Primary Project Labs

Grade 7 Project

Grade 7 - The Strategic Defender

Grade 7 starts preparing learners for the kind of thinking high school expects. They revise their work, defend their choices with evidence, and learn to present ideas clearly without simply repeating what they have been told. By the end of the pathway, learners are not just completing projects. They are learning how to think through a position, improve it, and explain it with confidence.

A structured project desk with a design brief, tools and a tablet showing a bridge plan

Grade 7 Learning Labs

Grade 7: thirty-six weekly Labs, each designed across six days

Across each nine-week term, learners synthesise and defend: they judge sources before using them, argue from evidence, cost their decisions and prepare the working systems they will carry into high school. Each six-day Lab includes a required closing reflection.

All thirty-six weekly Labs are in academic review. None are currently available for purchase or Portal access.

Planned thirty-six-week learning arc

This arc shows the intended year. Individual Labs return only after their six-day design and required closing reflection pass academic review.

Term 1 · weeks 1–9

  1. 01Launch: The Grade 8 Readiness HQWhat does a learner need to think, work, manage pressure and succeed in high school?
  2. 02Mali and Timbuktu: The Knowledge DetectiveHow can reliable evidence help us explain what made Mali and Timbuktu influential?
  3. 03Maps, Scale and Place: Reading South AfricaHow do you read a place you've never been?
  4. 04Biosphere Systems: Why Living Systems BreakHow do the parts of the biosphere support life, and why can a small change affect biodiversity?
  5. 05Data and Truth: Reading the NumbersCan numbers lie?
  6. 06Matter and Materials: What Things Are Made OfWhy is the right material sometimes a life-or-death choice?
  7. 07People and Place: Settlement and ResourcesWhy do towns grow where they grow?
  8. 08Communication: Explaining So Others UnderstandHow do experts make complex things clear?
  9. 09Term 1 Showcase: The Readiness BriefingWhat have you learned to see that you couldn't in Week 1?

Term 2 · weeks 10–18

  1. 10Water Security: Town Under PressureWhat happens when a town runs dry - and who decides?
  2. 11Load Shedding Systems LabWhy does the power go out, and what can a community actually do?
  3. 12Moving People: Transport and AccessHow does a city decide who gets to move easily?
  4. 13The Money System: Earning, Spending, BudgetingWhy is being good with money a survival skill?
  5. 14Forced and Chosen MovementHow can evidence help us distinguish migration from forced movement and explain their effects fairly?
  6. 15Fake News, Evidence and InfluenceHow do you stay un-fooled in a world built to fool you?
  7. 16Resources and Conservation: Using Without Using UpWho pays when a resource runs out?
  8. 17The Local Economy: How a Community Makes a LivingWhat keeps a community's economy alive?
  9. 18Term 2 Exhibition: The Community Intelligence ReportWhat does your community most need to understand about itself?

Term 3 · weeks 19–27

  1. 19The Design Brief: Solving Problems by DesignWhat separates a good idea from a working solution?
  2. 20Future Food: Feeding a Growing CityHow do you feed more people with less?
  3. 21Climate-Ready Design: Building for ExtremesHow do you build for a climate that's changing?
  4. 22Renewable Energy DesignCan clean energy actually work here?
  5. 23Health by Design: Evidence-Based WellbeingHow do you make a community healthier without nagging it?
  6. 24Technology and Automation: Designing Helpful MachinesShould we automate everything we can?
  7. 25Budgeting the Build: Designing Within Money LimitsWhat do you cut when you can't afford everything?
  8. 26Test, Fail, Improve: The Engineering MindsetWhy is failing on purpose the fastest way to succeed?
  9. 27Term 3 Showcase: The Future Solutions ExpoIs your solution good enough to defend?

Term 4 · weeks 28–36

  1. 28Cape Colonisation, Conflict and the Art of ArgumentHow can we build a fair historical argument when sources and perspectives conflict?
  2. 29Future Skills MarketplaceWhat can you offer the world - and what's it worth?
  3. 30Independent Investigation: Run Your Own InquiryCan you run a real investigation without being told how?
  4. 31Revision That Works: Learning for the Long TermHow do you remember what matters when it counts?
  5. 32Planning for Grade 8: Your Year, Your SystemWhat will it take to run yourself in Grade 8?
  6. 33Curating Your Evidence: Building the PortfolioWhat does your year of work actually prove?
  7. 34Telling Your Story: Presenting Who You're BecomingHow do you present yourself with confidence and honesty?
  8. 35Capstone: The Future Readiness ChallengeCan you do it all at once, on your own?
  9. 36Graduation: The Grade 8 Launch PortfolioHow far have you come since Week 1?

Want to be first to know when Grade 7 launches?

The first Grade 7 Learning Labs are currently in development, built with weekly missions, CAPS-aligned subject work, and final projects learners can explain in their own words.

Tell us about your family, school or centre, and we'll let you know when Grade 7 is ready.

Register interest