Verum Academica
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FOCUS
Verum Academica focuses on equipping teenagers with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to transition successfully into adulthood while supporting parents in fostering their children’s growth.
Focus Areas
Seven Focus Areas of Verum Academica
Self-Discovery and Purpose:
Helping teens identify their strengths, passions, and goals, fostering a deep understanding of who they are and what they want to achieve.
Skills Development:
Emphasising hard, academic, soft, interpersonal, and professional skills to build a well-rounded foundation for success.
Psychosocial Growth:
Guiding development through the 8 psychosocial stages to address emotional, social, and identity challenges.
Education and Learning Competence:
Teaching students how to navigate, critique, and utilise existing educational resources effectively.
Family Integration and Support:
Strengthening family dynamics to create an environment of mutual understanding and collaboration.
Practical Application and Roadmaps:
Providing actionable strategies, step-by-step guidance, and tips for real-world implementation of skills and goals.
Competence Framework Alignment:
Integrating the Taxonomy of Success and Verum Academica Competence Framework to create a personalised and structured path to growth.
These focus areas reflect Verum’s dedication to equipping teens and families with the tools, strategies, and mindset needed for sustainable success.
Relevant Theories and Models
Verum Academica integrates established models and theories to create a robust framework that guides its programmes and services. These models, adapted and linked to the Verum Model and Theory, provide a foundation for fostering competence, maturity, and success.
Psychosocial Stages of Development (Erik Erikson):
Central to Verum’s theory are Erik Erikson’s 8 stages of development, which address emotional and social growth challenges. Our focus is on guiding teens through Identity vs. Role Confusion (Stage 5) to help them explore and define their identities, while also supporting their transition into adulthood through Intimacy vs. Isolation (Stage 6). This journey is built upon the foundational work established in Steps 1 through 4, which focus on self-awareness, goal-setting, action planning, and continuous support to ensure a well-rounded development process, All of this is underpinned by the trust developed between all stakeholders—students, parents, and counsellor—ensuring a collaborative and supportive environment.
Verum’s Taxonomy of Success builds on these stages to offer tailored interventions and promote holistic development.
Skills Development - Future Skills (World Economic Forum, 2020):
Verum aligns with the globally recognised 2020 Skills framework, which includes critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, emotional intelligence, adaptability, and digital literacy.
These are categorised into hard, academic, soft, interpersonal, and professional skills within Verum’s Competence Framework.
Psychology of Adjustment and Wellbeing:
Verum incorporates psychological principles to support emotional resilience, stress management, and overall wellbeing.
Techniques and strategies are designed to help teens and families adjust to change, build coping mechanisms, and enhance mental health.
Bloom’s Taxonomy:
Used to develop learning strategies, Verum helps students navigate levels of learning from basic knowledge acquisition to higher-order skills such as analysis, evaluation, and creation.
The taxonomy serves as a tool for building academic competence and teaching effective study and learning methodologies.
Social Learning Theory (Albert Bandura):
Verum integrates the idea of learning through observation and modelling, emphasising the importance of role models, practical application, and mentorship.
This aligns with Verum’s emphasis on hands-on guidance and actionable roadmaps.
Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner):
Verum recognises the influence of interconnected systems (family, peers, schools, and society) on development.
Its family-centred approach bridges gaps between these systems, fostering collaboration and understanding.
Growth Mindset (Carol Dweck):
A critical underpinning of Verum’s philosophy, encouraging teens and parents to embrace challenges, learn from failures, and strive for continuous improvement.
By synthesising these models with Verum’s unique Competence Framework and Taxonomy of Success, the programme ensures a comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach that is both practical and transformative. This blend provides actionable pathways for teens and families to thrive academically, socially, and personally.
