Curriculum for Life
Preparing our students for the tests of life and not a life of tests
Component 1 – Collective Worship
Once a week, students gather together as a year group to take part in Collective Worship, coordinated by our Chaplain. This is a sacred time to pause and reflect at the beginning of the day – to think deeply about ourselves, our community, our world and our faith. Collective Worship covers a wide range of themes including religious festivals and seasons, Christian values, national awareness weeks, charity and social action projects. Collective Worship underpins all the Curriculum for Life elements, not only through the half-termly themes that are consistent across CfL, but also through the embedding of Christian values and ethos throughout our teaching and learning. Collective Worship also extends beyond the weekly assembly through charity projects, special services, religious trips and retreats. This year we are supporting the following charities: Foodbank, Kind, Mary’s Meals, Nugent, YPAS and Alder Hey.
Component 2 – Stories for Life
Once a week, students will take part in collective reading. Our aim with Stories for Life is to catalyse, instil and maintain a love of reading, in which students are taken on a journey. Each of the books has been carefully selected due to winning prestigious awards, fantastic reviews and due to what they can teach our students beyond the scope of academia: the power that books have to expose students to a world outside of their own; to walk in another’s shoes and develop compassion; to relate to experiences and find comfort in shared thoughts, feelings and human reactions. These books are incredibly relevant, acclaimed and most significantly, have been chosen with the view that students will find them interesting, engaging and relevant. These novels have also been heralded as combatting and educating young people on important life topics and will be consolidated and corroborated by the statutory work undertaken during students’ Life Skills sessions.
The novel which has been selected for Year 12’s is Wild by Cheryl Strayed. This novel has been selected as it deals with themes such as grief, divorce, mental health and self discovery.
At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s rapid death from cancer, her family disbanded and her marriage crumbled. With nothing to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to walk eleven-hundred miles of the west coast of America – from the Mojave Desert, through California and Oregon, and into Washington state – and to do it alone. She had no experience of long-distance hiking and the journey was nothing more than a line on a map. But it held a promise – a promise of piecing together a life that lay in ruins at her feet
Component 3 – Life Skills
Component 4 – Aspiring for More
This component is specific for our KS5 students. It focuses of developing their leadership skills and personal qualities in order to boost the opportunities available to them. This component will allow students to thrive once they leave the academy and enter the world of work. It is also a self-reflective scheme giving students the opportunity to break through their targets by considering their Vision, Effort, Systems, Practice and Attitude. As a result, students are able to reflect on and strengthen those attributes.
Component 1 – Collective Worship
Once a week, students gather together as a year group to take part in Collective Worship, coordinated by our Chaplain. This is a sacred time to pause and reflect at the beginning of the day – to think deeply about ourselves, our community, our world and our faith. Collective Worship covers a wide range of themes including religious festivals and seasons, Christian values, national awareness weeks, charity and social action projects. Collective Worship underpins all the Curriculum for Life elements, not only through the half-termly themes that are consistent across CfL, but also through the embedding of Christian values and ethos throughout our teaching and learning. Collective Worship also extends beyond the weekly assembly through charity projects, special services, religious trips and retreats. This year we are supporting the following charities: Foodbank, Kind, Mary’s Meals, Nugent, YPAS and Alder Hey.
Component 2 – Stories for Life
Once a week, students will take part in collective reading. Our aim with Stories for Life is to catalyse, instil and maintain a love of reading, in which students are taken on a journey. Each of the books has been carefully selected due to winning prestigious awards, fantastic reviews and due to what they can teach our students beyond the scope of academia: the power that books have to expose students to a world outside of their own; to walk in another’s shoes and develop compassion; to relate to experiences and find comfort in shared thoughts, feelings and human reactions. These books are incredibly relevant, acclaimed and most significantly, have been chosen with the view that students will find them interesting, engaging and relevant. These novels have also been heralded as combatting and educating young people on important life topics and will be consolidated and corroborated by the statutory work undertaken during students’ Life Skills sessions.
The classic novel which has been selected for year 13’s is The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley.
When one long, hot summer, young Leo is staying with a school-friend at Brandham Hall, he begins to act as a messenger between Ted, the farmer, and Marian, the beautiful young woman up at the hall. He becomes drawn deeper and deeper into their dangerous game of deceit and desire, until his role brings him to a shocking and premature revelation. The haunting story of a young boy’s awakening into the secrets of the adult world, The Go-Between is also an unforgettable evocation of the boundaries of Edwardian society.
Component 3 – Life Skills
Component 4 – Aspiring for More
This component is specific for our KS5 students. It focuses of developing their leadership skills and personal qualities in order to boost the opportunities available to them. This component will allow students to thrive once they leave the academy and enter the world of work. It is also a self-reflective scheme giving students the opportunity to break through their targets by considering their Vision, Effort, Systems, Practice and Attitude. As a result, students are able to reflect on and strengthen those attributes.
Component 5 – Future Ambitions
This component allows students to prepare for their futures, no matter which path they haven’t chosen to take. Whether it be preparing for moving to another city for university, developing skills to help them progress through an apprenticeship or getting ready for the world of work, Future Ambitions will ensure our students are ready to leave our sixth form and enter the world of adulthood.
In this course we will be helping students to complete their university applications, create CV’s and research alternative post-18 options.
if you have any questions regarding our curriculum offer, please contact:
Mr G. Lloyd
lloydg@astn.uk