In our latest blog, the SGGS PE department explains how they devised a new format for the annual Enrichment Week, creating activities suitable for lockdown living.

Every year, students at SGGS take part in Enrichment Week, a fun-filled five days that involves trips out, visiting other countries and a plethora of team building exercises. This year however, the event has been interrupted by the COVID-19 lockdown, meaning many of the activities we would expect to do simply cannot happen safely. Under normal circumstances, Enrichment Week would be handled by our school Enrichment Coordinator, but due to the current situation, the PE department was chosen to come up with an adaptable and re-structured programme for Year 7, 8 and 9 students. We felt it was important to still give students time away from laptops and find ways to enjoy being as creative as possible using the resources they can access at home.

 

So how did we do it?

In the PE department, we are used to being adaptable due to always having to react to things out of our control like the weather! We are often required to be organised and to create flexible plans that follow a common structure, but also allow for freedom of choice. Devising a strategy for a virtual Enrichment Week was not too daunting compared to what we are used to but did require a lot of spinning plates! We were pleased to have this responsibility and help our students have some fun.

We decided to break each day into two sessions, 9am-12noon and 1pm-4pm. Each virtual session had an overriding theme and input from specialist departments but offered a number of activities that students could choose from. Subjects and themes ranged from art, science experiments, home skills and puzzles to literature, sport, music and DT. Activities included creating a poster and poetry to a ‘wellbeing Wednesday’ that featured a scavenger hunt for items around the home. To add an element of competition, work from these sessions was submitted afterwards with teachers acting as judges and awarding Top 10 scores. This has resulted in 32 winners overall (8 in each House) with the Enrichment Week champions set to be revealed on a daily basis.

 

What was the response like?

Overwhelming. We had hoped that students would have accepted they could not go on trips this year and make the most of the situation, but we did not expect to receive as many fantastic responses as we did. Our students not only took part in large numbers but made 100’s of submissions each day with creative entries such as videos, PowerPoints and artwork. The quality of work has been incredible and made the judging process very difficult! Whilst we have picked winners in each category, we are extremely proud of the thought, time and effort every student has put into their Enrichment Week, helping to ensure that this has remained an enjoyable and productive event in the SGGS calendar.

 

What comes next?

Thanks to the encouraging and appreciative efforts of our students, we now have a large canvas of beautiful visual work. We are looking to create a huge collage of the creations to go on display in the school as a memory of what was achieved during lockdown.

Finally, from the PE department, thank you to all the students who took part and made our unique Enrichment Week such a success.