Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
We place considerable emphasis on the cultural life of the school, and in addition to regular dramatic productions involving boys from all years, we have an active debating society and a flourishing Art Department which regularly exhibits students’ work. Students have the opportunity to learn a wide range of musical instruments, to sing in the choir, and to play in a variety of ensembles.
Students’ cultural development is aided throughout their time in school through whole school events such as our annual Remembrance Service and visits to sites of important local interest such as: Portchester Castle, Hurst Castle, Fishbourne Roman Palace and Kingston Lacy. Trips are also run to London to places such as the Natural History Museum, Kew Gardens, the Science Museum and the Imperial War Museum. Further afield still, students also have the opportunity to visit Normandy and the First World War Battlefields. All of these visits help the students to put their own culture and heritage into context.
The School ski trip takes students to countries such as France, Austria or the USA and there are also notable links to Germany, Spain, Bahrain, Africa and China (students and staff will be visiting China in October 2010). Regular video conferencing is also fostering links with students in Japan, some of whom have been able to visit Bournemouth School recently.
The school has no religious affiliations, but enjoys close links with all of the main faith communities in the Bournemouth area. We encourage students to celebrate their own faiths. All boys attend Religious Studies lessons unless a request is made by parents for their son to be withdrawn.
The religious studies department strives to educate rather than indoctrinate its students. We believe that objective study of the major world religions can assist students in learning about, and then more importantly from religious belief and practice. The department also offers students a secure and controlled environment in which they can reflect on their own values and beliefs and share these with other students. This will hopefully enable students as they progress through the school to make more informed decisions concerning moral and philosophical dilemmas and help achieve the objectives above.
At Key Stage 3 students have one lesson per week and in line with government guidelines students follow the SACRE Bournemouth Agreed syllabus: “REaching Out REaching Within”.
The Syllabus focuses around 5 Key Questions
- Is there anybody out there?
- What Next?
- Everybody hurts - Why?
- Are we all equal?
- Whose world is it anyway?
At Key Stage 4 Religious Studies is combined with Citizenship and PSHE with all students following a full GCSE course. One paper focuses upon topics relating to social and ethical issues and the religious responses to these whilst the other paper is more philosophically based. (Syllabus: AQA Specification B Modules 4 & 5).
Health and Sex Education
Health Education plays a significant part in a young person’s personal development, and an important area of this is Sex and Relationships Education. The title is important because the knowledge, understanding and skills developed are always put into the context of positive, caring relationships and the need for trust and respect in relationships.
Sex and Relationships Education is provided for all students through Science and PSHE lessons. The aim of Sex Education is to foster students' understanding of their emotional and physiological development and awareness of the attitudes and values of others.
In Year 7 Science lessons students consider how life begins. Classes study reproduction in plants and animals, which leads on to work on human reproduction. There is a general introduction to the sex organs; pregnancy and birth are considered. Puberty changes are discussed and lessons stress that all variations of such changes are normal.
In Year 9, classes follow a short unit of work in which students consider their attitudes to others. The work incorporates examination of adolescence and responsibility. This programme introduces AIDS and the use of condoms.
Various aspects of Sex Education are included in Key Stage 4 Science courses. These involve a more advanced study of fertilisation and birth, as well as infertility and hormone treatment.
Parents who wish to know more about the programme may consult the teacher concerned. It is open to parents to withdraw their children from all or part of Sex and Relationship Education, except for those parts included in the statutory National Curriculum for Science, by putting a request in writing to the Headmaster.