Knowledge architecture
The ten Worlds are WSA's permanent knowledge architecture: ten interconnected fields through which any interest can be read, each with real disciplines, real progression and connections to the other nine.
Why ten, and why permanent
A World is not a category label and not navigation. Each one is a genuine field of knowledge with disciplines underneath it, a full progression from birth to eighteen, a core question it exists to keep open, and real intellectual relationships to the other nine.
If a World could not state what becomes more sophisticated between five and fifteen, it would be a menu heading. None of these are. Because they are permanent, an interest pursued at four and an interest pursued at fourteen land in the same architecture, and a child's work accumulates instead of scattering.
Worlds receive interests, contain academic disciplines, develop capabilities, and connect to one another. Explorations happen inside them; mastery is recorded against them.
The ten
Why are places the way they are, and why do people live as they do?
Geography and history together explain almost everything a child will find puzzling about the news. A place is never an accident: it is climate, water, rock, trade, power and decision, layered.
Geography · History · Social studies · Global perspectives
02How does the living and physical world actually work, and how do we find out?
Science is not a body of facts to be received but a method for settling disagreements with evidence. A child who has done real inquiry treats claims differently for life.
Science · Biology · Chemistry · Environmental science · Geography (physical)
03Why does it hold, why did it fail, and could it be made better?
Engineering is the discipline of deciding under constraint. It is also the fastest route to genuine mathematics, because the number has to be right or the thing falls over.
Physics · Design and technology · Engineering · Technical drawing
04What is this maker trying to do, and did they do it?
Art is not decoration and not therapy. It is a discipline of intention, revision and judgement — and one of the few places a child learns to finish something to their own standard rather than someone else's.
Art · Music · Drama · Design · Media studies
05What do we owe each other, and how do I know my own mind?
Self-knowledge and ethical reasoning are the capabilities most strongly associated with a life that goes well, and the ones most reliably left to chance by conventional schooling.
PSHE · Philosophy · Psychology · Citizenship · Life orientation
06How does language do what it does — to a reader, and to the person using it?
Command of language is the ceiling on every other discipline. A child who can read difficult text and write a defended argument can teach themselves anything afterwards.
English · Literature · Modern languages · Classics
07How much, how many, how certain — and does the reasoning hold?
Mathematics is the language every quantitative discipline eventually speaks. Met through real questions, it stops being a subject to survive and becomes an instrument.
Mathematics · Statistics · Further mathematics
08What should be automated, what should not, and who decides?
Children will not be distinguished by their ability to use these tools — everyone will use them. They will be distinguished by judgement about when the output is wrong, and about what should not be delegated.
Computing · Information technology · Media studies
09How is value created, captured and distributed — and is that fair?
Enterprise teaches consequence faster than any other domain: the stall either sold out or it did not. It is also where economics, ethics and mathematics meet a real number.
Business studies · Economics · Accounting · Enterprise
10Can I look after myself, and the people and things in my care?
Practical competence is not a lesser education. Cooking is chemistry and economics; repair is engineering; planning a journey is logistics. And a capable young adult is the point of the entire project.
Food technology · Physical education · Health · Home economics
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