Richmond Hill Primary AcademyExtracurricular and Enrichment
Extracurricular and Enrichment
Building children’s confidence and character is every bit as important as ensuring their academic excellence.
Government funding doesn’t always allow for the enriched curriculum we strive for in our schools, so we fundraise to provide our pupils with outstanding in-school and out-of-school activities. We create regular network-wide events, bringing together pupils of all ages to learn and be challenged outside the classroom. Enrichment at Richmond Hill Primary includes:
The performing arts
Each year the school has a number of events which encourage performing arts. These include Harvest Festival, Christmas performances, X Factor, Easter Parade and plays.
Music
We have a whole-school primary music programme built on the belief that singing is central to a lifelong enjoyment of music. Students take part in a song-based curriculum beginning in Reception, broadening to include instrumental learning during Key Stage 2.
Music is a core part of Academy life. We provide free specialist singing tuition for all our Key Stage 2 pupils from The Rainbow Choir, alongside a high quality music ICT based scheme, Charanga, which focuses on the development of instrumental work.
Year 1 take on the exciting challenge of learning the Harmonica as well as several children taking up the opportunity to have 1-1 piano and guitar peripatetic lessons. Some lucky pupils in Key Stage 2 have been chosen by Ridgewood staff to have funded lessons at the secondary school as part of their Pupil Premium funding.
Year 5 become involved in the fantastic Opera North Concert, giving pupils the opportunity to learn how to sing Opera music and perform alongside a professional Opera society.
Our Richmond Hill Primary Academy Choir have been particularly successful in the past. Pupils who are selected for the Academy choir are given a range of opportunities to perform including competitions. The choir are currently the Junior winners of the Don Valley Festival and the Robin Hood Festival, and have participated in the Regional Music for Youth Festival.
School Council – debating, communicating and coaching
We encourage debating and discussion programmes for both KS1 and KS2 pupils, helping to teach young people to speak confidently in public, make reasoned arguments and understand different points of view.
The School Council is central to providing the pupils with an active voice within the Academy’s focus on continual improvements.
Developing coaching, enterprise and democracy
Mentoring and skills-development programmes are planned and delivered within the Academy for Ambassadors and Vice Ambassadors. These posts are ascertained through a democratic voting process within the Academy.
Network-wide competitions and challenges
Hotly-contested and a source of pride for our Academy, we foster a network-wide competitive spirit through spelling bees, maths challenges, language challenges and other events. We are currently the Network Spelling Bee Champions.
Sport
Sport is a popular feature in our Academy and there is strong collaboration among the PE departments across the Pyramid. We also support schools to come together throughout the year for friendly inter-academy competitions.