Our inaugural Enrichment Day 2024

As part of our commitment to challenge social and educational disadvantage across the North, ensuring that students are equipped with 'cultural capital' is vital so that they can always see the purpose for working hard at school and being good, nice people.

This cycle's Enrichment Day - our first ever -  took place today with all students and all staff across the entire school taking part in a number of different actitivies.

Year 7 took part in a walking tour of Bradford city centre, organised by Miss Laws and the Art & DT department. At various locations, students stopped and practised their sketching skills by drawing some of the features of Bradford's historical and beautiful 19th and 20th century buildings, such as Bradford City Hall, the Wool Exchange, and St. George's Hall.

Year 8 took part in a diverse range of sessions organised back at the academy by Miss Jordon which had a focus on the different options subjects students could be studying into Year 9. Students took part in workshops that focused on forensic science and drama through a murder mystery; a tower building challenge which made students work closely as a team and consider logistics, economics and engineering; a session on robotics which enabled students to programme robots for use in emergency relief in disaster zones; and a session from the Bradford Bulls where students (and staff) had a go at wheelchair rugby!

Year 9 also went on a walking tour of Bradford city centre, organised by Mr Gilderoy and the Humanities department, but this time with a focus on Religious Studies. Students and staff visited a number of important places of worship to our whole community in our city, including Bradford Cathedral, the Guru Gobind Singh Gurdwara, and the Al-Jamia Suffa-Tul-Islam Grand Mosque. For many, this may have been the first time they had set foot in a church, gurdwara or mosque, and so was a great opportunity for students to consider diversity along with our British Values of Mutual Respect and Tolerance in our society.

Year 10 had a different experience this week as they undertook three days of focus on their employability skills by taking part in a number of virtual work experience sessions organised through Speakers for Schools and a number of external businesses such as Dell. This was an important couple of days for students, where in a post-pandemic world, in-person work experience opportunities are more difficult to secure. We feel it is vital that students still get those opportunities to prepare them for the world of work.

Thank you to all staff that planned, led and supported our first ever Enrichment Day, especially our Head of Outdoor Education Mr Hellewell, who put the whole day together.