PRIMARY PHASE

  • Playground Leaders

Year 6 Playground Leaders are responsible for organising and leading activities for younger pupils at playtimes. Our current cohort of Playground Leaders have shown enthusiasm, empathy and leadership in their role – wonderful qualities that they can be justly proud of.

  • Year 6 Monitors

Year 6 class monitors are assigned to a younger year group and are responsible for lining their group up sensibly at the end of breaks and lunchtime, ensuring that the younger pupils enter their classroom calmly and helping them to settle before the start of their next lesson. Year 6 monitors are excellent role models to our younger pupils and fulfil their roles exceptionally well.

  • Pupil Parliament

As part of the SHARES cluster of schools, each year two children from year 6 apply to be our Pupil Parliament representatives. Through regular meetings, representatives develop an appreciation and understanding of democracy and get to ‘see in action’ how working together can bring about positive change. In the autumn term, our Pupil Parliament representatives met Gary Hart, Parliamentary Outreach Officer for the UK Parliament; and participated in a debate. This term’s debate topics were:

  • Should there be a price cap on food prices during the current economic crisis
  • Should there be a 4-day working/school week

Our pupils share their experiences with their classmates on their return from each event. In the spring term, there will be an opportunity to visit the Council Chambers.

  • Rainbow Hub

Rainbow Hub is a local charity that provides child brain rehab services to children and young people with physical disabilities. In the autumn term, a group of year 5 visited and learnt about the different disabilities of some of the children who attend the centre. Our pupils helped the children in a variety of different tasks and were a credit to themselves and to our school.

  • Choir

40 primary phase pupils, from across the year groups, joined our Winter Choir and have been busy practising carols for our Winter Fair. We have been very impressed by their commitment and enthusiasm.

  • Writing Competition

During the Autumn Term the Primary Phase are encouraged to take part in a writing competition where themes have ranged from Environmental Poetry to Game and Film reviews. There are great prizes for the winner and runners up including vouchers and a selection of books. The winning entries are displayed in the school.

  • Mad Science Club

23 pupils, from across the different year groups, have joined our Mad Science After School Club. The interactive sessions encourage creative thinking and problem solving and cover a wide range of science topics led by a trained science instructor.

  • Interschool Sports

This term, pupils have participated in some interschool sports events: year 3 & 4 girls, year 3 & 4 boys and year 5 & 6 girls’ teams enjoyed taking part in the interschools’ football competition and represented themselves and our school brilliantly, showing excellent teamwork and sportsmanship.

  • Wellbeing Club

From February 2023, Mrs Freel will be running a wellbeing club which will alternate between KS1 and KS2. In the club, pupils will talk about Transcendental Meditation and Word of Wisdom, as well as exploring different ways to support wellbeing.

  • World Cinema Club

From February 2023, Miss Lunn will introduce our pupils to a range of age-appropriate ‘world cinema’ films. Children learn about different cultures and sample the cuisine of countries from around the world.

  • Guitar Club

From February 2023, Miss Jones’ Guitar Club will begin again. Pupils from KS1 will be working on a range of simple chords and songs. As well as being lots of fun, playing the guitar has been shown to improve hand-eye coordination.

  • School Council

After February half term 2023, School Council will resume. A group of peer-elected pupils, from each class, will attend weekly meetings, representing the views of their classmates. We look forward to hearing the views of our pupils as we develop our primary phase outdoor space over the next 18 months as part of our OPAL project (Outdoor Play and Learning).

 

COMING SOON…

Interschool Sports

Y1 & 2 multisports

Y1 & 2 football

Y3 & 4 Park Run

Y5 & 6 Park Run

Y5 & 6 basketball

Swimming Gala

Primary Phase Magazine Team

 

SECONDARY PHASE

  • The Salters’ Institute Festival of Chemistry

A group of year 8 science pupils has been entered into the Salters’ Institute Festival of Chemistry at Liverpool John Moores University every year in recent years. The aim of the festival is to help promote an appreciation of chemistry and related sciences amongst young people. In 2019, we were delighted to announce that Maharishi School’s delegation of four

students won first prize.

Unfortunately, due to pandemic-related cancellations, we have not been able to enter since 2019. We are looking forward to having the opportunity to enter another group of budding scientists in the near future.

  • Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme (DofE)

Maharishi School is a Licensed Duke of Edinburgh Organisation, giving us the ability to run the programme in our school. Our school is one of the most active in the region, with almost every pupil in year 9 signing up to do the Bronze Award every year. We also offer the Silver Award in year 10 (after a break during Covid) and in 2022, we have 12 pupils completing their Silver Award.

Pupils have been showing real initiative and independent focus choosing and completing a variety of skills, volunteering opportunities and physical activities, for example, learning to touch type, volunteering at Children’s Society charity shops, doing St. John’s first aid courses and with supporting activities in school, eg. running a Welbeing Champion group, supporting staff in the Out of Hours Club, etc.

