Vertical Learning
What is it?
At Cayman Prep and High School, we are proud of the broad, balanced and rigorous curriculum we offer. Our students are incredibly successful across the whole of the school’s traditional range of subjects, and therefore, we want to stretch the students even further outside of the subjects they are accustomed to studying.
Our Vertical Learning is a co-curriculum – a curriculum that runs within a school’s traditional timetable. As well as getting to study subjects we already offer as a school, students will, from next year, have the opportunity to deepen their learning in a range of new and exciting subjects through our innovative co-curriculum. Subjects taught in this time include:
| Virtual Learning | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| German | Table tennis | Arabic | Dance |
| Latin | Junior sports leadership award | Reading group: a book study | Life saving |
| The Daily Report: current affairs | Emotional literacy and well-being | Film studies | Media Studies |
| Health and Social Care | Cultural studies | Finance | Textiles: sewing and needlecraft |
| Philosophy | A capella singing skills | Astronomy | Drawing skills |
| Philosophy | A capella singing skills | Astronomy | Drawing skills |
| Caymanian heritage and history | School Play | Touch typing | Computer coding |
| Programming and robotics | Advertising and marketing | Developing student researchers | European film study |
| Citizenship | Cooking on a budget | Senior band | Junior band |
| Swing band | Senior strings | Junior strings | |
You will see that the range of subjects being offered by our incredibly talented teachers is vast and will provide the students with a range of learning opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise have had.
The key difference between these subjects, and the ones they already study, is that students get to study a different one each term of their choosing. They are still robust in their delivery with focus on learning and subject content. Students have been reminded that they are not extra-curricular clubs, and clubs will run as normal after school, before school and at break and lunch times.
We have introduced a co-curriculum to enrich the learning experience for our students. An innovative curriculum is vital when we are preparing our students for life beyond school. Too often, schools are criticised for not giving students the opportunity to learn about interest rates, how to get a mortgage, how to type, not knowing about government and politics, failing to be able to sew, cook and know about the past of the country they are living in, or that a wide enough range of subjects is not offered to engage all students. We are breaking the mould. We want our students to leave our school prepared fully for the road ahead and study subjects they find exciting and relevant.
How does it work?
Students have indicated which of these they would be interested in studying and will be allocated three subjects to study throughout the year; subject A in term 1, subject B in term 2 and subject C in term 3. Students have one hour per week of co-curriculum learning on their timetable. In this time, students are in vertical learning groups. This means that students are grouped by subject, rather than age range, so students will share in their learning across the whole school. This helps develop integration, cohesion and strengthens bonds and friendships across our school. In these lessons, students are not just part of their year group -, they are part of the whole school. Students of different ages all bring something different to the learning experience making this an incredibly enriching opportunity for the students at our school.
Throughout the year, we will be sending home updates on vertical learning including photos and student updates on what they are learning.
This is another way in which we make the learning experience for our students one of the greatest they will find in any school around the world.