Introduction
The PL Challenge was introduced to the S1 curriculum in August 2010 as part of the School’s development of Curriculum for Excellence. It offers the opportunity for students to experience “rich tasks” in a cross curricular setting and out with the bounds of more traditional subject content based lessons.
The model was inspired by the Duke of Edinburgh Award programme and gives students the opportunity to develop and demonstrate their learning in four areas;
- Physical learning
- Development of new skills
- Service to the community
- Out of school learning
PL Challenge aims to give students the opportunity to get a taster of different activities that will further enable them to develop the four capacities and give them the opportunity to excel and achieve in a different kind of classroom environment.
During the course of the year students will also develop;
- teamwork skills
- communication skills
- thinking skills
- listening skills
- confidence
- independence
- resilience
- responsibility
- resourcefulness
- reasoning
- ability to reflect
- respect for others and the environment
S1 students alternate between 8 week blocks of PL Challenge and Learning Skills and get the chance to take part in 2 challenges during the year.