Our very experienced Expedition Leader has helped our pupils succeed in completing their expeditions in the Peak District and Shropshire, where they showed exceptional levels of leadership, communication, cooperation and perseverance.

We are especially proud of the two pupils who have been invited to do the Young Leader Award this year. This involves two training seminars where our two pupils will learn how to support the DofE manager in guiding and supporting other young people when they prepare for their expeditions; managing an inventory of the school’s DofE equipment and fundraising for the DofE programme in the school.

  • Photography optional extra GCSE

This is a two year course which is an optional paid-for extra GCSE and is open to year 9 and year 10 students. It takes place every Tuesday from 4:00 – 6:00 with several off-site visits for photoshoots.

Immersing themselves in photography enhances pupils’ creativity and imagination and adds new perspectives to the way they look at the world. They are introduced to the basics of photography – composition, viewpoint, lighting, shutter speed, depth of field etc – and then work in the areas of landscape photography, portraiture, still life, close-up and studio photography, as well as computer-manipulated photography and experimental imagery.

As with other art-based GCSEs, this course is entirely project based, i.e. there is no test to sit at the end; however all the work that pupils produce during the course will count towards their final grade. An exhibition of pupils’ work, at the end of the second year, celebrates their achievements.

Year on year 100% of participating pupils gain a good GCSE pass. In 2021, 75% of pupils achieved grade 8+ and the class average grade was 8.4.

  • Wellbeing Champions

As part of the connection with our Careers Business adviser, we created a Wellbeing Champions group. 25 pupils, from across all year groups, had 6 training sessions where different career professionals talked to them about: resilience, healthy diet (Ayurvedic), the importance of being outside and spending time in a community, as well as looking at anxiety – what it is and how we support ourselves and others.

  • Secondary Phase Magazine Team

Our current School Magazine Team is made up of pupils from across the year groups. They have worked tirelessly, initially with staff support, to produce a number of editions that they can rightly be proud of. From initial concept, content creation, interviews, reviews, reports, short stories, illustrations and editing, the team has proven that they can all work together as a team independently of adult leadership. They have shown dedication and commitment, organisation and communication skills and a willingness to compromise and listen to the views and suggestions of others.

  • School Prefects

This year’s Y11 prefects have organised themselves into teams and taken responsibility for areas of school life that are of interest to them, including: Sports Prefects, who lead warm ups and alternative activities at PE; Fundraising Prefects; who promote and encourage participation in our fundraising events; and Head Prefects, whose focus is wellbeing.

  • Dungeons and Dragons (D&D)

D&D is a tabletop role playing game, which is very popular with some of our pupils. It develops teamwork, strategic thinking, leadership and confidence and has been especially helpful for neurodiverse pupils to thrive. Currently, we have three groups with one year 10 pupil independently running a group as part of his DofE volunteering section.

  • Booster Classes

Currently, pupils can access booster sessions in Spanish and higher tier maths. These are voluntary weekly sessions aimed at consolidating and deepening pupils’ knowledge, competence and confidence in these subject areas.

  • Homework Club

We offer all secondary phase pupils the opportunity to attend a lunchtime Homework Club every lunchtime, supervised by teaching staff. The club offers pupils an opportunity to catch up on homework in a quiet environment.

  • Oxford University Outreach Programme

A group of year 8-11 pupils, with the current highest academic potential, visited Lady Margaret Hall College at Oxford University in January. This trip was run by a former Maharishi School pupil, Grace Walters, who studied English language and literature at Oxford University and now works for Oxford University as an Outreach Officer, promoting and encouraging pupils from state educated backgrounds to apply to study at Oxford University.

Grace previously visited the secondary phase and delivered an inspirational presentation to all secondary pupils about higher education and Oxford University. Having attended Maharishi School, and subsequently gone on to attend Oxford University, Grace has inspired a number of our pupils to consider applying to Oxford and Cambridge, having previously never considered this as an option.

  • Lunchtime Yoga Club

From February 2023, we will be fortunate to have a lunchtime yoga club, led by our very own qualified and experienced yoga teacher, Mrs Ahern. Pupils who wish to join the club will be taught a series of poses as part of their weekly yoga practice.

  • Lunchtime Book Club

Ms O’Neill will be leading a Book Club on alternate half terms which will begin in the spring term.

  • After School Extra Art Club

Extra Art Club will restart in February. It is open to all Year 10, Year 11 and photography pupils who would like to spend more time on their art or photography projects. It’s a great opportunity to have access to the art room with all its facilities and materials, as well as a chance to ask questions and get advice from their teacher between timetabled lessons.

  • After School maths sessions

Revision sessions will be available for all year 11 pupils (higher and foundation tier).

  • After School History Drop In Sessions

Revision sessions will be available for year 11 pupils.

  • Extra Science Sessions

Revision sessions will be available for year 11 pupils.