Enrichment and Extra Curricular
Enrichment at Villiers
At Villiers we offer a rich and varied enrichment programme to enhance our pupil’s learning and develop their cultural capital. Our goal for Enrichment at Villiers is to help students develop their individual skills and interests with increasing independence and creativity. With this in mind, we have a varied and evolving programme of Enrichment activities, which actively encourages student-led initiatives. Our exciting Enrichment programme prepares students for life, echoing our motto, “for life not school we learn”.
Student leadership
At Villiers students are encouraged to develop both their leadership and collaborative skills so that they can become the leaders of the future.
For students in years 7 to 11 there are a range of opportunities for students to lead through extra-curricular activities as well as the Year Councils and School Council.
The School Council and Year Councils
One of the most significant ways students can take on leadership roles at Villiers is through participation in the Year Councils and School Council.
The members of the School Council and Year Councils make significant contributions to enrichment at Villiers as well as serving as role models to their forms, years and the school as a whole. These students have been elected by their peers due to their exemplary behaviour and contributions to school life as well as their willingness to lead.
The responsibilities of the School Council can be divided into four key areas:
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The development of GRIT across the school
Students are responsible for designing the school’s GRIT challenge which involves students developing skills such as resilience and initiative through a set of academic and physical challenges in GRIT challenge week.
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Fundraising and raising awareness about the school charity, Cancer Research
Students are responsible for running the Charities week events, with the help of the Sixth Form, charities team as well as fundraising throughout the year through events such as cake sales.
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The coordination and implementation of the school campaign- mental health awareness
The Head Students' are working with the School Council to develop a programme to improve mental health awareness and understanding across the school.
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The ambassadors for student voice
At Villiers, we deeply value feedback from students about their academic and wider school experience. The School Council provides an essential dialogue between students and the Headteacher about the successes as well as concerns of students.
Structure of the Year Group Councils and School Council:
The School Council
10 members - 2 members per year group
Chaired by the Head Girl and Head Boy
The Year Councils
16 members - 2 Form Reps for each form
Chaired by their year’s School Council members
Form Representatives
2 for each form
Enrichment Clubs:
At Villiers, we have a jam-packed Enrichment timetable, with clubs led by staff and older students, as well as external visitors such as our Writer-in Residence Lewis Buxton, and organisations such as Debate Mate, Shakespeare For Schools, and Fearless Futures. From Chess Club to Badminton, from Creative Writing and Critics’ Club to News Club, our range of extra-curricular activities celebrate the eclectic mix of talent at Villiers.
Please click here to access the enrichment timetable.
Debate Mate
Debate Mate is a very popular club at Villiers, with over 25 students attending every week. Each week students are trained to debate for an hour by university students who are themselves expert debaters. Debating helps students to develop their oracy skills and analytical ability as well as soft skills such as confidence and teamwork. Next term, Villiers students will take part in a number of Debate Mate competitions and with their debating skills looking sharper than ever, watch this space for some fantastic results.
WOHAA (Wings of Hope Achievement Award)
Students in years 9-13 work in small teams to run fundraising projects for the Wings of Hope Children's Charity which helps children in India and Malawi to gain a free education. Students gain valuable skills from close mentoring and workshops from corporate partners, allowing them to kick start their career development with events such as Speed Mentoring and be inspired by speakers at Back to School Day. Through this national programme, teams are in with a chance to be selected for the semi-finals which are held at the Houses of Parliament!
UK students have the freedom to think outside the box and come up with event ideas which are entirely unique to them, and the freedom to run these events as they choose - an element which is specific to the WOHAA programme. We consider this freedom very important as it allows students to get a taste of real-world experiences whilst being guided through our mentoring.
6F Enrichment: speaker series / work experience / enrichment committee
This year, we have piloted an ambitious Speaker Series involving a weekly speaker event attended by Sixth Formers. The goal of this series is to inspire our sixth formers as they consider their futures, and make them aware of career-paths and social issues they might not previously have known about. So far, we have had amazing talks from speakers such as Ben de Pear (Editor of Channel 4 News), Harbinder Birdi (partner at Hawkins/Brown and one of the lead architects in the design of Crossrail), and Naina Bajekal (Executive Editor of Newsweek Magazine). We encourage Sixth Formers to have a more informal talk with speakers over lunch before each weekly talk, and this has led to several work experience opportunities currently in the planning!
In our Sixth Form, we have an enthusiastic Enrichment Committee who help coordinate and enhance Enrichment across the school, as well as support Sixth Formers in developing skills and interests tailored to their chosen university courses or career paths. This student-led Committee support teachers in running weekly clubs, provide information and support to the Sixth Form for UCAS and career choices, and lead the school’s charity fundraising activities.
