CLASS

Cultural Literacy, Arts and Social Sciences : CLASS, is a new elective subject running with STEM in Year 8. It is a Humanities based subject aimed at developing students creative, cultural and critical thinking skills.

I have just collected their assessments for our first term, uninterrupted by the COVID pandemic. 

The Unit was on ‘Identity’ and students learnt about how people, communities and nations build their identities and the positive and negative influences and outcomes that can result. The kids spent a lot of time thinking about how their perceptions of themselves and others are shaped and often how different those perceptions are. In particular, we studied the problems of having perceptions of ourselves and others influenced by media and social media and how harmful this can be. Critical thinking and strategies for developing strong and resilient self-identities were discussed at length.

Creatively, we studied and analysed how artists portrayed themselves and the techniques they used to do so, in particular studying photography.

The assessment challenged this learning by asking students to produce a photographic self- portrait and to describe the importance of a healthy self-identity and strategies for building that identity.

Some of the portraits and comments from the assessment are shared below. Their insights in particular were very encouraging. 

‘Having a positive self-identity helps you strive to be the best version of yourself and to gain confidence in the body you have. The more you know yourself, the more you can embrace it and serve the purpose of what you wish to be in life…’   

‘ A healthy sense of identity helps people to be more open to others from different backgrounds because they are less likely to fear differences and put others down so that they can feel better about themselves.’ 

‘With a strong self-identity we are more comfortable in our surrounding environment and what our place is in it.’ 

‘ To have a healthy self-identity is to accept yourself for who you are. To help build one you can learn how to accept compliments, connect with people and things, appreciate other people’s needs and feelings and keep an open mind to everyone’s thoughts and opinions.’

‘A strong and healthy self-identity is important because without one you are not living life to the fullest.' 

‘A healthy self-identity massively affects your personal view on life and how you interpret situations and struggles.'

‘A strong self-identity is important for independence because leaning on others can lead to peer pressure and not thinking consciously.’ 

‘ All in all, you need a healthy identity to know who you are and what you want to be. If you don’t know you might need to step back and find out who you are and not have a perception of what others think you are…’ .