This may seem a parody of postmodern social reality and eerily suggestive of a future dystopia, but it is only a slight exaggeration. Schools tend to focus more on mainstream socialisation, engaging with mass-marketed youth culture and pastoral care than with reading, writing, maths and real science.
- Self Confidence
- Sam’s self-esteem has grown throughout the year. His phenomenal X-Box gaming skills have earned him respect from other class members.
- Team-bonding Skills
- Sam has participated in a number of activity-related team bonding sessions. He especially enjoyed the school’s annual virtual first person shooter competition, where he engaged in a marathon Call of Duty: Liberation session as a UN peacekeeper in Paddistan liberating gay teenagers from a repressive regime.
- Sexual Awareness
- Sam has taken an active interest in the wonderful diversity of sexual orientations and family structures in our local community.
- Self-marketing skills
- Sam has begun to learn how to market his diverse skills to potential employers
- Equality and Diversity
- Sam joined the rest of the class in our exploration of the enormous benefits of the recent arrival of so many newcomers in our diverse neighbourhood. Sam also learned how to deal with misguided anti-immigration feelings.
- Mathematics
- Sam enjoyed a captivating interactive documentary about the history of mathematicians and computer programmers, laying the foundations of modern game development. Sam also learned how to interact with calculators and spreadsheets to solve common mathematical problems without unduly taxing his delicate brain or interfering with his other pursuits.
- Language
- Sam enjoyed interacting with our state of the art voice recognition software. He can now successfully use this application to tweet his views about the latest first person shooter games. His broad vocabulary has now extended to concepts such as humanitarian intervention and intellectual property.
- History
- Sam enjoyed several virtual re-enactments of historical events. He learned about many evil regimes of the past and about the wonderful progress towards a better world that we have made recently.
- Self-care Skills
- Sam has learned about the importance of personal hygiene, sartorial presentation and supermarket shopping. Hopefully, as he approaches his 18th birthday, we can fast-track him on our driving course so can simulate travel on wide open roads and shop independently online.
- Project Management Skills
- Sam learned how to manage personal and business projects, design cutting-edge PowerPoint presentations and gantt charts using special voice-activated wizards. Sam learned how to delegate difficult tasks, which he may not be able to undertake personally, to human resources. We investigated some common scenarios such as how to find a technician to repair one’s washing machine or how to proofread a report with limited manual reading skills.
- Sport
- Sam is a keen Laser shooter and paintballer.
- Technological Innovation and Environmental Sustainability
- Sam is very enthusiastic about new technology and hopes to drive a solar-powered Ferrari when passes his test. He also has an extensive collection of game consoles and smartphones.
- Social Awareness
- Sam took a keen interest in our social inclusion project, in which we showed young people how to claim job seekers’ allowance, incapacity benefit, child benefit, working family tax credits and single parents’ allowance.
- Mental Health Awareness
- We have been very impressed by Sam’s positive attitude to his ADHD and worked closely with him to ensure he keeps up to date with his medication.
- Communication Skills
- Sam interacts very well with classmates on a wide range of game-related subjects. He has also participated in a ground-breaking RFID chip implant pilot scheme, so he is regularly in touch with researchers from Neurological Research Trust.
- Information Technology
- Sam has familiarised himself with the leading brands of proprietary software applications and understood the key importance of copyright protection.