Enhancement and Enrichment
The issue
All schools should have access to high quality provision
of enrichment and enhancement (E&E) activities to support
their school science curriculum.
Policy advice
SCORE believes that enrichment and enhancement activities should
be treated separately. Enrichment activities 'enrich' the school
curriculum. Enhancement activities offer students experiences
beyond the school curriculum.
SCORE member organisations are committed to taking an
evidence-based approach to science education policy, including
enrichment and enhancement activities.
SCORE member organisations, and others, should consider the
evidence for the likely (or actual) effectiveness of both
enrichment and enhancement activities prior to agreeing to fund, or
contributing in kind resources, to such activities.
Funders and organisations offering enrichment or enhancement
activities should ensure that their activities are quality assured.
Various quality assurance mechanisms exist, such as the Learning
Outside the Classroom initiative. Further work should be carried
out developing appropriate quality assurance of enrichment and/or
enhancement activities. SCORE member organisations would also
welcome a longitudinal study on the impact of E&E to provide an
evidence based approach to policy.
SCORE member organisations are committed to sharing evidence of
the effectiveness of their enrichment and/or enhancement activities
with each other, and with the wider community (for example through
Collective Memories).
Engagement with the science community
Working with ACME and the Royal Academy of Engineering, together with
DfE, SCORE has supported the development and production of a series
of three STEM Directories. These provide teachers with
an easy to use reference that contains details of leading
enrichment and enhancement opportunities across the country.