Alongside the taught curriculum, the school will run an inclusive enrichment programme to provide further opportunities for students to develop their social, cultural, leadership and physical skills. This will include a full programme of sporting activities with the opportunity to represent the school in individual and/or team sports and outdoor education.
The Trust is committed to providing exceptional sporting experiences for all students. At Norlington we have developed very successful relationships with sporting organisations that have benefitted our students, including being a partner school with Leyton Orient Football Club and an Inspirational Cricket school with Essex Cricket. This has provided our students with access to top coaches and the opportunity to play at high quality sporting venues; we would share and develop these links with the free school.
The Waltham Forest Free School will look to develop an Athletics Centre of Excellence, accessing the best available coaching and resources from nearby facilities such as the internationally recognised Lee Valley Sports Centre.
Each department will be expected to run an enrichment activity each week. This activity may vary across the year but would include opportunities for students to prepare entries for national competitions and develop their leadership skills: for example, by taking part in planned programmes like RISE.
Every student in KS3 will be expected to attend at least one enrichment activity a week, and this would be monitored and students targeted if they had not taken up any of these opportunities. As part of our commitment to the promotion of STEM subjects, students in year 7 or 8, would also be expected to complete a 12 week computing enrichment programme that focuses on website development.
At KS3, as part of our cultural enrichment programme, we will guarantee that all students will take part in a trip to at least one museum, one art gallery and one theatre production every year. All students in year 7 will also learn a musical instrument.
Every child will be able to experience extended learning through experience Learning Outside the Box Days every six week cycle. These days allow students to apply learning outside the classroom, allowing us to deliver workshops facilitated by companies such as KPMG, Barclays and London Quadrant that develop students’ financial capability, teamwork, leadership skills and support the careers programme. In year 10 and 11, the LOTB programme focusses more on ensuring students are able to make the right choices beyond school, further developing careers knowledge and skills and to raise the aspirations of students with visits to higher education institutions and high status companies such as software, design and engineering companies as well as law and accountancy firms.