As children move through our school, we aim to provide them with a wide range of extra‑curricular opportunities. Over time, this ensures that all pupils experience a rich and varied set of activities that help them grow, develop confidence, and discover new interests.

We are often invited to take part in events hosted by other schools or organisations -because we want as many children as possible to enjoy these opportunities, we welcome every invitation we receive.

There are many different types of events, and there is no single, ‘one‑size‑fits‑all’ way to select children. Some events are open to all pupils, while others come with number limits or specific criteria set by the organisers.

The information below explains how we choose children for different kinds of external events and how we ensure the process is fair, inclusive, and supportive for all pupils.

Please see the type of events below which explains how children are chosen for specific external opportunities  and how we aim to give all our children  opportunities over time.

Competitive Events:

These involve trials or  teacher assessment.  All children are encouraged by our team to express interest and take part in trials.  In a cross country competition for example,  where only four places are available, the four highest-placed pupils in the trial will be selected.

Participation Events:

Children who are interested are invited to put their names forward and places are then allocated at random. We log participation to support fairness over time so that, across Key Stage 2, as many children as possible have the chance to take part in an off-site activity.  Once children have been selected randomly, they are withdrawn from the next random selection to give other children an opportunity. 

Events with Specific Criteria:

Some invitations come with a very clear brief from the hosting school—for example, events aimed at SEND pupils or other vulnerable learners. When we accept these invitations, we must follow the criteria set. To ensure our vulnerable pupils are not identifiable, we are unable to share the specific nature of these events with our parent community.

Our teaching staff talks the process through with our  children for each different kind of event and encourages participation where appropriate, while also ensuring no child feels pressured to take part if they are not comfortable. Not all children chose to take part.

The number of places available for each event is determined by the hosting school.   Occasionally, hosts or providers may invite specific children to a follow up event. 

Our team is very mindful of which pupils have not yet had a particular opportunity and they  work to ensure that, over time, everyone receives an opportunity — dependent, of course, on the number and type of invitations we receive. We always accept invitations when feasible in order to maximise participation and provide as many experiences as possible for our pupils.

We keep a record of children who have already taken part in events so that participation opportunities can be shared fairly and pupils are not selected repeatedly.

We work hard to build strong relationships with external schools so that we can widen our children’s experiences, and we are always open to any invitations we receive.

Limited places do present a challenge, as in an ideal world we would love to take every child.  However, we feel it is better to accept these opportunities, track participation carefully, and ensure that all children are offered experiences over time, rather than decline invitations altogether because of number restrictions.  

Please do come and speak to our KS2 team if you have any queries.