What was it? 

Over the last year, Durham Wildlife Trust has been working with ten secondary schools in Sunderland and South Tyneside, to help young people discover things they can do in their own time, whether it be volunteering with local charities, joining nearby youth clubs, or trying different activities.  

The Enrichment Partnership Pilot (EPP) was a nationwide project overseen by the National Citizen Service (NCS) and Duke of Edinburgh (DoE), looking to help improve enrichment and ensure that opportunities were available for all young people. 

Our aim was to work with ten secondary schools to evaluate the current enrichment offer, establish strengths, weaknesses and gaps in offers both at individual schools and across the region, and then look to implement improvements and/or new enrichment opportunities to help encourage a wider range of young people are accessing some kind of enrichment activities or offer. Each participating school received a £6000 bursary, which was used to provide transport and purchase equipment for students who would otherwise not be able to access enrichment activities. An online portal Step Fwrd was co-developed with the schools, to help students discover local enrichment opportunities (such as clubs, activities and volunteering schemes) that were offered by external providers outside of school, and for schools to connect with such providers if an in-school provision was required. 

The ten participating schools were: 

• Academy360, Sunderland 

• Christ’s College, Sunderland 

• Harton Academy, South Tyneside 

• Kepier, Sunderland 

• Monkwearmouth Academy, Sunderland 

• Red House Academy, Sunderland 

• St Joseph’s Catholic Academy, South Tyneside 

• Southmoor Academy, Sunderland 

• Thornhill Academy, Sunderland 

• Washington Academy, Sunderland 

What did we do? 

We really wanted to find out how our young people actually spent their free time, how they would like to spend it, and what needed to change in order to make it easier for them to do more of the activities they wanted to do. So, we asked the pupils of the ten schools to tell us this information by completing an online survey, and we were blown away when we received more than 1000 responses!  

We also visited each school for a day in July and delivered a series of 33 face-to-face consultation sessions, almost 1100 pupils participated. We found that only half of young people take part in enrichment activities, whether in or out of school, but that they would like to do more, and while they really want to explore the opportunities available to them locally, they often find it hard to find out what their choices were.  

Local businesses were invited to a summer launch event in Washington, to find out about the project and how they could get involved. They were also asked to share their thoughts about enrichment and the barriers they experience as providers wishing to connect with schools and help young people and their families find out about what they can offer. More than 40 people attended, and many went on to register their enrichment activities, clubs and volunteering opportunities on the Step Fwrd website. 

In February and March this year, we invited groups of pupils from each of the ten schools to our Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve, to experience enrichment activities such as wildlife walks, birdwatching, pond dipping, fire lighting, and toasting marshmallows, while we discussed how the project had helped them access enrichment offered in their schools and communities as part of a focus group activity. 

So, what’s changed? 

All of the ten schools who took part in the project received the information gathered by the online surveys, consultation sessions and focus groups, and used it to review and enhance their school enrichment offerings and timetables, with more clubs, activities and trips offered across the school year.  

Every school has reported an increase in the number of students taking part in their enrichment activities, and a wider variety of clubs being offered too, many provided by school staff, and a greater number being delivered in partnership with local activity providers too.  

The schools also worked with us to encourage pupils to use the Step Fwrd website to find out what is available to them out of school. 

The Step Fwrd website will continue to be updated and available until December 2027 at least and is free for anyone in the North East to use. It is also free for any local activity providers and community groups to register their details on. 

Enrichment Partnership Pilot was funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), jointly with the Department for Education (DfE), and delivered by Durham Wildlife Trust in collaboration with the National Citizen Service Trust and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.