The year 7’s spent their first term at Lakers working on a Time Capsule project. Their task was to decorate and fill a ‘time capsule’ which will be stored here at Lakers until they leave in year 11. Through this project we were able to focus on identity, both on an individual basis and within a wider context, as a Lakers student, resident of the Forest of Dean, and as a global citizen. Students were asked to decide on, create and fill their capsules with objects that were meaningful to them, and also that reflected the time in which we live. At the end of the term a celebratory assembly was held where students were able to share what particular things they had chosen to include in their time capsule and why.

Seal (Social and Emotional Learning)

Embedded in the 7PBL work is a focus on social and emotional learning. Each session uses learning and teaching approaches that support pupils to learn social and emotional skills and consolidate those already learnt.
Social and emotional skills underpin effective learning by helping all students to do the following.

  • Learn to manage their impulses, helping them settle quickly, concentrate and not disrupt others.
  • Build warm relationships, which help them to care about what others (e.g. staff and peers) think and to respond positively to them.
  • Manage strong and uncomfortable emotions such as anger and frustration, and become more resilient, which helps them rise to the challenges of the learning process and stick at it if things get tough.
  • Learn to feel good about themselves, which reduces the likelihood of disruptive behaviour and increases capacity for independent learning.
  • Manage anxiety and stress, including around tests and examinations.
  • Learn to empathise, for example with other pupils' desire to learn, which helps them contribute to a positive learning environment.
  • Reflect on longer term goals, which helps them see the point of learning, raise their aspirations and become more able to resist negative pressure from others.
  • Feel optimistic about themselves and their ability to learn, which improves their motivation to work hard and attend regularly.

All the above are focused on enabling each student to maximise their learning potential.

This term we have taken a slightly different approach, splitting the four lessons in half. In the morning students have been taking part in a variety of workshops on a carousel system. The workshops are led by members of the 7PBL teaching team and cover a variety of basic skills we feel it is important for our year 7’s to master before they move up into year 8. These include learning styles, research skills and effective presenting, among others. In the afternoon students were able to choose from a wide variety of creative activities, model making and animation, writing music, web design and many more.

We are currently planning an end of year celebration where students will be able to exhibit work from all of the different projects they have worked on over the year.
Term 3

A team of student researchers designed a questionnaire for the rest of their year 7 peers to decide the topic
for term 2. The most popular choice was ‘research your favourite hero’.
So, the overarching question for this term was 'What makes someone a hero?’ With some sub questions and focus
for research such as:

We focused on looking at our heroes’ strengths, personal qualities, tenacity in overcoming difficulties, etc and distinguishing between hero and celebrity.
Finished pieces took many forms, from a digital story to a drama piece, where students ‘became’ their hero in order to be interviewed. Many students chose members of their own family to research and so produced a family tree and biography of their Mum, Dad or Grandparents for example. Other students chose from a range of historical, sporting, musical or political heroes. Again, a celebratory assembly was held at the end of the term, this time with parents invited, so that students could showcase their work.

 

Term 2
Term 1

7PBL aims to develop our students’ potential, aspiration, creativity and imagination.
At Lakers we want to raise the aspirations and achievements of young people and equip them with skills for lifelong learning.
We have committed 4 lessons of curriculum time to 7PBL for all year 7 students.  They use the time to work individually and in groups on a range of cross curricular projects.

The process itself is perhaps more significant than the end result, as we expect students to explore and reflect upon their sense of self. Students should gain confidence in understanding their strengths and weaknesses and to begin to understand how to address and develop these.
We hope that students will develop independent learning skills, an ability to think
creatively and to solve problems and also be able to communicate their learning and
apply these key skills throughout the wider curriculum.

 

What we do...
Project Based Learning
Creating success for all through challenge and support