What are Skills Academy Clubs?
Skills Academy clubs take place for 35 minutes during the school day on Friday afternoons. Children choose three different clubs they would like to attend each year. Throughout the year children have the opportunity to attend each of their chosen clubs. At each club, the children will learn new skills and build on existing skills through fun and innovative activities.
The clubs fall into three categories:
- Physical development
- Creative development
- Academic development
Skills Academy provides children with the opportunity to enhance skills and talents they have (or don’t know they have yet!). The children at Whitmore Park greatly enjoy enhancing their skills in clubs such as: Art, Chess, Origami, Cricket, Basketball, Singing, Gardening, Punjabi, Enterprise, School Newspaper and many more.
Social skills and emotional well-being underpins all of the Skills Academy clubs. In line with our school values, clubs provide opportunities for the children to take responsibility for their own learning, help them to build resilience through challenging activities and learn to respect each other through team work and group activities.
Children earn their time in Skills Academy by demonstrating the school’s golden values and rules consistently. As well as developing physical, creative and academic skills, Skills Academy empowers pupils to decide which skills they would like to develop; to deepen a sense of community by working alongside pupils from other class and year groups and understanding positive behaviour is recognised by adults in school.
In a recent school council survey, over 95% of pupils said they greatly enjoyed attending their clubs! Pupils have suggested new clubs they would like to attend in the Spring and Summer terms.