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– Opening Minds Co-ordinator
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From September 2009, Our Year Seven students will begin a new and exciting curriculum giving them the opportunity to learn in a stimulating and innovative way.
We believe that creating the right learning environment for our Year Seven students will be essential in their development as motivated, independent learners with the skills to prepare them for the future in the 21st century. For this reason we have decided to follow a competency-based curriculum founded on the principles of the Opening Minds competency curriculum from the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).
At Wrenn School, the year 7 curriculum will combine the subjects of History, Geography and Citizenship which will be taught focusing strongly on Literacy and ICT. Students will still follow regular classes for all other subjects. We have trialled the project with two year seven groups and have found the project to be a great success. Our Opening Minds curriculum enables a number of subjects to be taught together through project based work. This allows students to establish clear links between their subjects and to acquire a set of transferable skills that they can use from one subject to the next. Following a competency based curriculum means that students will be taught by fewer teachers, will have less equipment to carry around to fewer classrooms and they will experience a logical, relevant curriculum that helps ease them into the secondary school experience. The students are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning whilst working individually or in groups.
Autumn
Spring
Summer
Y7
How can you be the best at Learning?
Defining Opening Minds.
Best learning styles.
Key skills for Geography, History and Citizenship.
What does it mean to be British?
British Stereotypes.
Immigration.
Battle of Hastings
What influences where we choose to settle?
Settlement.
Creating of own tribes.
Choosing location of a castle.
Building castles.
Grand Designs – Buildings for the future.
Legacy of Romans.
Sustainable Development.
Design of a new school for 2020
Are the Olympics something we should be proud of?
History of the Olympics.
Controversial Olympic games.
Wealth vs Medal Table.
London 2012.
Malawi- A world apart or a home from home?
Resources from Malawi.
Geography of Malawi.
Analysis of differences in culture.
The students are really enjoying the lessons and have recently taken part in a Murder Mystery around school. This was used as an activity to showcase their Opening Minds skills. They will soon be setting up their own tribes and designing a school for 2020.
Below are some of our Current Opening Minds Groups comments:
“Q: What skills have you learnt? A: To think of all the possibilities in life”
“We let our creative influences flow so that we can take it in and learn without having to go over it a million times before remembering it”
“If other students had a chance to learn these skills they would certainly benefit from it at some time in their life/ job”
