Curriculum Enrichment

Wider Curriculum Opportunities & Cultural Capital

At Coates Way School, we  believe  all children deserve a well-rounded, culturally rich, education. The enrichment curriculum plays a crucial part in achieving this objective. The purpose of the enrichment curriculum is to provide a broad range of opportunities to learn and develop outside of the classroom. These opportunities foster professional skills such as resilience, active listening, confidence, self-esteem and teamwork. Coupled with the growth of interests and enthusiasm for passions beyond the classroom. 

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 an extensive programme of after-school clubs, that support the core curriculum offer, as well as those which develop specialist skills, such as art, design technology, orienteering and music, whilst also extending the range of children’s experiences (Cultural Capital).  A primary focus of our curriculum is to raise aspirations, engender a sense of personal pride in achievement, and provide a purpose and relevance for learning.

The school takes pride in providing a highly inclusive environment, where learners demonstrate high levels of enjoyment in their education and make very good progress across the curriculum. Children at all levels are helped to achieve their potential. Those who are most able are challenged and supported through being offered tasks which provide opportunities for greater depth and those who can struggle are encouraged and given targeted support to embed skills, to develop at their own pace or simply to learn in a style that best suits their individual needs.

Further enrichment opportunities to enhance children’s learning include:

Promoting Positive Mental Health & Wellbeing

At Coates Way Primary School, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing of every member of our school community and recognise how important mental health and wellbeing is to our lives, as is physical health. We recognise that children’s mental health and overall wellbeing can affect their learning and achievement.

A key aspect of our role in school is to ensure that children can manage times of change and stress, and that they are supported to reach their potential or access help when they need it. We also have a role to ensure that children learn about what they can do to maintain positive mental health, what affects their mental health, how they can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues, and where they can go if they need help and support.

Positive wellbeing is promoted through the wider curriculum and all school activities. Through a carefully planned approach to PSHE, RSE and Citizenship our pupils are helped to acquire the knowledge and develop the skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives, and to become resilient, informed and responsible citizens.

In addition, whole school approaches such as collective worship and circle time sessions are used to further develop the pupils’ knowledge of strategies. For example, healthy relationship problem solving is taught in circle time sessions to help pupils learn to control and manage feelings when there are disputes on the playground. Whole school events are held including Time to Talk , Mental Health Awareness Week, World Mental Health and Anti-bullying Week. During these events, the focus is on mindfulness and resilience; teaching strategies for dealing with anxiety; and coping with change and transition.

What do we do at Coates Way School to support children’s emotional well-being and mental health?

Coates Way School is committed to creating a happy, caring and supportive environment. As well as a learning environment, the school ensures there is a positive, supportive, and inclusive ethos where children can thrive and achieve their personal best. Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) is a central to the curriculum across the whole school. 

PSHE & RSE assists pupils to cope with the change, introduces them to a wider world, manage transitions and enables them to make an active contribution to their communities.  The concepts covered in PSHE include identity, managing feelings and emotions, relationships, change, resilience and being healthy, which includes physical, emotional, and social well-being. 
Nurture Provision. Children who experience domestic violence, bereavement, anxiety, and any other life experiences that may affect their emotional well-being are identified and supported by the Mental Health Lead, Drawing and Talking therapist, an external play therapist and Learning support teachers, who will offer regular 1:1 or small group nurture support. The school supports the child in their specific needs, meaning the pupil is at the heart of the school focus and their learning is understood developmentally. The Mental Health Lead also leads lunchtime wellbeing clubs which is accessible for all pupils.
Physical Education at least two hours weekly plus the daily mile. All children are offered extra-curricular physical activities ranging from dance to ball sports.
Extensive range of After-School Clubs support children’s social and emotional development, and their well-being all with a view to increasing the range of experiences that children have, enabling them to make informed choices for adult life.  Activities are designed to be fun and cater for a wide variety of interests.
Healthy eating is promoted throughout the school and is embedded in the EYFS and KS1/2Curriculum. We also run enrichment cooking clubs and promote gardening and harvesting fruit and vegetables.
Disadvantaged and vulnerable children are closely monitored ensuring barriers to learning are removed and enrichment opportunities are encouraged and supported.
World Mental Health Day and Mental Health Awareness Week is celebrated across the school and ongoing events and activities are planned for the whole school community.

Whole School Theme Days/Weeks

Throughout the year, themed days/weeks are woven into the curriculum to extend and enhance the breadth and balance of opportunities we offer our pupils. These include, Anti-Bullying Week and Safety Day, Creative Arts Week, World Book Day, Black History Month, RE Days and much more. 

