heart of heartlands lessons

This past week I was lucky enough to find some time to myself and sit down and watch Bohemian Rhapsody in the cinema. While this might seem a weird way of looking at enrichment and I suppose it is, a moment in the movie of Freddie Mercury singing “We are the champions” in front of a Wembley crowd brought back memories of my own childhood in Ireland playing sports. While my educational background itself had no enrichment clubs on offer, it was my involvement with local teams and activities that helped not only to shape my character but also new interests in things that I wasn’t being exposed to in the classroom. For some of my friends this led them to become semi professional athletes, for others it brought countless days of joy.

What is interesting about delving into why we should offer an extensive enrichment programme lies within the greater benefits one can receive. For example enrichment can offer academic benefits to students. The Arts has a strong correlation with maths, science, languages and social sciences. Those who often get involved and participate in art and sports through enrichment have proven to perform better than those who do not as these activities promote critical thinking, problem solving encouraging students to really think outside the box and develop lateral thinking techniques.

It is no coincidence that there is a strong correlation that Nobel Prize winners in science have a strong connection to the arts. Nobel Prize winning scientists are 2.85 times more likely than the average scientist to have an artistic or crafty hobby. This allows them to think differently to issues and overcome obstacles and more often than not this is done using a typical artistic approach out of the norm of traditional scientific methods. The table shows that this is even more evident in Nobel Prize winners than any other award. The fact that enrichment allows students to access both of these areas in abundance helps to foster future Nobel Prize winners.

What is more fascinating when I reflect on my youth, enrichment and involvement in clubs allowed me to develop my social skills, it helped the building of my self confidence and self esteem and allowed me to understand how teams function which came in handy later when doing group projects in school. These are moments that I have not forgotten and was often a break from academic study and the pressure it can sometimes bring.

So when we look at schools like Heartlands and we think of the backgrounds of students we teach on a day to day basis we must consider the impact a small token of our time and energy doing something outside of the norm can have on our students. How a simple debate mate club on a Tuesday can encourage students to have a voice and speak out, a music club that allows someone to discover they have a voice that someone wants to hear sing. The power of these moments cannot be underestimated and undervalued. What we see as members of staff is time, what they see are inspirational leaders.

My one regret of my youth is that I never was exposed to, or learnt to play a musical instrument. This was not an option in rural Ireland at that time and as someone who travels the world listening to live music now, I find it fascinating that maybe if I was given the chance of doing this outside the classroom in my youth my career maybe would be different.

Heartlands can be an exciting place for all students in the weeks and months ahead. As winter looms a bright part to anyone’s day could be that enrichment club on offer. Whether that is Masterchef on a Monday, Badminton on a Friday activities like these for some students become a focus for them and one they look forward to each week coming around. My challenge to those reading this is to think what you could offer? Even if it’s a short term thing, does the 60 minutes you give up help shape the career of a student, motivate them to do better or offer a skill they would otherwise be deprived of. Then ask yourself the question isn’t worth it for this alone? Surely “We are the Champions”!