Ryburn students learn how to stay safe and feel confident to develop happy and healthy relationships not only with others but with themselves too.
As part of the Identity curriculum we cover Relationships and Sex Education (RSE). We address the curriculum in our own unique way through a series of lessons and interactive sessions know as our Identity Curriculum. These are iGen and iD lessons, assemblies, and dedicated iDays.
Our Identity Curriculum
iGen - Fortnightly lessons exploring themes through a series of novels.
iD - Fortnightly lessons for Year 7 based around resilience, growth mindset and developing transferable skills.
iDays - Days where the normal timetable is dropped to make way for specialist sessions delivered by teachers, visiting professionals and outside agencies, enabling us to take a deep dive into important topics.
RSE is embedded across the curriculum in a variety of ways and is featured in many subjects students study.
Year by Year Curriculum Overview
Jump to:
Year 7
In iGen our students read ‘I am Malala’, a book by 15 year old Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban as she travelled home from school. This is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism and a young girl’s fight for the right to education.
Year 8
Year 8 students read ‘Refugee Boy’ by Benjamin Zephaniah. This book explores themes of war, family and self discovery.
Alem’s father is Ethiopian, and his mother is Eritrean. With both countries at war, he is welcome in neither place. To save him from the conflict in their homeland, his parents give him up to a new home. Alem finds himself in London, in the hands of social workers, lawyers, foster parents, teachers – in children’s homes, hostels, schools, courtrooms.
Year 9
Reading ‘We are all Made of Molecules’ by Susan Nielsen, our Year 9 students will explore a range of issues as the teenage characters navigate new emotions and relationships - including the idea of first love.
Stewart is geeky, gifted but socially clueless. His mum has died, and he misses her every day. Ashley is popular and cool but her grades stink. Her dad has come out and moved out- but not far enough. When Stewart’s dad and Ashley’s mum move in together their worlds collide… and not in a good way.
Year 10
Our Year 10 novel ‘The Art of being Normal’ by Lisa Williamson deals with friendship and the complex issues of lives as teenagers.
David harbours a secret: despite what everyone assumes, he isn’t gay, he’s attracted to the most popular boy in school because he’s a girl living inside a male body. Leo also has secrets; largely the result of his difficult background, and his friendship with David begins when he stands up for him on his first day at Eden Park School.
Year 11
Our Year 11 are currently reading ‘An Act of Love’ by Alan Gibbons. This novel is set largely in Yorkshire, and follows the lives of childhood friends Chris and Imran who celebrate the Millennium as inseparable blood brothers, they are both seven years old. Following 2011 their lives have taken very different paths. One has joined and served in the Army, the other is a potential jihadi recruit. They are no longer friends, and there are bitter wounds between them which remain unhealed. Will their childhood bond be strong enough to overcome an extremist plot?
We are constantly reviewing curriculum material to ensure our students have the most up to date guidance and advice, and is reflective of the world they live in, so when deemed necessary some topic areas may change when they are delivered.