Curriculum Overview

 Our Curriculum Intent 

 Our aim is to provide an excellent education for all our students; an education which enables all to be successful learners and prepares them for success in life.  Our curriculum is designed to provide students with the core knowledge they need for success in education and in life, to maximise their cognitive development, to develop the whole person and the talents of the individual and to allow all students to become active and economically self-sufficient citizens.  

  By drawing on the best that has been thought, said and done in each subject, our curriculum enables students to appreciate and participate in the full richness of the human experience, developing positive lifelong values. 

 The curriculum as a core academic curriculum is founded on these key principles:  

1. We have high expectations for all and believe that all students have a right to learn what is in our curriculum; we have a duty to ensure that all students are taught the whole of it.  
2. We want all students to achieve a deep understanding of the knowledge specified in the curriculum for each year, and teaching should endeavour to secure this for all students.  
3. We will not constantly amend the curriculum: while we should make occasional adjustments in the light of feedback and experience, we will aim for stability, so that teachers can develop expertise and leadership. 
4. We want all students to get off to a flying start when they join us.  Our curriculum will ensure continuity between primary, secondary and post-16 phases, so that our curriculum complements the work being done in other places to support student progress, ensuring continuous improvement for all. 
5. Our curriculum is intended as a concise specification of knowledge and content to be taught and learned; it is for faculties and teachers to decide how to teach and bring it to life, developing both mastery and character in our students. 

Our Curriculum Implementation 

Curriculum Implementation and Delivery 

KS3, we deliver a traditional curriculum, the majority of students’ study one language either Spanish or French. We provide extra time in English and Maths for one ‘catch-up’ class in both Years 7 & 8, reducing (but not removing) the time they receive in Computing and Languages. All students have access to the widest possible curriculum, covering Values, Art, DT, English, French/Spanish, Geography, History, Computer Studies, Maths, Music, PE, Philosophy and Ethics and Science.  

KS3 is delivered over 3 years to facilitate mastery and metacognition.  Our KS3 curriculum is important to student’s future success as it is the bridge between childhood learning and the mature study of a young adult. It is a time of both physical and emotional growth, when our students begin to define their own discrete identities and aspirations.  This enables students to make the right choice for them regarding GCSE options.  

KS4 is delivered over 2 years. Students continue to study the core curriculum which includes English, Maths, Science, Physical Education and PSHEE. As part of the Key Stage 4 pathway, students will also have opportunity follow subjects of choice which are carefully selected following a range of advice and guidance. They are encouraged to select EBACC subjects within this pathway and all students are encouraged to take a language and a humanity subject in order to complete the full EBACC.   

The development of students’ personal and social skills and their spiritual and cultural development are nurtured specifically through our Values Education curriculum and assemblies, as well as permeating the whole curriculum, both formal and implicit.  

As a mastery curriculum our students study fewer topics in depth, with the expectation that students master knowledge and skills, revisiting misconceptions or gaps in learning. Key Stage 3 provides students with the time and space to gain this secure understanding, providing opportunities to support memory retention and retrieval. Our approach to teaching and learning supports a cumulative curriculum by ensuring that lessons build on prior learning and provide sufficient opportunity for guided and independent practice. In our lessons you will typically see all students grappling with the same challenging content, with teachers providing additional support for students who need it. Rather than moving on to new content, our higher attainers are expected to produce work of greater depth, flair and ambition. We know our learners and support with strategies from Teaching to the Top and scaffolding for SEND. In teaching, our learning foundations underpin the principles of Mastery with The Brixham Way. The Brixham Way comprises of 6 principles: Challenge, explanation, practice, modelling, questioning and feedback.  

We support metacognition with the use of a Thinking Toolkit, such as knowledge organisers, thinking maps and hats, low stake quizzes and Think Pair Share. Every student has a knowledge Organiser with scaffolded tasks for their Seminar Study so that work completed beyond the classroom. Students have access to chromebook and a subject specific vocabulary book which supports them with this aspect of the curriculum beyond the College day.  

In order to allow the mastery approach to be effective (i.e. students learn what they are expected to in the year they are expected to), early catch up is essential; we aim to promptly identity and support students who start secondary school without a secure grasp of reading, writing and mathematics so that they can access the full curriculum. Everything from which students learn at school – the taught subject timetable, the approach to spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, the co-curricular provision and the ethos and ‘hidden curriculum’ of the school – are to be seen as part of the curriculum. Our values Education is delivered through the curriculum in this broadest sense.