Extend and enrich

We offer plenty of ways to extend and enrich your St Mary's experience in Years 7 to 9, and to complement your (I)GCSE core subjects and optional subjects.

Discover and develop your skills, interests and talents through our extra-curricular clubs, Awards, leadership and enterprise activities and more!

Additional GCSEs

Our enrichment programme

What happens inside the classroom is only part of the St Mary’s experience – which above all is about balance and offering girls opportunities to shine in a way that’s suited to their individual strengths.

Our IDEALs Enrichment Programme enables students to embed core skills, develop new interests and experiment and be creative, as they build a skills portfolio covering 5 key areas:

  • International knowledge
  • Digital skills
  • Environmental awareness and action
  • Adventures - academic, creative and active
  • Leadership

Opportunities include the St Mary's Arts Award in Year 7. Then in Year 8, the STEMM Award and, in Year 9 the Duke of Edinburgh's Award (Year 9), with scope to work up to Gold Awards in Sixth Form.

In Years 9 onwards, students tailor choices to focus on their interests and future ambitions. Enrichment timetable opportunities include activities such as the Sports Leader Award, Driver’s IQ, Self Defence, music, drama, rowing, and debating.

Additional Academic qualifications can also be taken during enrichment time.

Clubs and Activities

We also offer a varied programme of extra-curricular clubs. These evolve each year, but typically regular highlights include:

  • German, French, Spanish film clubs
  • Athletics, netball, pilates, tennis, dance, hockey, yoga
  • Art, photography and digital art
  • Creative writing
  • Model United Nations
  • Time Travellers (History)
  • Allegro, Cantore, Senior Orchestra
  • Japanese
  • Raspberry Pi/Coding
  • Engineering/STEM

Explore more...