Outdoor Learning

We are currently making improvements to play opportunities for your children, you may find that we will be asking you for resources and unwanted items you may have at home. Your children may get a bit messier, be exposed to more challenges and have greater freedoms to play where, with whom and how they like. The experiences we are fostering are essential for children’s physical and mental well-being and healthy and in line with all current good practice advice on health safety, well-being and development.

Educational Visits and Residentials

School trips and visits are an integral part of the education of children at Coates Way School.  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 experiences to develop and enrich your child’s learning.

Children in Years 4,5 and 6 take part in residential visits. These are planned to provide new and exciting experiences. Children in Year 4 spend the night in school and are provided with wonderful enrichment opportunities, Year 5 attend an outdoor education residential, and Year 6 spend time in France learning about the culture and for many experiencing their first trip abroad.

Visitors into School & Workshops

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 musicians, authors, health professions and others. 

After-School Clubs

At the heart of our ambition for Coates Way School is our commitment to providing the very best for all children to enjoy and achieve. This includes having the widest possible range of opportunities both within and beyond the curriculum.  We offer extra-curricular opportunities through various types of provision delivered by school staff, external providers, and independent clubs – all with a view to increasing the range of experiences that children have, enabling them to make informed choices for adult life. Activities are designed to be fun and cater for a wide variety of interests.

We want to offer the scope for each child to find a passion, develop a talent, spark an interest, or simply find pleasure in doing an activity with others. After-school clubs are a fantastic way of achieving this, and we are excited to offer a wide range of clubs, including sport, art and craft, wellbeing, computing, chess, food technology, choir and instruments, orienteering club etc.

Music, Art & Drama

Coates Way 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, 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, for example every year we hold a Christmas carol concert and summer concert. As well as music being taught weekly in class, choir and instrument lessons are available to pupils – these include recorder, Djembe drums, flute, and guitar.

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. Drama is developed across the whole school in a variety of ways including storytelling, various performances, and assemblies.

Celebrating Success

Every Friday we hold a Celebration Assembly where we recognise any special achievements, awards and events. Staff and children are invited to bring in any certificates, awards, or news that they would like to share and celebrate. Each class teacher will nominate children from their class to receive an award this can be for any area of improvement both academic and pastoral. They are presented with a certificate and the teachers share the reasons with the assembly We also enjoy celebrating our talented pupils' achievements outside of school. So, whether it's sporting success, musical talents, drama performance or even community projects, we love hearing all about them. We then showcase them on a dedicated display board and of course, dedicate time in our weekly, Celebration Assembly to allow the children to share their incredible achievements with their friends.

Pupil Council & Voice of the Child

Volunteering is an activity that everyone can get involved in and benefit from.  At Coates Way School 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 elected representatives on our Pupil Council where children are responsible for some of the following key areas of the school: pupil voice, sustainability and school enrichment.  Older pupils can also apply and be interviewed for positions such as and house captains, and within classes children can volunteer to take on various responsibilities ranging from lunch duties and friendship buddies.

Involving children as volunteers is very empowering:

It helps them to develop self-confidence.
It promotes self-esteem.
It develops their skills as leaders.
It involves them in making their own decisions.
It gives them a voice in the life and work of the school.
It offers them opportunity to take responsibility.
It enables them to make a positive contribution to the work of the school and wider community.
It helps to prepare them for the challenges and opportunities of adult and working life.

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.

Global & International Citizenship

Through the inclusion of an international focus within our curriculum offer at Coates Way School, children engage in a range of experiences that enhance their learning and raise awareness of their national and international identity. As a school we have a commitment to both gender and racial equality. This global dimension is reflected in the attitudes and values of our school community, the ethos and the curriculum of our school.  We recognise that global issues are an important part of children’s lives today. We are living in a world where economies are increasingly interdependent and global communication is a daily reality. Children have access to the Internet, increased opportunities to travel and to watch news stories from around the world, as they develop. A global dimension helps children to understand their role in creating a fair and sustainable world in the future and enables learners to explore links between their own lives and people, places and issues throughout the world.  We have links with a French-speaking school in Canada and regularly communicate with them through the E-Pals initiative, led by our MFL Lead. 

Our World & Primary News

Throughout school and during collective worship, children and teachers discuss and reflect on naturally occurring events or topical issues that are happening around the world.  The aims of this we hope will broaden the children’s geographical knowledge and understanding and the impact of how such events can affect others. 

 Charity & International Aid Support

Children at Coates Way School are actively involved in charity work and fundraising for various local, national and international charities.  We hold annual events where we work with schools within our partnership to raise funds for nominated charities: Red Nose Day, Muscular Dystrophy, Watford Shelters and MIND.  Often children will approach teachers with ideas to further raise money for different causes, in particular responding to an international issue or A charity which is close to them. 