This is a brief guide to Enrichment that covers areas where pilot centres have requested additional guidance; it explains what does and does not count as an enrichment activity, gives examples of best practice and advice about how different activities fit into the three core areas. We have included a document that you might use to guide your students when explaining the kind of activities that are
considered part of enrichment.
1. What is considered an enrichment activity?
Enrichment is the many things that students choose to do beyond their academic pursuits and the normal requirements of their life in the Sixth Form. We encourage you to create and develop a varied enrichment scheme that allows for and recognises the many activities in which your students are involved. We similarly encourage you to decide which activities you would like to see your students record. We want you to be able to decide which activities are important; however, there are four key
areas of activity that we believe do not fall into the broad category of enrichment. We would not expect to see any of these activities recorded on the Enrichment Diary:
Any activity that may be considered a mandatory element of a centre’s PSHE or pastoral care programme.
We recognise the important role that PSHE plays in the overall education of a student, however, involvement in PSHE is a requirement made by most centres of their students and does not meet the criteria for enrichment as activities beyond the normal requirements of education post-16.
Any activity that may be considered a mandatory element of a course of academic study e.g. field trips, coursework, attendance at supplementary lectures etc.
The involvement of your students in these activities and any extra work they undertake are recognised in the grades they ultimately achieve for their GCE or other academic qualifications. These activities therefore do not fall into the broad category of enrichment.
Any activity that leads, in part or whole, to a recognised academic qualification e.g. GCSEs, AS Level and A Level courses, Open University courses/modules etc.
Additional AS levels, A levels, GCSEs and Open University units are all ways in which your students can extend their academic profile. These activities are all formally accredited and, as academic activities, do not fall into the broad category of enrichment.
Any activity that may be considered part of preparation for application to university e.g. attendance at university open days, preparation for and writing of UCAS statements, attendance at Higher Education fairs etc. Preparation for application to University is an important part of ensuring that your students are well informed and embark on a course of study after school/college that is right for them. However, these activities are part of the normal process of application to university and are therefore not part of enrichment.
There are an almost endless number of activities that a student can record as part of their enrichment profile. However, some activities are more important to record than others. For example, playing football once a week as part of a team demonstrates a student’s commitment, interest, and team work whereas playing football only once with friends does not equally demonstrate these qualities. You might encourage your students to think about whether the activities they record are
ones that they would want to mention in their UCAS personal statements or at a job or university interview or are activities that have helped them to develop certain skills and qualities or gain valuable experiences.
2. Student enrichment portfolios: Best practice
A student’s enrichment portfolio must include:
A minimum of 30 hours in at least two of the three core areas and a minimum of 100 hours of enrichment activities overall. Please note that hours completed in any core area will only be counted if the 30 hour minimum has been met in that area.
Ideally, a student’s enrichment portfolio should include:
Long term as well as short term activities
A range and variety of activities
Activities that demonstrate skills and qualities that would be of interest to employers and universities
Activities that involve your student in team work as well as activities that they do on their own
Activities in which your student has shown initiative or taken personal responsibility
Students should not rely too heavily on driving lessons or paid work to complete their enrichment portfolio. As a guide, we suggest that 10-15 hours of paid work is suitable in the work related learning core area and 10-15 hours of driving lessons in the personal development core area. Students may of course record all of the hours they have devoted to paid work or driving lessons, but these activities should appear as only one part of a broader enrichment portfolio.
Equally, students should be encouraged to create a varied portfolio that does not rely too heavily on only two activities, one in each of two core areas. Nonetheless, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, which requires students to engage in several kinds of activities, or involvement in clubs and societies that give students access to many kinds of activities such as Cadets or Guides are the exception here. Similarly, a single activity in which a student has shown exceptional commitment or performance might also represent the 30 hour minimum in one core area, for example, sports
involvement at a county or national level, the organisation and direction of a large school/college theatre production, high grades in music, martial arts or dance or significant commitment to charity/community work amongst the many other ways in which your students are exceptional.
The flexibility of the enrichment programme relies on you to make decisions about the suitability and value of enrichment activities and therefore enables you to support and guide your students to be their best.
3. Which activities fit into which core area?
You are the people best placed to decide which activities ‘count’ and which core area they fall under because you know the nature of your students’ involvement in their activities. Volunteering at a hospital may seem to fall naturally into the Community Participation core area; however, a student who intends to pursue medicine might count this activity as Work Related Learning.
Of course, in your overall enrichment scheme, one activity may appear in one, two or all three core areas. However, we would not expect to see one activity, with the single exception of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, count in more than one core area in an individual student’s enrichment portfolio. Work related learning: activities that involve students, as active participants, in learning about the world of work.
Community Participation: activities in which students work for the benefit of others.
Personal Development: activities that students choose to do in addition to their academic pursuits.
