Discovery Years (7-9)

The Discovery years support each student’s transition from junior school years, toward the more academically demanding, student-driven IGCSE / IB Foundation and IB programmes. We are providing them with newer, finer-quality skill sets combined with expert guidance. This enhanced character education is ideally placed to encourage students’ independent inquiry, to see them make decisions in their lives that push beyond their own prior highest standards, and remain adaptable to new circumstances they will face.

The “Discovery” element of the cohort isn’t simply the external adventures our students embark upon. Students discover the value of the learning process, and how they can continue to innovate and explore throughout their lives. Above all else, our goal is for the Discovery Years to unlock in students a greater understanding of themselves.

The Activity Carousel is a range of inspirational, progressive and impactful experiences for students that are academically challenging but based on the activity programme. This compulsory series of activities runs once per week. The experience aims to be inspirational and feel different from an academic lesson. Each student experiences five activity strands:

• Innovate: Moving models. Focuses on building and powering model cars. Covers areas such as STEM, technology, robotics and entrepreneurship.
• Discuss: Rhetoric. Improving language and confidence by covering areas such as debating and public speaking
• Nature: Mesocosms. Taking inspiration from shinrin-yoku (Japanese forest bathing) the course looks at the interconnectivity of organisms and asks students to build a self-sustaining ecosystem.
• Create: Songwriting. Covers the creative arts asking students to explore the creative process
• Explore: A Million uses of a knot. Covers areas that aim to develop students practical skills and critical thinking with sessions loosely associated with the expedition programme (climbing, sailing, putting up shelters, etc.

Learning to play an instrument is a valuable skill but we firmly believe it can improve all students as learners and people.

That is why we have introduced a programme whereby all junior school students are learning one of the following: Violin; Viola; Cello; Double Bass; Trumpet; French Horn; Trombone; Flute; Clarinet; Orchestral Percussion; and one harpist!

The programme has been a success with the vast majority of students seeming to enjoy the challenge of learning an orchestral instrument. Each student has a 25-minute session once a week, an evening practice session of half an hour and has been lent a starter instrument by the school. 

This experience of playing in a large ensemble is transformative. Tom Dobney, the Head of the Creative Arts outlines, “There is no shortcut to learning an orchestral instrument; it’s a long and challenging educational journey and I think of the great benefit to the juniors in a world in which instant gratification is increasingly a norm.”

Spirit is actually a subject at Aiglon! We have developed a curriculum that looks to embrace the unique values of our school, to reflect upon the central questions from the discovery programme and to make students reflect upon themselves and their role in the world.

The topics encompass concepts from personal, social, health and emotional education, as well as dealing with relevant, topical and contemporary issues in modern culture that will support Aiglon students in their development in the real world. Other topics will also be philosophical, spiritual and reflective in nature. Ultimately we look to encourage deep, critical thinking skills within our students.

Year 7 reflect upon who they are, what they know, if they can trust their own senses and engage with the ideas of Plato and Descartes. They investigated digital safety and social media, before discussing culture and being global citizens.

Year 8 reflect upon their own personal culture and how it differs from the culture of others. All students do a presentation reflecting on their own culture, as well as looking into world religions. They end the term by considering the role of aesthetics in being human.

Year 9 study the systems that influence our behaviours and perceptions, learning about the ideas of Chomsky and Hobbes, before looking into an initial understanding of ethics.