About Us
“There is an orderly and calm atmosphere where students are happy and considerate to others.”
Ofsted 2009
“We often learn in groups. It’s great to work together because you can figure things out better when you talk and listen rather than struggle by yourself. It is making me think more. ”
Student
- We create the learning environment for students to become successful learners who embrace and manage change, are resilient when facing the challenges of life and make the most of opportunities
- We believe that the Year 7 Curriculum at KEVICC responds to this need and is one of the most exciting curriculum structures of any school in England. It pushes the boundaries, opens up opportunities and allows a greater variety of exciting, inspiring and coherent learning experiences
- Students develop personal, learning and thinking skills as a focus in the Year 7 curriculum which is then developed further as they move into Year 8 and beyond.
We believe that the Year 7 Curriculum at KEVICC is one of the most exciting curriculum structures of any school in England. Our aim is to help students to become great learners. We endeavor to push the boundaries, open up opportunities and allow a greater variety of learning to happen.
KEVICC’s Year 7 Curriculum has an integrated structure. This allows us to offer exciting, inspiring, challenging and coherent learning experiences, carefully planned to:
- foster a love of learning and positive learning habits
- encourage students to make connections within their learning and transfer skills
- enable deeper learning and understanding
- develop the skills that students will need to ensure success at KEVICC and for their lives beyond the College in the 21st century.
Over the course of the year we expect students to take increasing control of their learning, monitoring and evaluating their own learning experiences and working consistently towards challenging targets. We want them to strive to get the most out of every experience and to seek out new challenges and opportunities to make further progress.
Home learning in year seven is specifically designed to help students to independently build on what they have learnt in the classroom. Students can expect to receive at least three Independent Learning tasks per week in Core. Two of these will usually be short tasks designed to revise and extend literacy and maths skills. The other will usually be a longer task which requires some independent research and self management. This sort of task will have a basis in a particular subject discipline working with a particular skill or concept, but will provide opportunities to transfer skills or bring together learning in a reflective way. It may well cover two weeks, overlapping with other projects. There may be additional smaller tasks which either extend or revise subject specific knowledge or skills.
All year seven are invited to take part in a residential trip to Okehampton, exploring a range of skills through outdoor learning and building team work and confidence.
As part of the curriculum, students have a number of opportunities to work with groups and individuals from the wider community, including a project with the Transition Tales Totnes team.There are a number of opportunities to take learning outside the classroom, including an on-site trip to the River Dart as part of the rivers project and an opportunity to visit Totnes Castle.
We are very proud of our curriculum in year seven and we are constantly striving to improve it year on year – after all, we are learning too! We talk to students about what they think as gone well and what they would improve. Here are some examples of some of the things pupils feel they have achieved in year seven:
“ I have learnt to work better with other people. Sometimes it’s hard to reach agreements when you’ve all got good ideas, but I’ve learnt ways to help others to reach compromises and to select the best of everyone’s thoughts. I used to be quite frightened in group work and tend to just go along with what others say, but now I feel much more confident working with new people.”
“I have learnt how to go and find out things for myself and how to use the information I find out.”“I’ve learnt how to prioritise, so that I can get everything done in time.”
Our Curriculum
The Core curriculum is an integrated approach to the core subjects English, Maths and Science as well as the humanities subjects RS, PSHE, Citizenship, Geography and History. The focus is on developing life long learning skills and the ability to transfer skills and knowledge across subject disciplines.
Students are taught in tutor groups by a team of teachers made up of a specialist Maths, English, Science, Humanities and ICT teacher. This team are then able to form strong relationships with the group and support them in the transition to a big secondary school. It also allows us to make informed judgements about progress and to work closely with students to ensure that all students’ individual needs are met and that all students are stretched and challenged.
The curriculum focuses on explicitly developing the six Personal, Learning and Thinking skills from the QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) PLTS framework:
Learners actively engage with issues that affect them and those around them. They play a full part in the life of their school, college, workplace or wider community by taking responsible action to bring improvements for others as well as themselves.
Learners process and evaluate information in their investigations, planning what to do and how to go about it. They take informed and well-reasoned decisions, recognising that others have different beliefs and attitudes.
Learners think creatively by generating and exploring ideas, making original connections. They try different ways to tackle a problem, working with others to find imaginative solutions and outcomes that are of value.
Learners evaluate their strengths and limitations, setting themselves realistic goals with criteria for success. They monitor their own performance and progress, inviting feedback from others and making changes to further their learning.
Learners work confidently with others, adapting to different contexts and taking responsibility for their own part. They listen to and take account of different views. They form collaborative relationships, resolving issues to reach agreed outcomes.
Learners organise themselves, showing personal responsibility, initiative, creativity and enterprise with a commitment to learning and self-improvement. They actively embrace change, responding positively to new priorities, coping with challenges and looking for opportunities.
These skills are taught through content appropriate to the key stage and which builds on learning in KS2. Students are encouraged to see the links between subjects, and to look for different ways to answer questions, solve problems and to think outside of subject boxes.
This does not mean that we do not value subject specific skills and knowledge in Year Seven – we’re just coming at it from a different angle. We believe this has more potential to challenge and stretch our students than pursuing subjects in isolation as they make the step up from primary.The maths based parts of the Core curriculum are timetabled separately. For these sessions pupils are taught by a maths specialist. In the first term pupils are taught in form groups while teachers get to know how they perform in this area and what their areas of strength and weakness are. After the first term pupils are regrouped into sets to allow us to differentiate effectively for their individual needs and set appropriate levels of challenge.
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