Academic Enrichment is a Wood Green School programme which seeks to lay a firm foundation for the skills underpinning all academic subjects in school. Year 7 students have one lesson each week of Academic Enrichment. Those who benefit from additional literacy skill support in Fresh Start will take a similar, differentiated programme in year 8.
Four skill areas are covered on a cycle across the year:
Students are taught the Philosophical Enquiry approach and soon learn to follow it. The aim here is twofold: deepening thinking (cognitive) and successful discussion (oracy)
Following a stimulus image, they develop a ‘deeper thinking’ philosophical question. Students are face each other in a circle, or at a ‘conference table’ with chairs and tables moved back. The idea is that they don’t ask the teacher for permission to speak, but that they invite each other.
Here we are identifying, teaching and reflecting on the specific skills which allow students to take an effective role in a discussion.
Socratic discussions are about the explicit use of specific skills. Half the class sits in the middle of the room in a circle, while the other half sits in an outer ring. They are the observers. They are given individual areas to focus on, on little cards. After the discussion, the observers give feedback based on their area of focus. This develops their metacognitive ability to think about how they speak and listen.
All students will deliver three speeches during this course: group, solo and debate.
In term 1, they do two speeches: the first in groups of 4. One person introduces the topic; the next person develops an argument for; the next person develops an argument against and the final person sums up and thanks the team. Feedback is shared and built on.
In the final half term, the focus shifts to debate. This is another formal speaking opportunity and builds on the skills learned in term 1. The strongest students will compete against each other to enter the Acer Trust Speaking Competition. There are public speaking opportunities mapped into different stages in the school curriculum and these AE speeches are the foundation for those opportunities later.
There are two strands covered here: critical thinking about online research, and awareness of how misinformation happens online (fake news- although that term isn’t always helpful).
By the end of this course, our students should be able to:
