have been up to...

In addition to our exciting and stimulating learning journeys, we also provide further opportunities to enhance children’s learning wherever possible. These include:

Whole School Theme Days/Weeks

Throughout the year, themed days/weeks are woven into the curriculum to extend the breadth and balance of opportunities we offer our pupils. These include, Anti-bullying Week and Safety Day, Creative Arts Week, World Book Day, Sports Week, Mini-enterprise Week, Fair Trade Fortnight, Science Day, Cultural Day, Community Day, European Day of Languages, RE Days and others.  

Enquiry Learning

Parts of our learning journeys are driven by a process of discovery and enquiry.  This provides exciting opportunities for children to explore, develop and acquire new skills in a direction in which they are interested. Research shows that children from the whole spectrum of abilities find learning in this way to be fun and motivating, and outcomes are positive for every child.  This is our experience at Henbury View; pupils tell us they value the opportunity to lead their own learning.

Outdoor Learning

We are very fortunate at Henbury View to have beautiful grounds in order to learn outside the classroom. Our woodland walk and pond area support the learning of the children right across the curriculum, bringing learning to life and developing an understanding of the natural world. We currently have plans to begin ‘Forest Schools’ and are actively looking at embedding this within our curriculum offer.

We are an Eco school, following ‘Let’s Go Zero’, and value the benefits of outdoor learning.  Children are stimulated by the outdoors where they can undertake a range of practical activities to support and enhance learning across the curriculum. Our pupils also benefit from tending their own growing beds to produce fruit and vegetables to use in cooking activities.

Further up the school, opportunities are built into the curriculum for children to continue learning beyond the classroom including undertaking fieldwork and enquiry based-work in the local area.

Educational Visits and Residentials

School trips and visits are an integral part of the education of children at Henbury View.  We value the opportunities such visits offer our pupils and the commitment of staff and adults undertaking them.  Trips include class visits aimed at bringing learning alive and providing first-hand experience; extra-curricular outings such as activities with the school council or sporting events; and attending or taking part in performances or competitions. We have ensured that our educational visits across the school allow children to experience a wide range of settings focusing on different curriculum subjects (e.g. visiting Lulworth Cove for Geography, Winchester Science Museum for a Science focus and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for Music).

Children in Year 4 take part in a residential visit. This is planned to provide new and exciting experiences and support their transition to middle school. The children visit Leeson House near Swanage for an overnight stay, visiting Corfe Castle as part of their itinerary.

Visitors into School

Visitors have a valuable role to play and can contribute to many aspects of the life and work of the school.  They deliver talks, workshops and full day activities across a wide range of subjects, giving pupils access to outside experiences and expertise. Visitors provide a link with the wider community – children have the opportunity to work alongside artists, musicians, authors, health professions and others. We also have links with our local museum where we use loan boxes so the children can experience artefacts up close. We also work closely with other communities within our local area, for example the local Church. Weekly members of the Church come to read with our children and support us with our RE curriculum. We also enjoy welcoming the ’Sunshine Group’ and sing songs to them.

After-School Clubs

As a school we offer pupils opportunities to participate in extra-curricular activities after school. At any time, a wide range of clubs is on offer – our programmes of clubs and activities available is revised half-termly depending on the time of year and other commitments children may have. Please see the table below highlighting the different after-school clubs on offer this half term. Please contact the school office with any questions:

PE and Sport

At Henbury View, we are using our PE and Sport Premium to part-fund a qualified sports coach. JSC is already known to many pupils across the school, provides high quality instruction during PE lessons; they also run sporting activities at lunchtimes; and promotes increased pupil participation in PE and Sport beyond the school day. Within our academy trust, we work with our local schools and attend a range of sporting events, such as a dance festival, multi-skills events, badminton festivals and football matches. We ensure all of our children attend a sporting event at least once during their time in Year 4.

Music, Art and Drama

Henbury View First School provides opportunities for children to take part in a wide range of musical activities and performances where they are encouraged to sing, compose and work creatively with sound. Through active listening and ‘Music of the Week’, pupils’ awareness, understanding and appreciation of a wide variety of music are developed. A range of opportunities are provided within and beyond the curriculum for children to showcase their musical skills and talents. We work closely with the Dorset Music Service and Year 3 receive 10 weeks of Samba tuition and the opportunity for a continuation programme. We also work with a music specialist teacher to attends the school weekly and teaches sessions to each year group, working on different instruments. Every Tuesday, we have a guitar teacher who provides small group and 1:1 teaching.

As a school we appreciate and understand the importance of drama within our curriculum. Research reveals that drama had a positive impact on children’s physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. We write and perform a Christmas nativity each year at the Church and also put on Harvest and Easter services. Our Year 4’s also perform a Leaver’s performance to their parents before they leave to go to middle school. Each class also performs a Parent Share each term where they share their learning with their parents.

Opportunities to Volunteer/Positions of Responsibility

Volunteering is an activity that everyone can get involved in and benefit from. At Henbury, we promote and encourage pupils’ active citizenship and positive contribution to the school and wider community. We offer lots of opportunities for pupils to take on new responsibilities and be involved in successfully supporting the life and work of the school. These include Year 4 Eco-warriors, E-Safety Champions, School Ambassadors, Librarians, Peer mentors, Office managers, Colour Team Captains and Sports leaders. Children from across the school are elected onto our school council. Pupils tell us that they enjoy the opportunity to volunteer to help make their school an even better place to be and rising to the challenge that additional responsibility brings. 

Assemblies

A rounded programme of daily assemblies helps to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and provide clear guidance on what is right and what is wrong. On Monday’s, we have a celebration assembly where we share the achievements of children from across the school- parents/carers join us in this celebration! Tuesday’s assembly is focused on our PSHE theme of the week, which is built on during in-class teacher. We use ‘Picture News’ on a Wednesday to support our teaching of current news and British Values and then have a singing assembly on a Thursday.

Your Time

As part of our behaviour policy, and to support our beliefs that children should have opportunities to develop their own passions and talents, we have a ‘Your Time’ session on a Friday afternoon. This time allows children to pick an adult-led activity and work alongside children from across the school to have a go at. Staff ensure there is a wide range of different activities on offer.