The Shell Year at St Michael’s is designed as a bridging year link between Year 8 at St Michael’s Preparatory School and Year 10 (entry year at Hautlieu).

We recognise the need to accommodate those pupils who have a desire to stay on the island for secondary school education and continue in a coeducational environment. With this in mind, we have developed the curriculum for this Year, called Shell Year, aligning our provision with Hautlieu’s GCSE  offering in Year 10.

In effect, this Year is a pre-GCSE year by design.

In the core disciplines of Maths and English, the Year 8 classes are currently streamed into three small sets according to ability and the Shell pupils will access the appropriate grouping. Further tuition is delivered in these two subjects extramurally where the assessment criteria (exam papers) will inform the curriculum content.

Distinct from the Year 8 cohort, the Shell pupils will undertake a Core Skills programme imbued with skills tuition, all of which are detailed herein.

Moreover, the PSHE provision sets out to coordinate and ultimately award the Shell pupils with the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. The Shell Year naturally plays out against a backdrop of the prep school environment with the advantages including class size and extramural provisions such a setting would enjoy.

We invite you to contact us, should you wish further clarification.