Named after NASA’s 2022 CAPSTONE pathfinder satellite, this is the high-level navigation core where students choose their final Pathways and prepare to launch into the wider universe
NASA led a pioneering pathfinder mission launched in 2022 to the Moon: CAPSTONE. Architecturally, a capstone is the final stone placed at the very top of a structural wall or archway. In academia, a capstone project is a high-level, multi-faceted assignment that serves as the culminating academic experience for students.
The name “Capstone Core” explicitly tells the Key Stage 4 students, “You couldn’t be up here without the foundations you built down there.” It acknowledges that the Curiosity Zone and Synthesis Sector are the beginning, and build-up of their education, with Key Stage 4 the crowning achievement that locks it all together, whichever pathway is taken to reach it.