Enrichment

Every child and young person should leave school or college with a strong foundation of knowledge, a love of learning, a well-developed set of skills and the confidence to use them. Throughout their time in education, we want young people to be exposed to a wide range of experiences, which, alongside the core national curriculum and programmes of study, help prepare them for life and work.

We know that enrichment opportunities can help expand horizons, raise aspirations and improve engagement, and we want to ensure that these opportunities are available for all, not just the privileged few. The development of essential skills, including teamwork, problem solving and communication, can increase sense of belonging and contribute to greater wellbeing and improvements in attainment. These opportunities can also help pupils and students understand and engage with the world around them, equipping them to play a role shaping their own futures, something that is especially important in the context of the change to introduce votes at 16.

DfE, June 2026

Arboretum Primary underpins all its work with the aspirations of ‘Reach for the Stars’. We believe that enrichment should be a core part of the school offer. As a result, we include valuable first-hand experiences to enrich our curriculum. We recognise the importance of parents as our partners in education. We actively provide a range of workshops, curriculum events and celebrations for them to engage with, alongside our homework offer

We acknowledge that the school curriculum incorporates all experiences that we offer to the children. Our curriculum defines what we want our children to experience, know and be able to do by the time they leave our school. We call this the ‘Arboretum promise’.

At Arboretum, every member of staff is committed to giving our children the best possible education. We know that children only get one chance, therefore in line with our trust vision; we want our children and young people to be able to ‘experience life in all its fullness’. (taken from John 10:10) We firmly believe in introducing and opening up new experiences for our learners in the hope that we introduce or nurture a new skill, talent or hobby.

We want the children of Arboretum to be well-rounded, confident children who achieve their personal best as exemplified by our vision: We want our children to know they can be what they want to be – there are no limitations!