CLASS

The Aims of the Department

CLASS is a cross curricular and skills based subject which is taught to Year 7 for one hour per fortnight.  The aim of CLASS is to enable our students to discover how they learn best, in order that they can make faster progress in their other subjects at Blenheim. 

Lessons are designed to be creative in nature and often involve students working as teams to solve a problem or make a presentation.  When learning is active and involves a mixture of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic tasks, then the learning experience is more memorable. 

Examples of team based challenges which students undertake in their CLASS lessons are; designing a new airline, translating a Grimm Fairy Tale into a piece of puppet theatre, making a poster about how the human brain works, or designing a kitchen garden for Blenheim.

Students and staff enjoy CLASS lessons because it is a subject in which we have the flexibility to learn and teach in an innovative and inspiring way, about current issues and events.  Since its appearance on the timetable six years ago, staff have noticed how Blenheim learners are more willing to ‘take risks’ in lessons and learn from their mistakes. 

The CLASS team deliver lessons as facilitators rather than teachers, allowing students to pursue their natural interests in lessons, and this is why it has proved such a popular and rewarding subject for our learners.

Facilities

  • A large, flexible learning space which can be adapted to suit groups of various sizes
  • Innovative tables to promote teamwork
  • Interactive Whiteboards
  • CLASS laptops for research purposes
  • Digital cameras and camcorders

What skills students develop

CLASS covers content from across all the subjects studied in Year 7 at Blenheim but a skills based approach is followed in order that students can begin to understand how their subjects are interlinked and overlap.  Progress is measured in CLASS by students gathering evidence of each of the 6 Personal Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS). 

At Blenheim we value learners who can demonstrate that they are:

  • Creative Thinkers
  • Independent Enquirers
  • Reflective Learners
  • Self Managers
  • Team Workers
  • Effective Participators

Students are also praised in CLASS for showing the 6Rs (Reflection, Reasoning, Responsibility, Respect, Resourcefulness and Resilience).  Achievement in CLASS is celebrated. eg. with merits and certificates in assemblies,

Useful Links

http://www.rsaopeningminds.org.uk/about-rsa-openingminds/competences-the-evidence/

Silver School Mental Health Award