Chrysalis School

The Class Seven Student

Class 7 Nymbodia adventure camp

In Class Seven, the students turn 13 and become teenagers. Two fundamental gestures characterize this phase of life: an outer, active principle and the stirring of a dynamic, inner, psychological state. An appetite for knowledge of, and about, world phenomena, mingles with a budding capacity for reflection and the first promptings of self-reflection. In this picture of emerging forces, the physical changes, which establish sexual identity and capacity, begin to manifest more clearly. The physical changes tend to be somewhat in advance of the psychological development. While a feeling and yearning for independence and solitude may be experienced, a certain anxiety, emotional sensitivity and embarrassment can run alongside. Sporadic bursts of energy and an appetite for expanding outer horizons vie with periods of lethargic heaviness and subdued introspection.

Generally, there are significant differences in the manner in which boys and girls face up to and deal with the challenges of this age. Curriculum themes which mirror the pupils’ outer exploration of the world and the inner journey include: the journeys of exploration in history, the focus on mood and style in English, the areas of combustion and mechanics in chemistry and physics and the health, nutrition and hygiene main lesson block.

We aim to provide the adolescents with new perspectives, particularly by directing their attention into the world. They would be encouraged to:
• Take initiative and to appreciate ideas which have an abstract and logical character.
• Challenge attitudes and assumptions which formerly they accepted on authority and be shown how to formulate their own points of view, as well as accepting that others may see the world differently.

It is important for the class to experience themselves both as world citizens but also as individuals who have social responsibilities.

Class Seven Main Lessons

English

Wish, Wonder and Surprise
A focus on poetry, prose and style: learning to express what is emerging sensitively within.

Stories of King Arthur
Exploring a world of romance, adventure and idealism, based on high moral values, recognising how the male and female archetypes can find balance within each individual person in behaviour and language.

and/or

The Novel
A set text is chosen. Discussion of the novel involves looking at structure, plot, complication, resolution, language, style, the writer’s voice, the audience.

Science

Physiology - The Human Being within the Environment (see also under PDHPE)
An exploration of aspects of the human organism accessible to the students’ conscious experience - eg. teeth, skin, hair, pulse, the senses, breathing, diet, digestion etc. - thereby laying foundations for sensible choices in later years concerning drugs and alcohol: taking responsibility for one’s health and well-being.

Biology - “My Birth Story”
(see also under PDHPE)
A biographical and physiological approach to how each individual child entered the world.
“Finding out where I came from and my place in the world.”

Chemistry - Combustion
A hands-on study of:
1) fire (warmth), as the essential ingredient of all chemical interactions; and
2) limestone chemistry, as a basis for understanding acid/base polarities:
experiencing the ‘drama’ of outer chemistry, analogous to the ‘inner drama’ of adolescence.

Mechanics
Coming to clear principles through practical experimentation with pulleys, axles, gears, wedges, screws, inclined plane etc: gaining confidence in the material world.

Maths

Algebra
An introduction into a medium of logical, intellectual thinking, progressing always from the concrete to the abstract.

Maths in Nature
An exploration particularly of the complexities of the Golden Mean proportion - geometrically and arithmetically - in nature and the human being: combining precise artistic observation with mathematics to penetrate into the unity inherent in all life.(The Golden Mean is worked with in drawing during the Renaissance Main Lesson)

Geometry: The Theorem of Pythagoras and its Applications
Grasping the reliability and universality of this theorem which is so representative of mathematical process.

HSIE

History Main Lessons
Medieval History in Europe
From the fall of Rome to the Gothic cathedrals, including glimpses into the rise of Islam and concurrent events in China and Japan: a rich tapestry of outer change and inner light, akin to early adolescence.

The Renaissance
An in-depth study of this time of cultural rebirth, with particular focus on the biographies and achievements of leading figures, such as Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo: strengthening the will for personal cultural striving.

Geography Main Lessons
Age of Discovery
The beginnings of world geography through the achievements of individualities such as Marco Polo, Columbus, Magellan, Drake, Cook and others: nourishing the will to explore, as the world opens up.

Southern Hemisphere
Australia in connection with Antarctica and the southern continents: a sense of Australia’s place in the world.

PHPHE

The Human Being within the Environment (see under Science)
A focus on physical, social and environmental hygiene.

“My Birth Story” (See under Science)
An awakening to the physiology on ones own birth as well as the sharing of each ones birth story.