The latest Bethany Blog of the Spring Term has been written by Mrs Hill,  Deputy Head – Academic, at Bethany School. She writes about developing pupils creativity, curiosity, and resilience in preparation for their future lives in a rapidly changing world.

At Bethany, we are committed to nurturing pupils to develop their creativity, curiosity, and resilience in preparation for their future lives in a rapidly changing world.

As a school, we have begun to explore how we can embed the 21st century learning skills of collaboration, knowledge construction, self-regulation, real world problem solving and innovation, skilled communication, and the use of technology for learning into the curriculum.

Last week, Year 7 were challenged to successfully work as part of a team to create and market an original pizza concept that could be served during school lunch, as well as presenting their work to an audience. This exciting project followed the pilot project that we ran with Year 8 in the Autumn term in which they came up with the plans for a garden design for the old swimming pool space. These projects give pupils a meaningful context to learn about and develop 21st century learning skills over the week of an amended timetable, preserving PE, Games, PSHCE, DLS, Clubs and Activities in their usual times.

In the lessons that were dedicated to working on the project, the Year 7s worked hard to develop ideas, create marketing materials, and prepare presentations. They demonstrated some excellent team work and negotiation skills. Year 7 parents were invited to view the project outcomes as part of the Year 7 parent teacher meeting, which included the opportunity to sample the pizzas they had created.

This is not the end of our work to develop pupils as 21st century learners. Year 9 will be challenged to complete a project during Diversity Week in the summer term, and staff will continue to work collaboratively to explore how these important skills can be further built into subject curriculums, so watch this space!

Mrs Hill

Deputy Head – Academic