Photos Jamie Horton
A radical overhaul to your way Year 7 students are increasingly being taught at Hartsdown Academy in Margate is seeing “overwhelmingly positive” results.
The school has changed just how Year 7 students bring their classes to have a hybrid transition between primary and graduation.
The 110 youngsters currently in Year 7 have their day put into three parts. The earliest of these is literacy being focused on English, history, geography and ethics and philosophy. The second is numeracy centred around maths, science and information technology. Your third a part of the curriculum is taken by around a half dozen different teachers and it is based on subjects including art, music, PE, Spanish likely very first time British Sign Language.
The structure is part of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme that your school is in the means of being registered to formally deliver.
The prospect of the programme is to try using the real world situations for learning inside of a bid so you can get pupils to consider strategically and independently. The programme is also taught for the successful Skinners Academy in Sevenoaks.
Head of the season Harvey Ovenden said: “We thought i would please take a new method to Year 7 and check out what they’ve been doing in primary school, with the support of Cliftonville primary.
“We have put numeracy and literacy in the middle in the curriculum because the key topics they must be successful in education after school.
“For the main two periods there is certainly literacy, for instance English and geography, taught by one teacher, and after that numeracy that is taught by another teacher. It indicates the scholars have two main teachers they see daily. It allows the teachers to access know the kids even more and give a terrific nurturing environment with the consistency the youngsters are widely used to at primary school.
“it is often a radical departure from what secondaries usually offer.
“In the afternoon it is an arts curriculum, with art, PE, music and we are teaching British Sign Language, supported by our hearing impaired unit.”
BSL continues to be taught since September and Mr Ovenden said it will also mean greater inclusion for youngster from the hearing impaired unit and the potential for those to teach their peers.
Mr Tate said: “The kids love it and we’re hoping BSL can become a GCSE subject, that’s being planned, so our Year 7s will be the first cohort in order to take that qualification.
“With the new curriculum approach
Year 7s will also be doing community schemes, like litter picking and carol singing at residential homes, a major factor from the IB programme.
Mr Ovenden said: “We desire them to get out and grow very proud of the place they reside in.”
Hartsdown says the machine, which still delivers the full curriculum playing with the latest way, is showing benefits just how pupils saying these are building on the knowledge at primary in comparison with 43% feeling doing this this past year.
Mr Ovenden said: “It has already established a huge have an effect on how rapidly the students have settled in to ensure we will target the job of producing progress.”
