Here at Mowden Hall School, we take our co-curricular provision very seriously and our offer is far reaching. However, this aspect of curricular provision, must not be seen as separated from the academic. Indeed, I would view it as an intrinsic part of the academic planning at any school that takes the true education of the whole child seriously.

My own offering this term on a Friday is Warhammer Club. On the face of it, it appears to be totally disconnected from mainstream education and is merely a ‘game’ to be enjoyed by those who can grasp its convoluted rules. However, Warhammer is so much more than a game or a club.

One of the key themes of Warhammer, as a game, is that of feeding pupils’ inquisitive nature. The Warhammer universe is almost endless and children can work through the rules, worlds, codexes and models in a truly independent and genuinely creative fashion. In the age of instant gratification, Warhammer is a much needed tonic which demands a lot of those who chose to interact with the format. Warhammer has a brand new Welcome to Warhammer website that hosts all of the links pupils may need for each of their games systems and gives pupils and families a great introduction into each one, it’s really useful for particularly inquisitive club members looking for their next challenge.

Reading is one of Mowden’s strengths. Our pupils make superb progress using Accelerated Reader. Indeed, just this morning I was prepping a pupil for a scholarship interview and we were exploring what they were most proud of. After a little discussion, they decided it was their reading progress. When they arrived in the middle of Year 6, they were a creditable 7 months ahead of their chronological age. However, now in Year 8, they were 43 months ahead. I am always looking for ways to further enrich this passion for reading and Warhammer is quite superb in this regard. We have recently begun to stock the Library with the new fantasy texts set in the Warhammer universe. By virtue of playing the game, pupils use extensive codex texts and rules cards, all of which contain challenging vocabulary and concepts which pupils would otherwise not be exposed to. Warhammer has partnered with Black Library again this year with a goal to encourage young people to enjoy reading. User feedback has shown the organisation that they can do more work in this area so they are providing two free eBooks which are available here (in English only at the moment). Warhammer have also created a quiz for anybody who would like to take their reading further.

Warhammer have been working with teachers to create documents that link in with the national curriculum. This shows the links between the different aspects of the hobby and key educational markers. It is a really useful tool that helps to show the impact of the hobby in a wider educational sense. The key aspects of Warhammer are: collecting, building, painting, playing and reading. Within each of these areas pupils are positively educated in terms of wellbeing, life skills, maths, literacy, art, physical development (fine motor skills), design and technology, STEM, PSHE.

Finally, did you know that Warhmmer is an approved Skills provider for the Duke of Edinburgh Award? So, as pupils move into senior schools, Warhammer is an area that could really boost their options within the DofE scheme.

This is the impact of just one club. We have so many clubs operating throughout the year, both in the core and the boarding provision. The cumulative impact of this rich offering has a huge part to play in creating Mowdenians, who leave our school with such an excellent education, in the truest sense of the word.

Mr Hadfield