Year 7 Projects
In September 2021, we introduced 'Project' lessons for year 7 pupils as a step towards the new curriculum, Curriculum for Wales. Seven projects have been designed and are taught mainly by year 7 tutors. Pupils move to a new project every five weeks.
Each project focuses on one of the new curriculum areas of learning which are:
• Languages
• Science and Technology
• Performing Arts
• Humanities
• Health and Wellbeing
• Numeracy
- Skills for Learning / Outdoor Education
The main purpose of the projects will be to develop pupils' SKILLS. We firmly believe that if we want our pupils to succeed in qualifications such as GCSEs and to be successful in whatever path they might chooses in life, they must have the right skills to succeed. Strong literacy and numeracy skills are among the most important of these and so are their digital literacy skills. But in addition to these, there are other skills that are essential to success in education and life; perseverance, resilience, problem solving, working with others and working independently. Having established these skills in year 7, pupils will have a strong foundation as they begin to specialise in subjects and work towards qualifications higher up the school.
A team of teachers has worked hard to create the projects; the tutors have used their subject expertise to create a project full of fun and informative activities. Educational visits and guest speakers will be part of the projects and each project will build up towards a final product, be it an exhibition, presentation, video or extended piece of writing. Our skills co-ordinator has also been working hard to ensure that there are plenty of opportunities to develop skills and ensure progress.
We hope that the new projects will help year 7 settle in at school as the pupils will be familiar with working on cross-curricular themes in the primary. Spending 7 lessons with their tutor - on top of registration periods - for the first half term will ensure that we get to know the pupils well and find out if they need any extra support. It will also reduce the need to move around the school which can be tiring and stressful for new pupils. Most of all, we hope that the pupils will enjoy the projects and consequently view school and education as a positive and rewarding experience. For more information, please follow the project Twitter account @sgiliauymll
Project details
The Humanities project will study refugees who move to Wales and the Wrexham area. Learners will film, produce and edit a video about the current situation.
Learners will practice their survival skills, specifically physical and mental well-being, in the Health & Well-being project. ‘Wellness Wednesday’ will provide an opportunity to be outside developing teamworking skills.
Creative skills will be developed in the Expressive Arts project, where learners will study how individuals contribute to national identity. We will look at well-known individuals and performance skills.
The Welsh Government’s Million Welsh Speakers is the theme of the Language, Literacy and Communication project. Year 7 learners will create an original game and website to help Welsh language learners.
Problem solving skills will be essential in the Science and Technology project with an emphasis on how forensic science is useful to solve problems in society.
An opportunity to develop creative and numeracy skills will be presented in the Maths and Numeracy project. Pupils will be challenged to plan and present an original idea, considering market research and finance.
Please see the attached prospectus for further information