Opening Minds at Falmer High School.
(Full Service Extended School)

The RSA is a registered charity which has been established for over 250 years. It is politically independent and is engaged in generating new models for tackling the social challenges of today with a real commitment to progressive social change. 

Visit the RSA website for more information at:
www.thersa.org/home

Children today face a wide range of environmental, technical, social and economic challenges which go far beyond the scope of the National Curriculum. They also have to cope with a rapidly increasing volume of information in a fast-changing world.

The RSA Opening Minds framework believes that a curriculum which focuses only on subject content, as is the case with the current National Curriculum, cannot provide students with the skills and abilities that they will need if they are to make a success of their future lives.

The RSA Opening Minds is a pioneering competence-led curriculum framework, designed to address a broad range of skills for life. 

Competencies are essentially about understanding ‘how to’ and about being able to apply this understanding.
They are not about knowing ‘what’ or knowing ‘about’.

There are 5 basic competencies (CLIPS):

Citizenship
Learning to Learn
Managing Information
Relating to People
Managing Situations

Students are taught in following curriculum areas:

English: English will follow the national curriculum and be assessed using national curriculum levels.

Maths & Science: Students will follow the National Curriculum and be formally assessed using national curriculum levels in addition to the Opening Minds competencies.

Junior Model */ Practical Arts* / Modern Languages: Delivery will be through the Opening Minds framework of assessing competencies.

Drama, Music & PE: Opening Minds will be delivered through a number of modules.

*Junior Model (Humanities, ICT, Citizenship)
Practical Arts (Art & Design/ DT)