We are thrilled to be relaunching Primary Ambitions, our Lower Sixth-led primary school-focused enrichment programme, onsite today.

Our Lower Sixth pupils have been planning and preparing their sessions including presentations, activities, worksheets and games with the support of their Primary Ambitions supervisors. They have been practicing delivering their materials and are now ready to get off to a flying start. They can’t wait to meet the new cohort of pupils.

We are offering 18 different options this year including some new additions eg, action-packed swimming lessons in the pool, Design & Technology in the DT suite and Biodiversity in the wonderful Biodiversity garden. These are in addition to all of the old favourites including Clay Creatures, Comedy & Masks drama sessions, Filmmaking and Robotics.

Primary Ambitions runs for 20 weeks from now through to the end of May. Each week 270 primary school pupils, all from schools with a high percentage of children qualifying for free school meals, will attend. We will provide 1350 pupil enrichment hours per module; and 5400 enrichment hours across the year. We have 16 partner schools participating from our local area.

In addition to the onsite Primary Ambitions activities, we have a number of offsite ones too involving local community organisations and our partner schools. These include running enrichment sessions at Park House School, part of the Beyond Autism group; befriending the elderly at Signature Wandsworth and Regenerate Rise; facilitating book clubs at Langford and Falconbrook primaries – much needed given the impact of school closures; and teaching St Mary’s RC Primary children squash in conjunction with the charity Squash Squared at the Southbank club.

Lisa Irwin (Deputy Development and Community Partnerships Manager)