Year 7

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. We also focus on raising money and awareness to different charities during collective worship: in the past we have supported 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 book which has been selected for year 7’s is My Sister Lives on the Mantel Piece  by Annabel Pitcher. This novel has been selected as it deals with very important themes such as grief, bullying, mental health and also exposes students to issues such as Islamophobia.

Five years ago, Jamie’s sister, Rose, was blown up by a terrorist bomb. His family is torn apart by their grief. His mum runs away. His dad turns to drink and hate. Rose’s surviving twin sister Jasmine stops eating, gets piercings and dyes her hair pink – anything to look different to her twin. But Jamie hasn’t cried in all that time. To him, Rose is just a distant memory.

Jamie is far more interested in his cat, Roger, his Spiderman T-shirt, and his deep longing and unshakeable belief that his Mum will come back to the family she walked out on months ago.

But moving away for a Fresh New Start introduces Jamie to something else very interesting – a girl named Sunya. Sunya is bright, exciting and fun, and the one person at school he can call a friend. But how far can this new friendship grow when Jamie is desperate that his dad doesn’t find out?

Component 3 – Moral Debates

Each week, Moral Debates will broaden the horizons of our students, exposing them to articles produced from a range of exciting and reputable sources such as National Geographic and a broad range of newspapers which will enable students to not only explore the opinions of others, but their own individual perceptions of the world around them. The articles are up-to-date, thought-provoking and diverse in their content, emphasising many of the topics explored in Life Skills and allowing students to develop their communication skills, build trust within their form group and establish positive relationships with those around them- whether their views align or not! This not only improves our students’ ability to read information and make inferences, but to develop their critical thinking and oral literacy skills through contributing to important discussions. From articles surrounding Tik Tok, to Marcus Rashford’s campaign for children, to the impact of social media, our students will become educated about the world around them and their part in shaping that very same world.

Component 4 – Life Skills

Component 5 – BRAG

BRAG time will be part of CfL and will give students the chance to BRAG and celebrate key aspects of school life. This will give students the opportunity to “BRAG” about all of their amazing work around the school with their CfL group. Our aim is to give all students an opportunity to come together as a group and celebrate their achievements, aiding an holistic view of school life and allowing all students to flourish and thrive as part of our school community.

BRAG time is centred around our core values and will help students:

• Attendance – Reach and exceed the ambitious target set by the academy for attendance (97%), helping them realise that they will need to be resilient and be in school each day even when not feeling 100%.
• Punctuality – Have the respect and ambition to be in school and in lesson on time every day.
• Positive Points – Celebrate their positive points gained from lessons and from displaying the respect to their fellow students
• Incidents – Lastly for some it will help further build their resilience and respect values as they address in a mature way any behaviour incidents they have been involved in

Year 8

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 book which has been selected for year 8’s is The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews. This novel has been selected as it deals with very important themes such as family, abuse, identity, crime and helps to develop compassion and understanding of autism.

Can two broken boys find their perfect home?

Sam is only fifteen but he and his autistic older brother, Avery, have been abandoned by every relative he’s ever known. Now Sam’s trying to build a new life for them. He survives by breaking into empty houses when their owners are away, until one day he’s caught out when a family returns home. To his amazement this large, chaotic family takes him under their wing – each teenager assuming Sam is a friend of another sibling. Sam finds himself inextricably caught up in their life, and falling for the beautiful Moxie.

But Sam has a secret, and his past is about to catch up with him.

Component 3 – Moral Debates

Each week, Moral Debates will broaden the horizons of our students, exposing them to articles produced from a range of exciting and reputable sources such as National Geographic and a broad range of newspapers which will enable students to not only explore the opinions of others, but their own individual perceptions of the world around them. The articles are up-to-date, thought-provoking and diverse in their content, emphasising many of the topics explored in Life Skills and allowing students to develop their communication skills, build trust within their form group and establish positive relationships with those around them- whether their views align or not! This not only improves our students’ ability to read information and make inferences, but to develop their critical thinking and oral literacy skills through contributing to important discussions. From articles surrounding Tik Tok, to Marcus Rashford’s campaign for children, to the impact of social media, our students will become educated about the world around them and their part in shaping that very same world.

Component 4 – Life Skills

Component 5 – BRAG

BRAG time will be part of CfL and will give students the chance to BRAG and celebrate key aspects of school life. This will give students the opportunity to “BRAG” about all of their amazing work around the school with their CfL group. Our aim is to give all students an opportunity to come together as a group and celebrate their achievements, aiding an holistic view of school life and allowing all students to flourish and thrive as part of our school community.

BRAG time is centred around our core values and will help students:

• Attendance – Reach and exceed the ambitious target set by the academy for attendance (97%), helping them realise that they will need to be resilient and be in school each day even when not feeling 100%.
• Punctuality – Have the respect and ambition to be in school and in lesson on time every day.
• Positive Points – Celebrate their positive points gained from lessons and from displaying the respect to their fellow students
• Incidents – Lastly for some it will help further build their resilience and respect values as they address in a mature way any behaviour incidents they have been involved in

Year 9

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 book which has been selected for year 9’s is 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This novel has been selected as it deals with very important issues such as bullying, alcohol abuse, rape and suicide. Hannah’s death is only mentioned in passing and has not sparked the controversy that the Netflix adaptation has.

Clay Jensen comes home from school to find outside his front door a mysterious box with his name on it.

Inside he discovers a series of cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker – his classmate and crush. Only, she committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On the first tape, Hannah explains that there are 13 reasons why she did what she did – and Clay is one of them.

If he listens, Clay will find out how he got onto the list – what he hears will change his life forever.

Component 3 – Moral Debates

Each week, Moral Debates will broaden the horizons of our students, exposing them to articles produced from a range of exciting and reputable sources such as National Geographic and a broad range of newspapers which will enable students to not only explore the opinions of others, but their own individual perceptions of the world around them. The articles are up-to-date, thought-provoking and diverse in their content, emphasising many of the topics explored in Life Skills and allowing students to develop their communication skills, build trust within their form group and establish positive relationships with those around them- whether their views align or not! This not only improves our students’ ability to read information and make inferences, but to develop their critical thinking and oral literacy skills through contributing to important discussions. From articles surrounding Tik Tok, to Marcus Rashford’s campaign for children, to the impact of social media, our students will become educated about the world around them and their part in shaping that very same world.

Component 4 – Life Skills

Component 5 – BRAG

BRAG time will be part of CfL and will give students the chance to BRAG and celebrate key aspects of school life. This will give students the opportunity to “BRAG” about all of their amazing work around the school with their CfL group. Our aim is to give all students an opportunity to come together as a group and celebrate their achievements, aiding an holistic view of school life and allowing all students to flourish and thrive as part of our school community.

BRAG time is centred around our core values and will help students:

• Attendance – Reach and exceed the ambitious target set by the academy for attendance (97%), helping them realise that they will need to be resilient and be in school each day even when not feeling 100%.
• Punctuality – Have the respect and ambition to be in school and in lesson on time every day.
• Positive Points – Celebrate their positive points gained from lessons and from displaying the respect to their fellow students
• Incidents – Lastly for some it will help further build their resilience and respect values as they address in a mature way any behaviour incidents they have been involved in