Outreach & Partnership Programme

At St Helen’s we are rooted in our community and are proud to share our facilities, expertise, knowledge and experience with those around us. Our Outreach and Partnership programme also helps St Helen’s pupils gain valuable skills and experience which are applicable to a range of higher education and career pathways, and which will help prepare them for life beyond school in all sorts of ways.

This term we have hosted a number of events inviting local schools, Eastbury Farm Primary School and Greenfields Primary School to visit St Helen’s and take part in a number of bespoke activities throughout the morning. Year 6 pupils immersed themselves in CSI and Art workshops and enjoyed the badminton, rock climbing and swimming activities run by specialist staff.

We also provide support for early language development for children in Nursery, Reception and Year 1. Around 30 Year 12 students signed up to the programme and attended phonics and early language training, delivered in-house by our EYFS lead. Following on from this, a group of Sixth Formers have been visiting three local schools to work with pupils on their language development through phonics and small world play. The feedback from children and teachers at these partner primary schools and from our Year 12s has been fantastic and we are so proud to be contributing positively to our local community in this way.

Nohi and Tali in Year 12, reflect on their experience…

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to participate in the Outreach Programme. In our first week helping out at Frithwood School, the Prime Minister had announced that in-school sports days were allowed to go ahead, so we helped the teachers organise Year 1 into competitive groups. This was one of our favourite moments as we could see the excitement amongst the children.

We were also able to help out with reading. It was insightful to see the different reading abilities within the year group. We were particularly thrilled when a pupil managed to read aloud a word they had been struggling with after breaking it down phonetically.

I’m sure all the other volunteers would agree that this was rather nostalgic, reminding us of the time we had learnt our ‘jolly phonics’. We were so grateful for the experience and can’t wait to continue supporting the programme in the Autumn.