Curriculum and Learning

Our curriculum is traditional, with a focus on long-established academic subjects, but also innovative as we prepare students for the 21st century world.

In Year 7 and 8 all students study Maths, English, Science, a Modern Foreign Language, Latin, Geography, History, Religious Studies, Information and Design Technology, Art, Music and Physical Education. In addition to this, they will follow a personal careers education programme.

As students enter Year 9, they begin to specialise in their study of the sciences and take Biology, Chemistry and Physics separately in preparation for their Science GCSE qualifications.

At GCSE, students will study Maths, English Language and Literature, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Alongside those subjects, they will participate in core Physical Education, a programme of Personal and Careers Education and will make four further subject choices from a wide-ranging list.

Beyond the academic content, the curriculum is designed to enable students to understand themselves. In particular, we nurture each student’s capacity for self-reflection as the foundation of personal happiness and successful, lifelong learning. We also want students to enjoy their learning: it is important to us that they are actively engaged in lessons, ask questions and search out answers, and explore issues inside and outside the classroom. Our students take opportunities to travel near and far in order to enrich their understanding.

We take great care to develop the personal skills students need for future success, including the capacity to organise themselves and their work, and the resolve to persist when facing challenges. We give them problems to solve, sometimes as individuals but often as groups, to build that resilience.