Cabot Competence Curriculum

The Cabot Competency Curriculum - Introduction

An Overview of the New Curriculum

'The Cabot Competency Curriculum (CCC) is a central feature of our plan to deliver a personalised learning experience to all of our students. The learning to learn programme enables students to understand how they learn and ways in which they can become better and more independent learners in the future. The focus upon learning styles, thinking skills, team work, research skills, and the ways in which we manage situations and relate to people are skills for life and we are delighted that our students have had full and detailed exposure to this before they move into Year 8.'
David Carter, Principal, John Cabot City Technology College

What it is about

The John Cabot Competency Curriculum program is a competency based curriculum developed from the RSA Opening Minds. The students in the Year 7 CCC are working in two cross curricular projects based around a central theme over a period of five terms. The themes are:

Learning to Learn
Community and Environment
Communications
Lifestyles and Health
Finance and Enterprise

The program was implemented in the 2004 – 2005 academic year and is now in its second year.

The college aimed to address the issues of:

KS2 to KS3 Transition Strategy
Developing curriculum pathways in the college to a 1, +2, +2 model in order to personalize the learning agenda
To address the Specialist Schools Trust nine gateways to learning especially the Learning to Learn aspect
To enable students to deal with the ever increasing demands of adult life in a society driven by information and technology
To develop more independent and confident learners
Competencies are more important than knowledge content.

The competencies have been adapted from the RSA Opening Minds with a focus on four key areas of learning:

Learning
Managing Information
Managing People
Managing Situations