Every child in the Trust experiences our Darwin Growth Curriculum. The Trust aim is to ensure every child reaches the highest academic standards they are capable of alongside providing the opportunity to grow, develop and evolve into citizens of the future.

Severn Bridges Multi-Academy Trust has developed its curriculum to promote the essential skills children can apply in a range of ways in school to help develop perseverance, resilience and ability to meet new challenges.

The Curriculum is supported by the Darwin Values Award where children are encouraged to build the values in life that support all the experiences they meet in school and as they approach the transition to Secondary School.

The Trust has developed a set of characters that epitomise in a child friendly way, the values children need to employ in school. The table below shows how each character represents the skills the children will need. The Award also promotes the British Values taught within the curriculum. 

The recent white paper Educational Excellence Everywhere states that the Government is set on: “Building character and resilience in every child” It continues by stating that: ‘A 21st century education should prepare children for adult life by instilling the character traits and fundamental British values that will help them succeed: being resilient and knowing how to persevere, how to bounce back if faced with failure, and how to collaborate with others at work and in their private lives.

These are the values and feelings we think are essential to help children grow and develop into kind hearted, inquisitive, life long learners.

The Darwin Values Award

The Darwin Values Award is SB MAT’s unique, engaging and rewarding approach to delivering wide ranging opportunities to develop our children’s key life skills essential to life-long learning and future success.

The three levels of the award are:

The Darwin Values Award is split into different categories: Volunteering, physical, new skills, residential and expedition, community and charity, personal skills and future well being.

Pupils can achieve the volunteering award by putting themselves forward for positions of                      responsibility, for example:

• Becoming a Sports Leader
• Buddy reading
• Taking on a class job
• Taking on an extra responsibility in school

Physical

Pupils are able to achieve the physical award by developing their physical skills in or out of school time, for example:

• Learning to skip
• Joining a sports teamAattending an after school club
• Attending a club or coaching session outside of school
• Taking part in sports day
• Competing for the school
• Completing Bikeability training

New Skills 

Pupils are awarded for developing a range of new skills via the curriculum and associated events, for example:

• Creating a moving picture
• Speaking a different language
• Being able to tie knots in Forest School
• Using knives safely when cooking
• Using whittling tools

Expedition and residential  

Children can gain the award through residential experience or day visits. They can also achieve it through school based challenges and special visitors working with them, for example:

• Staying away from home on a residential visit such as PGL, Arthog, Manor Adventure, Standon Bowers or Beaudesert
• Following a map to a new place or to find the way around the local area
• Climbing one of the peaks in our ‘Four Peaks Challenge’ Haughmond, Nesscliffe, Wrekin and Grinshill.
• Building a shelter in the forest
• Learning road safety skills in the local area
• Going on a trip with the class.

Charity and community

All children help raise money via schools fundraising days and class events. These charitable and community experiences help them achieve this category of the award, for example:

• Picking litter in the school grounds or local area.
• Raising money for a charitable event 
• Helping to raise funds to support sending pupils to school in Africa e.g. East Meru 
• Holding a staff at the Summer or Christmas fair
• Visiting a retirement home to sing, perform or carry out activities
• Taking part in a sponsored event to raise money for a charity or for a school fund.
• Participating in a whole school fund-raising event.
• Attending Safer School meetings

Personal skills and future well-being or prepared for life skills 

The award is achieved through the life skills activities and events the children undertake in school or support outside of school time, for example:

• First Aid training
• Swimming
• Overcoming a fear
• Setting and reaching a goal
• Joining Cubs, Scouts, Beavers, Rainbows, Brownies etc
• Earning a Blue Peter Badge

These  are a small selection of examples under each heading.  Teachers continually adapt the award to keep the opportunities offered varied and up to date. The key emotions are also covered to enable children to maintain a positive and healthy mental well being during their time in school. 

The children at Severn Bridges MAT have a right, no matter what their background, to expect a curriculum that inspires and leads them to achieve and grow into responsible citizens ready to shape their future.  We firmly believe the innovative  Darwin Growth Curriculum fulfills these ideals. 

Chief Executive Officer

Severn Bridges Multi-Academy Trust