True education often happens outside of the classroom and so we have a wide ranging enrichment programme in which students are challenged to work in teams and to push themselves to do things they might not otherwise contemplate, for example on the outward bounds residential in Scotland, or the ski trip each year, as well as having experiences closer to home, for example in the gardens on both sites.
Extra-Curricular Clubs
There are lots of opportunities for our students to engage in extra-curricular clubs outside of school hours – indeed more than we have ever done such is the passion and commitment we have in our staff body. These clubs range from robotics and coding to art and poetry with everything else in between. Besides clubs, we also have visits going throughout the year to major universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, and to industry, including work experience, using these to challenge aspirations and also to inspire. Park View is not, nor ever will be, an exam factory, though. We recognise that achievement is more than being just about examination statistics, that the true magic often happens outside of the classroom, on the sports field or in the performing and creative arts-it is here that memories are born.
Sport
In this spirit, we regard sport as a cornerstone of the school. We believe that all should be able to participate, and to do so with enjoyment, and the elite should have opportunities to excel. We pride ourselves on our sporting record, having district, county and national champions in a whole range of sports; We also have close links with our local football teams, who regularly take our boys into their academies. We have invested lots into sport with our most recent investment being our magnificent high performance gym as well as being the only school we know to have classrooms overlooking a world class sports ground at The Riverside, the home of Durham cricket. We have expanded our magnificent Sixth Form to include our Academy of Sport, which has professional coaching being offered in a variety of sports alongside the opportunity to study the full suite of A-levels. We are proud that our Male Academy football teams, are the English Colleges National Champions and our women are now the, for the second year running, the 6th best 16-18 year school in the world after they qualified for the Schools World Cup in China. We place equal store on participation, providing a whole range of sporting experiences in PE, from traditional football, rugby and netball to new sports like dodgeball, futsal and boxercise. The overall message is that if you like physical activity, be it independent or team sports, then you will find a home within PE and Sport at Park View.
Performing Arts
We firmly believe that the performing and creative arts should be at the heart of every school. We believe that it is the moral duty of educators to give young people the stages on which to perform, the workshops and studios in which to create and the auditoriums in which to sing, dance and play their instruments. It is only through the arts that children truly get to understand themselves, the world in which they live in and the beauty of what it is to be human. We are as proud of the musicians, actors, dancers and singers that you will see tonight as we are of all our artists, designers and athletes too. We believe that they give back a thousand times what we give them and that they make our school a very special place to be. This commitment was backed up last year as we introduced more Performing Arts opportunities than eve in the school. We host an annual school show with each being an amazing and brilliant spectacle and rich reward for all the hard work that goes into it events like this.
Enrichment Week
At the end of the school year, Park View offers all our students in Years 7-10 a vibrant and exciting enrichment experience. It is in this week that we offer residential trips to France, Germany and other European destinations as well as opportunities closer to home via outward bound centres. We also offer super-curricular opportunities in school to showcase the awe and wonder of academic subjects alongside work experience for students in Years 10 and 12. This commitment to learning out of the classroom develops character and the application of knowledge and is something we value greatly in developing the whole child at Park View.