QI VI Extension Programme

The General Studies Programme at Yarm School provides a range of Quite Interesting things to stimulate in Sixth Form students the curiosity and critical skills to engage with university-level study when they leave school and with the wider world perceptively throughout their lives.

The General Studies Programme is where all areas of the curriculum meet; where artists and scientists share their insights; where particular experiences are related to the universal and the universal is refined to the particular.

The Programme comprises five elements: two in school time (QI-Friday and Extension Seminars) and two external qualifications (AS/A2 General Studies and the Extended Project Qualification).

QI-Friday
At the heart of the programme lies ‘QI-Friday’, a flexible lecture/seminar programme which lasts forty-five minutes each week and involves the whole Sixth Form.

A range of guest speakers and members of the school’s staff share their expertise and insights in a series of lectures and seminars addressing areas including ethical and moral issues, careers guidance, UCAS information, PSHE, and social, technological and cultural matters.

Extension Seminars
Extension Seminars in the Upper Sixth involve around three-quarters of the year-group and use one period per week of the time released if students switch from four to three subjects at A2. Weekly seminars are led by teachers drawn from across the academic departments, the aim being to widen students’ thinking within their A2 subject areas and to help them to consolidate their knowledge in other areas of the curriculum.

Seminar groups are made up of students who study similar A2 subjects, divided broadly between arts and sciences. Each group passes between two seminar leaders (one of whom focuses on Culture & Society, the other on Science & Society), alternating each half term.

Students’ own reading, research and preparation allow them to contribute fully to the seminars and are a key part of the learning experience, not to mention a valuable preparation for university-level studies.

Extended Project Qualification
AQA’s Extended Project Qualification is a research-based qualification equivalent to half an A level; students work with the support of a supervisor and are assessed on their project product, project log, and an oral presentation about the work they have done.

Although it is still very new, the EPQ seems likely to become a regular feature of Sixth Form education in the years ahead, so we are pleased to be at the forefront with our first cohort who completed projects in in the autumn of 2009 and achieved excellent results, including Yarm School’s first Sixth Form A* grade!

AS & A2 General Studies Examinations
All members of the Sixth Form sit the AQA General Studies Specification A examinations, taking the AS units in the January of Upper Sixth and the A2 units in the June session. 

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