Pocklington Prep School is launching an innovative new school curriculum ?The Curiosity Project?, designed to develop vital skills such as independent thinking, critical analysis and teamwork. The new curriculum will prepare pupils not only for their next steps in education but for their futures as innovators, collaborators, leaders and more
Each half term pupils will work together on a broad conceptual question such as ?can people change"? or ?what does it mean to be free"? as part of the new school curriculum. Pupils seek to answer this question by delving down into subject-specific skills and knowledge to develop their thoughts and ideas.
This innovative process of ?enquiry sequence? is not all pre-planned by the teacher. Rather than being told what they will be studying, pupils learn and make discoveries as they realise they need to know about them, to help them answer their conceptual question. The teacher facilitates the process and has a clear set of concepts, skills and knowledge they aim for the pupils to cover but is flexible in their approach and is open to risk-taking and to worthwhile ?diversions? in the learning.
The conceptual questions are carefully mapped out across each academic year and all require discovery, enquiry and analysis. Puzzles and new points for development are introduced to cause pupils to question and enhance their ideas as they work towards an answer, utilising new and traditional subject areas of, for example, history or scien...