London Park Schools on delivering enrichment with momentum

Toni Tasić, Head of Year 9 at London Park Schools, on why cycling is proving to be a perfect enrichment activity for all involved

Back in the day, physical education was about ‘building character’ – usually involving some combination of running, endurance and inclement weather. Thankfully, these days, we have a much better understanding of how physical wellbeing can support general wellbeing. This is one of the reasons more schools are considering more outdoor activities such as enrichment, after-school clubs or CCF.

LPS Mayfair, being so central in London, has no shortage of exciting activities on its doorstep, but there is a shortage of open spaces and readily available outdoor activities in the immediate vicinity. This contextual problem is a daily reality for our student population, many of whom are very active, but work hard, to seek out opportunities for sport and recreation.

So, when I was asked to lead a weekly enrichment activity at LPS Mayfair, a colleague and I had a brainwave. As keen cyclists ourselves, we headed straight to the Stratford VeloPark, originally built for the 2012 Olympics and still offering world-class sporting provision.

Many parents and schools may see the red flags already – cycling is a high-risk activity; the venue is ten miles away by public transport; the pool of keen and available students is relatively small. All of these issues required initial effort to mitigate, but we knew the power of VeloPark, and we wanted to promote our sport, its social and personal aspects and its relevance to ecology and urbanism. Best of all for enrichment variety, the VeloPark offers four different disciplines of cycling on safe, separated, purpose-built courses. There’s road, BMX and mountain biking plus, of course, track cycling on the indoor velodrome itself.

“Sharing the learning journey with students makes an activity all the more meaningful”

Between us, having (touch wood) completed almost three years of this activity without a serious issue, my colleague and I would suggest the following for any school planning something new, fun and stimulating for an extracurricular offering.

First, choose an activity you personally enjoy and can enjoy personal development in, too (don’t pick something you’re already expert in). Sharing the learning journey with students makes the activity all the more meaningful. It goes without saying you need all risk assessment paperwork and parental communications in place.

Try to make it self-sustaining and portable. If you can substitute the staff at an hour’s notice, that’s the gold standard of a successful enrichment activity. Not only is it well organised, but you have enough people on team who want to do it. Publicise, advertise and promote. Get as much momentum behind it as possible as the enthusiasm will spread, and you will all get to keep doing something you enjoy.

Refine and perfect the enrichment activity until it is providing just as much mental boost to you as your students. I’ll never forget a Tuesday afternoon last term when we were joined by a colleague new to VeloPark who simply said: ‘I can’t believe you get paid to do this!’ Not every day is in beautiful sunshine and there will be times in the winter when we’re knee deep in the mud on the mountain course. But the same smiles will be seen on the faces of the students – that’s the power of enrichment.

London Park Schools londonparkschools.com

Further reading: DOYRMS on the importance of co-curricular culture