Curriculum Statement

We offer a broad and balanced curriculum which develops pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding to allow them to fulfil their potential and to adequately prepare them for their next stage in life. This, along with our varied enrichment programme, enables pupils to become caring, confident and responsible young people, demonstrating our core values of ambition, bravery and kindness.

Our Core Principles

• Have high standards and expectations, encouraging pupils to be the best that they can be.
• Offer a broad and balanced curriculum that is progressive in terms of design, sequenced in terms of approach and knowledge-rich and challenging in terms of content.
• Deliver excellent teaching, informed by research and delivered by specialists with a deep knowledge of their subject.
• Ensure all pupils have full access to the curriculum, including during remote learning, and no child is left behind.
• Offer appropriate pathways to all pupils, including bespoke support for SEND pupils.
• Have clearly defined end points to assess pupil progress.
• Develop links in learning, within a subject and across different subjects.
• Embed literacy, numeracy and creativity across the curriculum.
• Promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths, beliefs and lifestyles.
• Offer a wide range of enrichment opportunities to develop the skills, character and wellbeing of pupils.
• Provide high quality, impartial careers guidance to help pupils make informed choices and prepare them for the next stage of their education, employment or training.

Key Stage 3 (Years 7 and 8)

Pupils have 25 hours of learning time where they study:

English, Mathematics, Science, Computing, Modern Foreign Languages, History, Geography, Religious Education, Physical Education, Art, Music, Drama, Dance and Technology.

In Year 7, pupils have one Aspire lesson a fortnight where they will have explicit opportunities to consider their personal learning habits and characteristics and develop a greater sense of their ‘growth mind-set’ and overall capacity to make progress through hard work.

Key Stage 4 (Years 9, 10 and 11)

Following their options choices in Year 8, pupils study their four GCSE and technical qualifications in addition to English, Mathematics, Science, Religious Education and Physical Education.

Key Stage 5 (Years 12 and 13)

Students study for three or four A Levels in our Sixth Form. Many students studying three A Levels choose to complete an additional qualification in Year 12 such as the highly regarded Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) or AS Core Maths. Students also complete an interesting and varied enrichment programme during their time in the Sixth Form.

PSHCE

PSHCE is delivered via tutor-times, and also on three Life Ready Days, which are devoted to the deeper study of aspects of this curriculum and which enables visitors to support the programme.

Whilst we believe that aspects of PSHCE are an integral part of school life, the explicit teaching of this curriculum aims to provide pupils with the information and understanding they need to be prepared for their teenage years and for their lives beyond school. At the heart of this curriculum are the school values of ambition, bravery and kindness, which have been selected to provide the core principle and foundation for each area of PSHCE:

Living in the Wider World – Ambition

Health and Well-Being – Bravery

Relationships – Kindness

These values, firmly embedded within our PSHCE curriculum, aim to support students to develop the knowledge and awareness to be safe, happy and engaged within society. Integral to this is a developing understanding of positive relationships and the celebration of differences both in school and the wider world.