The Enrichment Curriculum at Darley Dale Primary School

The curriculum at Darley Dale Primary School, has planned enrichment lessons and activities. These activities are part of a class' curriculum and happen every year from Forest School to learning how to play an instrument.

Through our the Enrichment Curriculum, we aim to enhance the children's cultural capital; provide a wide range of opportunities; teach social and life skills; allow every child the opportunity to thrive and to improve the quality of our children's mental health and wellbeing.

Outdoor Learning

We have amazing grounds at Darley Dale Primary School and we love to explore these as part of our enrichment curriculum. Every child in school has Forest School sessions throughout the year and Year 3 have weekly gardening session. 

Sporting Opportunities

We work together with Highfields Secondary School in Matlock, their PE department and Sports Leaders provide us with lots of festivals and competitions. Our aim is that EVERY child attends at least one festival and that every Year 6 child is included in a competition. We have tried all sorts of different sports from wheelchair basketball to Highland games.

Trips and Residentials

Each year we plan trips to enhance the children's cultural capital. We learn about local history and geography at Eyam, Sheffield and The Whitworth Institute; experience awe and wonder at the National Space Centre; experience a live orchestra playing the soundtrack to The Snowman and enjoy the joys of the theatre.

The child have the opportunity to attend a residential visit in Year 2 to Lea Green. In Year 4 they are able to visit White Hall and Year 6 go to PGL every year. These are all fantastic opportunities for out children to build their independence, resilience, teamwork and more.

Diversity and Equality

Every year we choose one religious festival to learn about in more detail. We have learned about the Jewish festival of Sukkot and the Hindu festival, Diwali. We work with the Open Centre in Derby to see, experience and understand different religions.

In addition to our curriculum, we plan assemblies to learn about the protected characteristics.

The Arts

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up."

Pablo Picasso.

Darley Dale Primary School values the arts beyond the boundaries of the curriculum. We provide endless opportunities for children to enhance their cultural capital and mental health and wellbeing through the arts. We sing! Our children love to sing, in assemblies, in church, in old people's homes and during performances. Many of our Junior children take part in the annual Young Voices event.

Every child learns two musical instruments - the recorder in Year 2 and a brass instrument in Year 5. Each year, every child is given the opportunity to perform on stage in the Christmas Nativity and the End of Year Junior performance - this is a chance for our children to shine.

Visitors

We value and encourage experts to share their knowledge and experiences with us. We have have had paralympians, authors and scientists visit us to enrich our curriculum.

Enrichment Days

Every 4 weeks we hold enrichment days to celebrate, raise awareness and to diversify children's experience of the world around them. This year we will be raising our awareness of mental health, celebrating World Oceans Day and learning more about the environment when we reduce, reuse and recycle. 

World Smile Day - October 4th 2024

Our first enrichment day was on World Smile Day and we love to smile. We separated into our enrichment groups in the morning where we learned about how smiling helps our mental health and wellbeing. When we thought about the 5 Ways to Wellbeing, we learned that by making others smile we can help ourselves too, so we wrote a Smile Card to someone we wanted to make happy.

We spent the afternoon in classes and continued to learn about smiles;  the importance of feeling our feelings but also how we can regulate those emotions. In Year 1 and 2, we thought about feeling worried and anxious. We read Silly Billy by Anthony Browne and we made worry dolls just like Silly Billy. Year 6 spent their afternoon in Forest School, making smiles from natural resources and learning new skills - guided mediation and somatic dance.

Remembrance Day - November 8th 2024

Our second enrichment day focussed on the importance of Armstice Day and why we have Remembrance Day. We learnt all about Sidney, who served during WW2 and how important all the people who serve are. During our session, we used mindful time to remember and thank the people and animals who have served our country. We used our doodles to create poppies which are displayed around school so that we will always remember.

During Forest School, Year 5 created Remembrance Rocks. Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 created beautiful poppy displays.

At the Darley Dale Remembrance Parade, Year 6 girls read the names of the fallen as part of the Remembrance Service.