Upton Court Grammar School
Upton Court Grammar School (UCGS) in Berkshire is a selective co-ed academy of about 1,110 students aged between 11 and 18. The school is a member of Pioneer Educational Trust with a curriculum that aims to fully support students in becoming future global changemakers.
The curriculum provides rich, transformative learning experiences that equip UCGS students with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will be needed to take on and thrive in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world.
"Lyfta provides the context, it provides the perspectives, the different cultures that students need knowledge and understanding about."
How UCGS use Lyfta
UCGS have been incorporating Lyfta sessions into the school curriculum to support their mission: ‘to ensure all students fulfil their academic and personal aspirations and thrive on an intrapersonal, interpersonal, societal and global level.’
Lyfta is also seen to support the school’s values and associated Ad Astra activity programme.
"One of the ways that we use Lyfta is not only by presenting a different story from a different country and a different culture, but then to talk about it, to use oracy skills to be able to debate."
"If we are serious about preparing the next generation to tackle the challenges of the 21st century, we need to be, then it is essential that we prepare students, and give them the experiences and the diverse perspectives that a traditional school possibly didn't have."
In addition to the weekly pastoral programme, students attended a societal level thriving drop-down day planned and delivered collaboratively by Lyfta and school students and staff. The day supported students to consider how by committing to change, they can engage in active citizenship and have a significant impact on the lives of others. In these drop-down days, the entire school visited a bespoke lesson around desertification in China, and one man’s mission to plant ‘One billion trees’. Year 12s explored this storyworld as part of an exercise designed to help them reflect upon and articulate their involvement in societal level change actions in the past.
"Lyfta helps teachers nurture the global citizens of tomorrow and supports the school’s mission to support students to become future global changemakers. Our ultimate aim is for every student to have visited every single country through the Lyfta platform by the time they leave school, providing them with a comprehensive and unique perspective of the way different people live across the world"
