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The Key features of the Real LiFE Curriculum are that:
Learners have lessons in all subject areas as per a 'traditional' curriculum.
2 or 3 times per year (depending on age and stage) learners are expected to apply knowledge gained from different subjects areas through one of our Missions. These Missions are based on the UN Global Goals and challenge our learners to come up with a response or solution to a global issue such as climate change.
To oversee progress in Missions, students are timetabled with regular CREW sessions which are also used to faciliate personalised coaching and to oversee progress in Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education.
Rubrics (Visible Success Criteria) are regularly used to help students to understand what high quality work looks like so that they are able to take greater ownership of assessing their own progress.
Teachers help to coach learners to do this by encouraging them to compare the work they have produced so far to the success criteria, and then challenging them to generate feedback for themselves and others by constructing sentences that begin with, "I like...", "I notice...", and "I wonder...". This helps learners to provide feedback that is kind, specific and helpful - a skill that helps to ensure progress while building and protecting self-esteem. Teachers verify that this feedback is correct by awarding grades based on the rubrics and through their coaching conversations with learners.
The Real LiFE Curriculum is based on global educational research and aims to equip our learners with the knowledge, skills and values they will need to thrive in the 21st century. Our learners still have dedicated lessons in separate subject areas as per a traditional school experience, but each term we link key threads of learning between subjects together through our missions which allows our learners to understand the bigger picture and adds relevance to their learning.
To allow this to work most effectively our learners also have regular CREW sessions. CREW stands for Coaching, Reflection, Enrichment and Well-being and is a flexible use of learning time. Our teachers (also known as CREW Leaders) coach learners to set goals according to their personal needs, and are then given time to work towards these goals. At the end of the cycle, learners are asked to reflect on how successful they were in relation to these goals. This is in line with the Anticipation-Action-Reflection cycle advocated by the OECD (https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/learning/aar-cycle/). In simple terms, this process helps our learners to become more independent, more organised and better at solving problems!
By adopting this approach we have the flexibility to be able to make learning more relevant and more engaging than other curriculum models are able to. For example, we are able to deliver important knowledge from the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) curriculum in more intensive bursts as and when it is most appropriate to do so.
CREW
At the heart of CREW is establishing positive working relationships with learners so that they have the confidence to set challenging goals. This flexible use of time provides learners with a meaningful opportunity to develop and refine their learning according to their personal needs and interests. CREW gives our students regular time within school hours to to set themselves meaningful goals based on their personal and academic needs and interests and then work towards those goals. Our CREW Leaders oversee and coach the learners through this process so that they are held to account for using their time productively.
Interdisciplinary Missions
Have you ever sat in a classroom and wondered what the point of learning a particular topic is? Our interdisciplinary missions are designed to address that! Each mission is based on a theme linked to a real world issue and challenges the students to come up with a possible solution to the issue. This makes sure that the learning is completely relevant and has an authentic purpose.
Students are guided through the learning to ensure they build the knowledge and skills needed to succeed, and receive personalised coaching which enables them to refine and improve their work so that they achieve their personalised goals.
To demonstrate their understanding students are asked to apply their learning to create a final product which is then used in a showcase event or exhibition where the students are able to answer questions about the process that they went through.
The timeline below shows what a typical year of CREW Lessons looks like, and where this is used to oversee missions and deliver PSHE. Please note that in addition to this, our learners will also have timetabled lessons in all of the national curriculum subject areas as per a traditional school curriculum.
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