Throughout the year, the Church’s calendar is celebrated. With the guidance of the Liturgy Group the school supports charities such as CAFOD and the Fr Hudsons’ Society. The School Council votes on other charities that the school supports. As members of the Birmingham Catholic Partnership our students have the opportunity to take part in Youth Leader courses and such events as the Young Writers’ Festival, Technology Conferences and PE Events.
Visits away from school vary in length from one-day field studies to weeklong residential courses and subject based educational trips. The Chaplaincy Team arranges spiritual residential courses for different year groups and these include the use of; Soli House Youth Centre; Alton Castle; and others. Oversea trips such as the History trip France and Belgium also take place.
Michelle Morgan (MMO) is responsible for organising the Enrichment Activities programme. This is updated every half term. All departments should provide wherever possible enrichment activities to enrich the lives of the students we serve. These may be related to specific subject based courses or be something completely different. The programme of activities is sent home to parents and placed on the school website. Staff should encourage pupils to attend. Staff must also complete a register for all activities so that pupils can be located in the event of an emergency. Many of the activities that are provided lend themselves well to inter-house competitions which are also lead by Michelle Morgan.
We are fortunate in having good facilities enjoying exclusive use of a large playing field attached to the site with gated access direct from the school grounds and our own swimming pool. A wide range of sports and recreational activities are available. These include archery, athletics, badminton, football, netball, rowing, swimming, table tennis and tennis. The school runs teams in major sports such as football and netball.
As well as the timetabled lessons in Music we provide support for children who wish to learn to play a musical instrument. We provide specialist teachers through Birmingham’s Music Service. They give tuition for the following instruments: – Drums, Guitar, Bass, Steel Pans, Strings, Brass and Woodwind. Stewart Gardner – Head of Music is responsible for overseeing the music provision. Timetables for lessons are displayed outside the Music Room and pupils are given passes to inform teachers that they have an instrumental lesson.
At CW we house the local Area Band and Choir rehearsals in conjunction with our local feeder schools.
Various subjects such as History and Geography organise visits to places of interest as well as field visits. ICT is available throughout the school year. The school library extends private study opportunities.
There are many opportunities for children to involve themselves in organised extra-curricular activities as part of our Extended Schools’ Programme. A programme of visiting speakers, artists and theatre/drama groups enhance the taught curriculum.
Staff who wish to organise an educational visit must seek permission from the Head teacher eight weeks in advance to prevent a clash with other events already on the diary and in order for suitable arrangements to be made if cover is necessary.
Arrangements for all visits must comply rigorously with the conditions laid down in the LA notes for guidance and our own School Policy. Risk Assessment must be submitted to Angela Evans. Unless permission is given to the contrary, students are expected to wear school uniform on educational visits. HoY must be consulted with regard to students’ involvement in educational visits
It is essential that all parents of students engaged in after school activities are informed of:-
1. The nature of the activity;
2. The location of the activity, especially if it takes places off the school site
3. The time the students can be expected home;
4. Travel arrangements where appropriate;
5. Any costs that may be incurred.