Our Enrichment Programme
Our extensive enrichment programme is intended to complement and enhance girls’ timetabled lessons. It provides a wealth of opportunities for girls to develop their talents or find new interests. Enrichment clubs and activities also help develop pupils’ ability to work together and build a sense of community.
The programme is diverse and includes Creative Clubs such as Art, Dance and Drama. Academic Clubs such as Creative Writing, Chatterbooks, Maths, Languages, STEAM, Science and ICT. Many of our students have a particular talent and wish to further hone their skills outside of their lessons. As the activities are delivered by our teaching staff, students continue to benefit from the expert tuition which they offer.
Extensive and constantly improved facilities such as our indoor heated swimming pool, tree-house, all-weather sports pitches and professional-level theatre provide an inspirational setting for our activities.
Sport: developing a life-long
love of exercise
Our Sport department works to help pupils develop mentally, physically and socially both on an individual level but also in groups or teams. We offer 15 competitive sports but allow our students to try a wide range of sports to help broaden their skill level and understanding of the sports available to play both in and outside of school. These include: netball, hockey, football, badminton, tennis, volleyball, gymnastics, dance, swimming, cricket, athletics and cross-country.
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 girls have two and a half hours of games a week, including swimming, dance and PE. Years 3-5 have four and a half hours of games a week, with Year 6 having almost five hours, including dance, swimming, curriculum PE and a games afternoon for the whole year group.
Our students take part in competitive sporting matches against others school from Year 3, with the introduction of ‘fun, coaching’ games for Year 2 pupils with other schools. The girls compete in netball, hockey, football, tennis, athletics, cross-country, cricket and swimming.
Drama: encouraging participation,
building confidence
We believe that all students have an entitlement to be taught drama throughout their time in school, and we ensure that drama receives recognition and sufficient time allocation in our Prep School. We celebrate the impact of drama on our students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and their emerging citizenship, and we also really value the contribution drama makes to learning across the whole curriculum.
Our diverse and engaging drama curriculum is differentiated and gives equal weighting to making, performing and responding and that it reflects the culture diversity of both the school and society as a whole. All our students from Reception through to Year 6 have a weekly drama lesson. They all have the opportunity to perform in yearly nativities and assorted school productions – all held in our fantastic 370-seater professional-standard theatre – from Shakespeare to musicals to rock shows and everything in between. We offer all students the opportunity to experience the work of professionals with visits to the school by theatre practitioners.
Drama clubs are popular and actively encouraged, with clubs offered appropriate to the year group.
LAMDA speech and drama classes are extra-curricular lessons leading to exams set by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. They take place individually and in small groups during the school day.
Music: the source of
such positive benefits
The school is bursting with music, with more than 270 individual memberships of 25 rehearsing musical groups across 180+ pupils, providing for all abilities, offering bespoke music in choirs, ensembles, bands and groups from pre-Prep to above Grade 5. Ensembles combine to accompany each other in the Carol Service and Spring Concert, performing unique arrangements of traditional and contemporary music from around the world.
A team of 16 expert instrumental teachers offers 22 different instrumental and singing disciplines. Our 154 instrumental lessons a week represent an 85 per cent take-up over Years 1 to 6. Our inclusive practice creates unprecedented confidence in public performance.
Every class creates a ‘Faith and Music’ assembly each year in which 90 per cent of pupils take up the opportunity to perform solos and duets, others providing readings and prayers.
Art: promoting freedom
of expression
Art at Notre Dame is a celebration of expression. We encourage freedom of expression and want students to feel confident in expressing their individuality. Art is part of the weekly curriculum. We have created a path of skills from Nursery to Year 6 which allows important techniques to be taught systematically and progressively.
As well as teaching our pupils to draw and paint, art at Notre Dame is about developing risk-taking, patience, decision-making and inventiveness.
We want our pupils to work with a wide range of materials, in both 2D and 3D form, and to embrace getting messy in a creative and imaginative way.
STEAM: preparing for the future
In our Prep School, education comes alive through STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics). We believe in the power of hands-on learning, and that’s why STEAM plays a central role in our curriculum. In classrooms, students are immersed in a world of discovery and exploration. Science lessons are anything but ordinary; they’re filled with exciting, practical activities that engage young minds and ignite a passion for learning.
We go beyond the classroom to offer an extensive enrichment program. Our STEAM and Science Club provides opportunities for students to delve deeper into scientific concepts through interactive projects and experiments. Meanwhile, our Science Ambassadors Scheme allows budding scientists to share their passion with their peers and the wider community.
At the heart of everything we do is the belief that learning should be exciting, engaging, and meaningful. That’s why our activities bridge the gap between art, technology, mathematics, and science, ensuring that every student receives a well-rounded education that prepares them for success in a rapidly evolving world.
Academic Clubs
Run after school on a Friday, we offer children’s creative writing workshops that nurture aspiring authors and reluctant writers, support individual ideas and expressions, and promote the inspiring and rewarding nature of writing.
Creative Clubs
In addition to the curriculum Dance classes, Notre Dame also offers Private Ballet lessons which follow the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) syllabus with the pupils working towards exams and RAD certification.
Music Clubs
The Prep Music Department offers more than 20 clubs, performing groups and ensembles including three choirs, two string orchestras, wind and brass ensembles and a special programme of chamber music for Year 6.
Sports Clubs
Netball, Netball Shooting Surgery, Football, Swimming Squad, Hockey, Rounders, Tennis, Athletics, Table Tennis, Cross Country, Fitness, Running, Cricket and Fencing.
Holiday Club
Barracudas, the UK’s No.1 multi-activity day camp for children aged 4½ to 16 years will once again be open at Notre Dame School this summer!
Trips and Visits
Educational visits and trips are for many people the best remembered part of their school days. At Notre Dame we strive to ensure that our girls have many opportunities to create memories which will last them a life time.
