As a successful school with excellent results, we are always on the lookout for the next step forward, the next opportunity on offer and the next way to engage with and excite our pupils. And when one comes along, we seize it!
The Curiosity Club was introduced to St Michael’s two years ago as a conceptual development by world history author Christopher Lloyd and his colleague John Gordon-Reid, both of whom we have worked with over many years, enjoying their giant narratives and visual timelines. They have created a brilliant concept of connected learning and enabling navigation through knowledge in a similar style to a tube map, where you can hop from subject to subject on a unique learning journey using “wallbooks“, illustrative timelines which provide a broader view of world history and visually connect past and present. The timeline titles cover the entire curriculum from history to sport and the series has been developed with such institutions as The National Trust and The Science Museum.
The Curiosity Club provides a unique opportunity for our pupils to choose what they study, and to work at their own pace as they navigate a 3000-year timeline which contains over 1000 images. The pupils at St Michael’s love the freedom to choose what and how they will study, doing their own research and making important connections between subjects; that is why we have now embedded the Curiosity Club into our weekly timetable.
The pupils access hundreds of challenges online, through their own login, which are completed and returned either online or in person for assessment. The challenges are accomplished through video, model making, experimentation and performance as well as writing, Mind Mapping and many other creative formats.
The tutorial-style approach of self-directed, independent learning is a hugely valuable skill to develop and the personal tutor time with the assessors is a wonderful opportunity to practise and develop the oratory skills needed in later life.
All the pupils’ progress data is recorded through the programme’s reporting functions, and the use of leaderboards and statistics, which add an edge of competition, create an air of excitement. Pin badges are awarded to mark our pupils’ progress along the 3000-year journey. In May, 2017, a group of Year 7 pupils went to the first Curiosity Convention, a national event bringing together pupils from across the country. St Michael’s were delighted to win two awards for the Best Individual Challenge and the Senior Performance Award. These awards celebrated the independent design and construction of a Trojan Horse and a moving performance of a Barack Obama-inspired speech in the wake of the Joplin Tornado.
“Having known St Michael’s for some time” said John Gordon-Reid, “and knowing how forward thinking they are, it seemed natural to share our ideas about Curiosity Club. The Headteacher, Jill Aisher, at once recognised the benefits for the children that this innovation could provide and quickly decided to embrace the concept. I believe the children feel empowered to learn and this then extends into their whole learning experience”.
St Michael’s ensures that, as well as excelling at the traditional skills of numeracy and literacy, our pupils are equipped and prepared for the world in which they are living. Curiosity Club is unique, delivering so much, whilst offering freedom of choice and, most importantly, empowering the pupils and encouraging them to be lifelong learners.
Jill Aisher commented “At St Michael’s we challenge and stimulate our pupils in all areas of their school life, we are always looking at ways to develop, enrich, inspire and engage our pupils; our partnership with the Curiosity Club has developed all of these areas of learning.”
Following on from our pioneer role as the first school in the world to undertake the Curiosity Club Challenge, we have expanded on this stimulating idea in our own homework policy and I have set the “challenge” project homework for all pupils in Years 3 -6. But that is another story…!”
