Curriculum Intent

We have redesigned our school curriculum to ensure that our students gain the knowledge and skills which allows them to lead a happy, successful and fulfilling life. The world is a rapidly evolving place and we want to ensure that our students are informed about the latest knowledge alongside being taught the best of previous generations’ knowledge. We also want our students to have a wide range of opportunities and experiences to develop their skills through our extensive extra-curricular provision.

 

Our curriculum is broad and goes well beyond the National Curriculum and exam requirements. Our lessons are carefully sequenced and planned to build on work that has been taught before. Lessons are also sequenced across different subjects to help students make the links that ties the curriculum together.

 

Our school offers a wide range of courses to our students and as we have a large, popular Sixth Form we are one of the few schools which can provide a high quality and wide ranging education from Year 7 through to Year 13 without the need for students to move schools at the end of Year 11. All students are provided with knowledge organisers to keep which provide them with all of the key knowledge they need for each subject. The knowledge organisers are used as the basis of homework and revision exercises to ensure that students retain knowledge. Our curriculum philosophy is based on the following cycle.

Curriculum Intent

To instill the knowledge, skills and cultural capital …to lead a fulfilling life.

 

Aims of the curriculum

• Inclusive and accessible to all students.
• Enjoyable, ambitious and challenging.
• Sequenced from one lesson to the next and from one year to the next.
• Builds across subjects.
• Knowledge and experience rich.
• Contains key knowledge which is identified, taught and retained.
• Schemes of work and lessons which can be adapted to meet the individual needs of students.
• Curriculum takes in to account the impact of Covid and that students may have gaps in knowledge, learning delays and different starting points.
• The curriculum has been designed so that students read at an age appropriate level
• A 3 Year KS3 which goes beyond the National Curriculum.
• A 2 Year KS4 which allows students to access academic and vocational courses.
• A flexible curriculum that can be changed to meet the needs of the students depending on what is happening in the locality, community and the world.
• Provides students with lifelong knowledge, skills and experiences.
• Instill our core values of Respect, Resilience, Integrity, Compassion and Ambition.

 

Schemes of work

All subjects have detailed schemes of work and lessons.

Common content of schemes of work;

• Vocabulary for instruction (not just key words but etymology).
• Recall Starters.
• Interleaving e.g. low stakes tests.
• Purple Challenge (every lesson).
• Reference to cross-curricular links.
• Guidance for non-specialists, ECTs (Early Career Teachers) or less experienced staff e.g. common misconceptions.
• Consistent approaches.
• Go beyond the National Curriculum, cultural capital.
• Opportunities for extra-curricular activities.