Empathy Middle School (EMS) has partnered with Da Vinci Life-Skills to run a 5-project curriculum pilot of Production, Enterprise, Food, World Building with Role-Playing Games (RPGs) and Personal Exploration Projects (or PEPs). Led by Zach Reznichek (here in Bali) and Rosina Dorelli (in Cambridge, UK), our project-based approach enhances applied learning through mentorship to help expand learners’ capacity to create and develop their own projects.

Empathy School is working on its accreditation in the US education system, it is also accredited in Indonesia as a primary school, but not as a middle school because we do not believe that the process serves our community and school culture - there are required religion courses, Bahasa Indonesian classes and testing that would take many hours of teaching and administration to fulfill that we are not committed to. For parents and learners that require or need Indonesian accreditation, this would not be the right school.

Empathy Middle School (EMS) learners have the potential to receive 5 Da Vinci Life-Skills Qualifications (DVQs) each year, one in each of our project pathways - Enterprise, Food, Production, Multiverse Games, and Personal Exploration Projects (PEPs). The transdisciplinary program’s life-skills are developed through four-domains: applied-academics, kinaesthetic-embodiment, intuitive-creativity, and social-emotional learning (SEL).

The DVLS Curriculum references the UK National Curriculum and Key Stages for each of its 5 Project Pathways. Formatively Assessed by learners, their peers and their teacher-mentors, skills and contextual real-projects are evidenced in comprehensive (digital) portfolios that learners take with them to future schools, higher education, jobs and their own entrepreneurial life-paths.

What makes the DVLS Assessment unique is its research-based accreditation system that follows 9 core skills and 27 sub-skills that prepare learners for 21st Century living.

Our program provides students with the option, in partnership with the National Extension College, UK (NEC), to take the online GCSEs and A-Levels if and when they are ready.

The PERSONAL EXPLORATION PROJECT (PEP) pathway involves individual passion projects and group projects designed by the students with support from their mentors. We ask learners, what is something: that I am curious about; that I want to getter better at; that I’d like to make or that is problematic in my community or the world that I’d like to tackle.

The PRODUCTION pathway supports learners to create content for live events, such as an alien stop-frame animation film showing, a cultural identity fashion show or a documentary on migration. Learners research the topic, make all the content and them plan, budget and manage an event for parents and the local community.

The ENTERPRISE pathway fosters entrepreneurial and design thinking. Learners design their own products, explore industrial and civic design, architecture, engineering, robotics and coding. We encourage students to start their own ethical, sustainable and inclusive businesses and we teach them about company structures and finance.

The FOOD pathway investigates the journey of food from the ground to the plate and waste management. We grow and cook food, find out about the history of global food trade, nutrition and health. This pathway covers much of the biology, chemistry and geography curriculum. Projects include designing a nutritious, ethical and sustainable school lunch menu, planting a permaculture garden and researching the history of fermentation and preservation.

In the MULTIVERSE GAMES pathway learners go on RPG (Role Playing Game) adventures into historical settings, such as Ancient China, the Indian Spice trade and Mansa Musa's Malian empire. They design characters and compose their backstories, considering the beliefs, social structures, professions, etc. of the time they are in. We review the motivations behind the different types of games, learning about strategies, collaboration and game mechanics.