"The whole child is our whole point."
Weald of Kent Grammar School
Scholarship
Scholarship is our bespoke Key Stage 3 programme designed to nurture independent, articulate, and intellectually curious learners. Across three years, students develop the habits and skills of scholarship through a carefully sequenced journey. In Year 7 Foundations they explore the science of learning and study skills, building a foundation for effective, reflective study. In Year 8 Voice & Vision the focus shifts to citizenship and topics such as politics, economics and environmental studies, as students learn to communicate ideas powerfully through oracy, culminating in their own TED-style talks. In Year 9, students encounter Philosophy, completing a collaborative philosophy project where they prepare and perform live discussions on profound questions about knowledge, ethics, and human understanding. Through this programme, students grow not only as thinkers and communicators but as confident, thoughtful participants in the wider world.
Course Content
Years 7-9
Year 7
Year 7 Foundations:
Unit 1: Mindset & Habits (5 lessons)
- Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset
- Motivation and Self-Discipline
- Resilience and Learning from Failure
- Stress and Learning
- Celebrating Progress, Not Just Results
Unit 2 Core Skills (5 lessons)
- Note-taking skills (Everest and Cornell lessons) (x2)
- Breaking a task down (x1)
- Goal-setting (x2)
Unit 3: The Science of Learning (5 lessons)
- The Science of Memory
- Forgetting & Remembering in Practice
- Focus and Attention
- Testing yourself / retrieval practice (x2)
Unit 4: Reflection & Collaboration (4 lessons)
- Peer work & collaboration (x2)
- Identifying the best metacognitive strategies (x1)
- Final reflection lesson
Year 8
Year 8 Voice & Vision:
Unit 1: Oracy Skills
- Effective Listening
- Successful Debating
Unit 2: Politics and Government
- Electoral Systems
- Democracy
- Human Rights
Unit 3: Climate Change
- The Climate Crisis
- Climate and Human Rights
- Debating
Unit 4: Parliamentary Debating
- Develop our speaking voice
- Consolidate our speaking and listening skills
Year 9
Year 9 Philosophy in Action:
Unit 1 Ideas in Philosophy
- Socrates and Plato – What is Philosophy?
- Does God make sense?
- Ethics
- What can we know?
Unit 2 Debating Philosophy
A series of structured debates on various topics, such as:
- Cheating
- Can machines think?
- Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?
Unit 3 Oracy Project
Students will work in groups to independently research, prepare and perform a live discussion on a topic in philosophy.
Greater Depth
To achieve greater depth, students will demonstrate that they are:
- Curious thinkers who enjoy asking big questions and exploring ideas beyond the classroom.
- Confident communicators who are eager to develop their speaking and listening skills through debate, discussion, and presentation.
- Independent learners who take ownership of their studies and are motivated to understand how they learn best.
- Reflective scholars who enjoy analysing complex issues and forming thoughtful, evidence-based opinions.
- Collaborative participants who value teamwork, empathy, and respectful dialogue in exploring different perspectives.
Testimonials
What I loved about philosophy was how many people we looked at, from the very beginning of philosophy in 624 BCE with Thales of Miletus, all the way through to 21st century Artificial Intelligence. We spanned vast cultures and views of the world and how it should be governed. Philosophy really opened my eyes to how people have been examining the unexplainable all throughout time, and how some questions span millennia, incapable of being answered truly and deeply. Our research projects are also incredibly involving and interesting, and opened examinations into perspectives I would never have previously considered, with my question of identity in connection with who we really are. In philosophy I developed deep thinking skills , and the ability to see the word through other’s eyes through our complex debates, which transfers over to the wider world, and shows empathy and the ability to connect with fellow human beings both in the workplace and in every day life. (Artemis, Year 10)