The Core Class (age 11-16)

Life is a project. As parents and educators, we believe the majority of kids these days are being academically educated for a future that won’t exist by the time they get there. The implications are already affecting them - career arcs that no longer exist, with young people who are ill equipped to embrace the future of work.

We believe life should be viewed as a project - taking skills and experience with us on each new endeavour, so training young people in project based mindset is critical to their future success. Understanding they start a project with set outcomes with a sense of completion and celebrating together.

The Core Programme is where students take the lead — real-world projects across five pathways, guided by mentors, with growing independence and complexity through to age 16. Students leave with portfolios, Da Vinci Qualifications and work they're proud to stand behind.

The Curriculum: Da Vinci Life-Skills

Future Human School is built on principles taken from decades of careers in education, enterprise and life experience. We have chosen  Da Vinci Life-Skills (DVLS) as our curriculum partner for 10-16 year olds, who share our vision and values for young people.

The curriculum blends all the traditional school subjects, the UK national curriculum and more, into expanded, contextual, transdisciplinary projects. 

https://davincilifeskills.com/

A logo combining a stylized teal triangle with a gold circle and line, alongside the text 'Da Vinci Life-Skills' in green.
Colorful geometric floral pattern with overlapping circles in teal, orange, yellow, and red.
Diagram of school subjects organized in a funnel shape with different colored circles representing each subject including PE, Art & Design, Drama & Music, History, Languages, DT & IT, Geography, English, Maths, Science, and others.

5 Project Pathways

The Future Human School Skills Curriculum is built around five dynamic project-based learning pathways that offer real-world, interdisciplinary, and student-led experiences. 

Each pathway blends core academic skills with creativity, problem-solving, and purpose.

Learners explore, plan, create, reflect, and share projects supported by mentors and peer collaboration. 

A colorful chart illustrating four pathways: Food Pathway, Personal Exploration Pathway, Production Pathway, Multiverse Games Pathway, and Enterprise Pathway, each with descriptions and related subjects.

Pathways are repeated annually but increase in complexity based on skill progression. Learners are empowered to use advanced skill sets where progress is evaluated and assessed by 7 core domains.

A digital project planning chart with color-coded categories for personal exploration, production, enterprise, pool, and games, each containing specific project titles and descriptions focused on various educational, environmental, technological, and historical topics.

Example Pathway: Production

The Production Pathway -Term 1 supports learners to develop skill to create compelling events, performances, films, or exhibitions that share their ideas and creativity with the wider community. 

Students research a theme, create the content, and then plan and deliver a live event.

Confidence in storytelling, media creation, performance, public engagement, leadership, project management, collaboration and communication skills. 

Flowchart illustrating the process of creating an alien stop-frame animation film project, from research and planning, through storytelling, character design, and media studies, to technical production stages including editing, sound design, and animation. Includes categories such as Biology, Languages, Geography, Physics, Astronomy, Design Technology, and English.

The Personal Pathway

The PEP pathway runs throughout the semester and is self directed. It gives learners the chance to follow their curiosity, passions, and personal values through self-initiated projects. Guided by questions “What would I like to get better at?”, “What’s a problem I’d like to help solve?”

Students investigate topics, build new skills, and solve meaningful problems solo
or in teams with mentor support. Their projects often evolve into larger ventures across other pathways.

Diagram illustrating the process of personal exploration projects including stages from Ideation to Evaluation with icons and text describing each step and key skills.

The 9 Cs

  1. Confidence: Facing challenging situations to build experience, future resilience and leadership by encouraging peer based mentorship

  2. Curiosity: Curiousness breeds passion and focus through deep discovery in learning and doing

  3. Critical Thinking: Sharing ideas, research and sense making without bias to inform personal choices and emotional intelligence

  4. Creativity: Imagineering creative, practical problem solving by unleashing kids natural creativity

  5. Collaboration: Understanding of self and others within a team framework and wider community to get a job done

  6. Communication: Logic, grammar and rhetoric skills to communicate ideas and cohesively present and persuade to peer groups and elders 

  7. Commerciality: (Not Capitalism): Whether a business or a charity - all projects in the world today need to be commercially viable. This means demonstrating a measurable value in money or impact.

  8. Celebration:  Owning a task from conception to completion; understanding life as a series  of projects. Celebrate each growth phase as a rite of passage with peers and community

  9. Co Generational: ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. Supported by mentors not teachers, together we can support their growth and social value to solve bigger problems.