Year 7 are boldly going where none have gone before, this term, embarking onto a journey into unknown territory with our new REAL (REAL, ENGAGING, AUTHENIC LEARNING) PROJECTS.
Being the first to try something is both exciting and terrifying. Get it right and your success is assured; get it wrong and you will have to face whatever consequences your actions might have. Take William Webb Ellis for example: his seizing of the football in that school game all those years ago and the placing of it over the goal-line could have been a red card offence. Instead it heralded the arrival of the wonderful sport of Rugby. Our Year 7s now have the chance to break new ground through our exciting new REAL PROJECTS curriculum.
Based upon the Ethics of Excellence book by Ron Berger, our REAL PROJECTS seek to develop key skills in our students, to prepare them for the rigour of the coming GCSE exams, as well as the workplace beyond. The skills that will be of most value to 21st Century citizens are not likely to be taught from a textbook; they are the skills of learning: adaptability and resilience. How many of us use computers, tablets and phones for purposes undreamed of when we were at school? Our ability to handle these new challenges and opportunities are controlled by our ability to learn, helped by the skilfully-designed, seemingly instinct-driven “teaching interfaces” that are built into such software. This half-term, Year 7 students have been researching the most endangered species on the planet, ahead of writing their own REAL book about them. Tasked with creating one, perfect page they have had to learn to sift useful research results from useless ones, to draft work and to improve it. The message is simple: your first draft is never good enough: excellence comes from working hard to achieve your best work.
They have set up online Weebly accounts, where parents can watch their progress as they develop their work. They use their website to critique their work, developing the skills of objectivity and resilience.
Our projects mirror those run in Key Stage 4 that have seen our students achieve excellent results and become very attractive to universities. The REAL PROJECTS give younger students a chance to develop these sought-after skills of independence.
Forthcoming projects include one based around the tantalising question “Can you eat a pie in Dubai?” and the possibly unanswerable “How does spirituality give people hope in times of conflict?” Watch the Magpie as well as the Weebly sites for updates.