What’s the point of Enrichment in schools?

[Fusedspur]

My children’s school has enrichment week and on the face of it there are lots of interesting things to do but actually, lots of the kids hate the break in the routines. What is the point of it?

Indeed. So my suggestion is that lots of kids would benefit from an alternative - or frankly the day off, but school won’t do that.

That is exactly what I meant. You said they like routine. That is what they get most of the year.

So suggest activities your child and others with similar needs might benefit from.
Does your husband have contacts in his industry that could run coding or programming workshops?
My favourite school reached out to parents who might run niche workshops and got them CRB checked if they could run one.
Imagine you work for a company and ask to have a day off to run a workshop at a local school?
I got two beauticians( from the salon I go to) to run a health and beauty session.
The girls brought their own make up but during the session they were gobsmacked that brushes had to be cleaned regularly and mascara replaced regularly. Cleanse,tone,moisturise was an alien concept to half the girls who thought sleeping in make up was a normal.
We had a sparky in who took a workshop ( boys AND girls) . Changing fuses,replacing plugs,splicing a cable if you run the mower over it.
Cooking a three course meal ( ingredients paid for by school) .
Provide solutions and suggestions that will provide enrichment for your child if you feel your child's needs aren't being met by the schools activities.
My colleagues and I won't think ' Here we go, she's interfering ' we'll say ' That's fantastic! We didn't even think of that'.
But then I'm just a classroom teacher not SLT so I often find solutions to individual learners needs .....

He made it on a couple of the theatre trips but then was in such a state the following day we concluded it wasn’t worth it. He’s likely to drop Eng Lit anyway.

I don’t think I worded my OP well. We try and do other things outside of school that he is specifically interested in and can cope with, and I consider that of course absolutely my job. I don’t expect the world to flex for him but I do think he shouldn’t be put in a position where I know he will be distressed, without there being an alternative.

You sound amazing and they are all excellent ideas. I’m going out for a drink with the other SEN parents from his year, next weekend so I think this would be a good basis for discussion.

You can’t please all of the people all of the time.

It’s great if it’s done properly.

however my dds school has army cadets in and a few dance classes, cooking if the kids are lucky (or not). Oh and some wellbeing workshops. Same every year.

No residential or trips out or anything like that.

and it’s behaviour based and attendance based. Dd struggles in school, so she’s excluded from a lot of stuff. She also hates the break in routine.

Very badly.

What you want to say is ‘my child was unable to access all the activities on offer, please could alternative provision on-site be made for pupils with SEN who are unable to cope’ and then they could sit in the SEN support base and do maths or something.

But instead you said ‘what is the point of this?’ ‘How does the school measure the success of this?’ (with the implication that it’s not actually successful or worthwhile) and complained about the activities that people will have busted a gut to organise.

It’s exactly the same with school trips. You work loads of extra hours to organise a trip then come back to a bunch of whiny emails about how the bus was late or whatever.

Funnily enough it’s not about you or your school trips although clearly someone has got up your nose about it.

I phrased as I did originally because I was sitting here dealing with the fallout of it all literally thinking “what’s the bloody point of putting them through this?”

No, it is. Teachers at that school worked bloody hard to put on those opportunities for those kids and your response is to suggest it is pointless.

And I repeat, for some kids it is. Utterly.

And?

What is the point? For a lot of kids it is a great experience.

It wasn't for yours. I've said you are entitled to ask that they give a space for students who need to opt out of specific activities. But to suggest that the whole thing is a waste of time is rude and insulting to the people who worked hard to organise it.

By law, schools have to provide your child with a certain number of hours per year of education. (Yes, enrichment is education) Attendance is one of the criteria that schools are measured on for OFSTED etc so they don’t want people skipping half days because the sessions offered don’t suit their individual interests.

Despite what you said, I think that the majority welcome a change in routine in the same way that primary school kids get excited if they go out on the grass for lessons. Schools are hot and ventilation is poor because of the safety windows plus there will be some who learn from the sessions. For example my son came home from a careers session knowing ballpark salaries for a variety of jobs that he would consider doing and had lots of niche facts to tell me like how much underwater welders make.

Indeed. And that’s actually what I didn’t do. If you would like to be offended about more things I didn’t say, feel free.

They all sound like great things to do.
Surely the point is to give the children the chance to do things they might not normally do.
Many schools now are very formal, focused on exams and tests.
Activities such as those you describe contribute greatly to a child's education.

You started a thread asking what's the point of it. You emailed the school complaining about it and apparently you have been bitching about it on a WhatsApp group with other parents.

DS is in Y7 so will be taking part in his first enrichment week soon. The whole year is going to the West End theatre, and the other days they had a huge range they could choose from, from museum or zoo trips to special activities based around their favourite subjects in school. Sounds brilliant to me!

Sounds similar to DD's school though it was only for 6th grade but they didn't get to choode. Once a week with a different theme every 6 weeks. There was board games, cooking, some mindfulness thing, and I can't remember the rest. She mostly enjoyed it.

Please please show me where we were “bitching” and what complaint was made to school. And repeatedly, which you are ignoring, I asked what is the point for the kids who can’t access it or for whom it’s too anxiety inducing. But you haven’t been able to answer that, just a litany of ranting about how hard you work and how hard you try and it’s all about you.

What are your general ideas about SEN in relation to this, or are you only able to defend some sort of fictitious position about how badly done to you are?

I already said, multiple times, that you are entitled to ask the school to make provision for the kids who can't access the activities due to SEN.

And given that you are bitching freely about it on MN, I can't imagine that in your discussions about 'scheduled viruses' on WhatsApp that you were much more diplomatic. I can imagine why your 'constructive criticism' to the school wasn't particularly well received either.

How is going to a museum not enriching?

You can't please all people,all the time.

Just because a couple of kids won't enjoy it, doesn't mean it shouldn't happen.

Well to be honest the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum scared the life out of my then aged about 6 year old daughter on a school trip.
She declared to HATE that museum for a long time.

Change to routine is part of life though.

No, Im not bitching about it. I’m questioning it. But clearly that’s the same to you. And please show me what was feedback to school - it’s fascinating to watch you project your own career issues on a complete stranger. You’ve admitted yourself that your imaginings of the contents of a WhatsApp group of SEN parents would not be diplomatic and yet that’s obviously entirely conjecture too. And frankly speaks volumes about your attitude to (some) parents and children alike.