SHINE provides ten Saturday mornings of creative and academic subjects to Year 4 boys and girls who are high achieving students or who might be at risk of underachieving due to their unique family circumstances. It will ultimately stimulate further curiosity, boost self-esteem and improve attainment.  

The programme takes place on-site at WHS and the theme is ‘Reach for the Stars’. Twenty-five of the WHS Year 12 students mentor the Year 4 children on a weekly basis. The sessions are led by Wimbledon High staff and cover activities such as History, Dance, and Art. The project offers the Year 4 boys and girls the chance to mix with students from other schools. We have established good relationships with our partner schools, which is of mutual benefit to both school communities.  

We believe that our students benefit from appreciating how privileged they are whilst supporting others. In the coming year, we plan to arrange a further programme that will continue the mentoring system as these children move into Year 5.  

The tenth week of the SHINE programme brings together parents, teachers and mentors and sees the mentors talk about their mentees before giving them a memento of their time at Wimbledon. 

This is a programme based on a carousel of Coding, Maths, English and Science and is delivered to Year 5 high achieving, pupil premium students from four partner schools. Each student has a 1:1 mentor who guides them through the work the specialist member of WHS staff is delivering. The course is 13 weeks long, has four WHS staff and 32 girls working on it.  

Example feedback from primary partner: 

• Every child seemed to really adore the coding lessons- it was seen as a real treat. They loved making their own games; they enjoyed challenging each other. 
• In science, pupils said that it was really fun trying out different types of glue and having a chance to make their own. One pupil (T) said that he made his glue totally incorrectly… which he found fascinating in itself, as he had created something extremely strange that he couldn’t stop playing with! 

• I feel that pupils have been able to build on their self-confidence and to see their own personal strengths. 
• I also felt that STRIVE was a total success by the fact that pupils were so excited about their visit every week… and we had next to zero absences of this cohort on a Thursday. 
• Teachers have reported children being more curious during lessons and asking a lot more questions 
• Pupils, post Strive, have been more inclined to do their own independent research during and after lessons, are more confident and more excited about the prospect of attending secondary school 

The THRIVE programme this year has welcomed 150 pupils, from across 5 state primary schools to work alongside the WHS Year 6 students, on a weekly basis for a period of 16 weeks.  During this time, they are mentored by a Year 11 or Year 12 student. This course is designed to inspire, build self-confidence, self-efficacy, self-esteem and develop further understanding of citizenship to support the transition from Year 6 into secondary school. This has been delivered this year through the medium of Drama, Art and Music. 

As ever, the benefit to our students is as great as to the visiting pupils. 

‘It has opened my eyes to the difficulties so many places in the world face and how education holds so much value’. 

‘It has been really nice to meet different people and build connections with younger children from other schools’. 

‘Working with people who aren't like me. I am and am often surrounded by very confident and outgoing people. One of the children I had was very nervous at first and I had to accommodate my attitude and approaches to make him feel comfortable and more confident’. 

‘It has just allowed me to understand firstly wealth from a different perspective, yet has advanced my communicating skills’ 

The Teach Together programme provides a platform for collaboration with our secondary school partners. Each course is bespoke, and has recently seen courses in Chemistry core experiments, Netball, language conversation and Maths. Over a period of 13 weeks, the students are experiencing a shared space where they are learning together and from each other. 

‘Working with people from Ark Putney was really fun and we talked about chemistry and we both worked really well together’ 

‘I think my own Spanish has developed and I've helped the student learn new phrases they can use in many different situations; I hope this helps for exams and also in general’. 

‘Building connections with people of my age from other schools and practising my chemistry experiment skills’