Tuesday 8 th January 2013 Tuesday 8 th January 2013

Years 7-9: Math-based activities around a murder mystery whodunnit including a theatre production in the hall. Year 10: Health Day based around 6 guest speakers covering topics such as contraception and smoking. Year 11: English revision and enrichment for forthcoming GCSE exams. Year 12: Motivational guest speaker and AS subject delivery. Year 13: A2 History trip to London or exam leave in preparation for January exams. Year 10 GCSE food technology students are cooking and serving up an Italian themed restaurant menu for staff and students Year 9 dual linguists will visit Broadway cinema and a French living restaurant in Nottingham to show off their French in a real-life situation

Enrichment Independence Creativity Employability Success

Curriculum days allow students to have their curriculum enriched through the key toolkit component of educational visits. These visits enrich the curriculum subject matter and can inspire students to succeed further in their studies. These visits can only be delivered through the conduit of curriculum days as the suspension of the timetable prevents persistent disruption of lessons and allows enough staffing-student ratios to supervise the visits. Visits on past curriculum days have included: KS3 Science to ‘The Deep’; KS3 History to the Black Country Museum; KS3 Maths to Sherwood Pines; Art visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Employers are keen to employ future learners who have an effective personal toolkit of ‘personal, learning and thinking skills’ (PLTS). Employers who were widely consulted in the PLTS framework believe that skills such as independent enquiry, teamwork, self management, creativity will develop the key skills and qualities required for success in learning and later life. Curriculum days allow students the opportunity to develop these key skills and use them as specific evidence when highlighting their acquisition of such skills.

Curriculum days have allowed faculties to provide students with original and stimulating experiences. With the shackles of prescribed KS3, GCSE curriculum content removed, faculties can focus on activities which engender the life-long learning skills of independence, creativity and team work. Faculties can also concentrate on exciting and unique opportunities which the extra funding available on curriculum days can accommodate. Curriculum days have included ‘enterprise day’ which developed entrepreneurial skills and teamwork; students were challenged through a number of problem-solving ideas and given an inspirational lecture by an external speaker.

Curriculum days have allowed GCSE subjects to have a specific focus to raise attainment. The curriculum days are timetabled to complement GCSE module exams, primarily in November and January. This allows subjects to spend a whole day, or a half day to revise and prepare students with the specific techniques required to flourish in the immediate exam. Departments have also used the flexibility and opportunities provided by curriculum days to complete controlled assessments which have replaced exam coursework and account for 25-60% of the GCSE exams. Science, English, Maths, Philosophy and Ethics, Modern Foreign Languages have all used curriculum days to assist students at KS4.