The intention of our curriculum
We pride ourselves on providing opportunities for every student to follow a broad and ambitious curriculum. The purpose of our 5-year curriculum is to support students in their cumulative knowledge and skills over time. We place value on both the academic and personal development elements that our curriculum offers.
We know that success comes from enjoyment and engagement. Our curriculum is based around our teaching of key concepts, prioritising depth and breadth and ensuring knowledge and understanding is gained in each subject across the five years.
Our curriculum embeds the criteria of the Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 National Curriculum and provides clear progression of subject knowledge and skills. The design of our five-year curriculum gives our students the skills and experience they need in order to access the next stage of their education, and realise their potential.
We are ambitious for all students, and they follow a curriculum that challenges their learning. We offer 3 languages: GCSE French, GCSE German and GCSE Spanish which, when complemented by GCSE Geography or GCSE History, make up the Ebacc suite of subjects (alongside their core subjects of English, Maths and Science). We know that the Ebacc combination of subjects gives students access to a wide range of employment options when they leave secondary school and the broad knowledge required by employers. We know that for many of our young people, studying the Ebacc suite of subjects gives a ‘competitive edge’ for applications to one of the Russell Group universities.
The 5 year curriculum plan
We pride ourselves on providing opportunities for every student to follow a broad and balanced curriculum. Our curriculum narrative is based around our teaching of key concepts, prioritising depth over breadth and ensuring knowledge and understanding is gained in each subject, at each stage. Our core curriculum of maths English and science, is complemented by the study of a possible 20 different options subjects, of which students in Year 8 choose four to study to GCSE level.
This range of choices ensures that there are opportunities for all; we are ambitious for our most able students to study the most challenging academic subjects whilst we are keen to provide more vocational routes for those students requiring additional support. We know that success comes from enjoyment and engagement. Our curriculum aims to give our students the experience they need in order to access the next stage of their education, and realise their potential.
Our lower school curriculum places emphasis on humanities, languages, technology and performing arts subjects. This provides students with a rich diet of learning experiences that build on primary curriculum exposure, increasing this through additional teaching hours for these non-core subjects. Students also study English, maths and science in the lower school.
The additional learning time supports students to make well-informed choices around their Year 8 options process which allows them to focus their academic pathway into four option choices in Years 9 to 11. The Ebacc suite of subjects is a popular choice, where students, alongside their core subjects of English, Maths and Science, also choose to take a language and either GCSE History or GCSE Geography.
The Year 9 curriculum builds on prior knowledge that allows student progression in a full breadth of subjects. Further to this the school offers Cultural Capital experiences through the upper school to ensure that key themes, skills and understanding continue to be delivered across the five years even in subject’s students no longer study.
Although students have opted for their GCSE subjects in Year 9 this is delivered in a way to help students continue to build foundation skills from the national curriculum across the core and option subjects in conjunction with core ICT and RE.
As students move into the upper school of Years 10 and 11 they increase their learning time in core subjects. All students in Year 10 receive high quality Relationships & Sex Education as part of the curriculum.
Throughout the five years, students are provided Personal Development Days and Cultural Enrichment Opportunities as bespoke days where the school timetable is collapsed, and students experience a range of activities.
Our 5-year curriculum journey
The values of our curriculum encompass a well sequenced academic journey, cultural capital experiences and personal development opportunities including careers, SMSC and British Values. The concepts build knowledge and skills over time that ensures all students leave as well-rounded citizens.
Careers
Employability skills are embedded through the five year learning journey for all students and the overarching careers offer can be found here.
find out more about careers
SMSC & British Values
Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural (SMSC) and The British Values (BV) are delivered explicitly through the Personal Development programme, and embedded within subject areas across the school.
Find out more about SMSC & British Values
Options Process in Year 8
Our core curriculum of Maths, English Language, English Literature and Science includes triple science. Students are entered into the appropriate pathway of triple or combined science in discussion with parents.
The core curriculum is complemented by the study of a possible eighteen different options subjects, from which students choose four to study to GCSE level. This range of choices ensures that there are opportunities for all; we are ambitious for all of our students to study challenging academic subjects alongside vocational routes.
The Henry Beaufort has a diverse curriculum to accommodate the needs of our young people. We provide opportunities for every student to follow a broad and balanced curriculum. Our offer is flexible year-on-year, responding to the individual needs and interests of each cohort.
Our most challenging options are GCSE Engineering and GCSE Computer Science. These are incredibly popular, and attract students who are highly competent mathematicians, potentially considering careers in design, architecture, science and technology-based pathways. GCSE Engineering sites within our Technology suite of subjects, GSCE Food and Nutrition and GCSE Design and Technology.
Our Modern Foreign Language offer is GCSE French, GCSE German and GCSE Spanish. These choices support students who wish to comply with the Ebacc combination of subjects outlined above. We strongly encourage students to take a language in their set of option choices as we know it broadens their horizons in terms of providing them with an insight into different cultures, alongside enabling them to compete in global market graduate schemes.
Our Humanities subjects are incredibly popular choices at GCSE. GCSE History, GCSE Geography and GCSE RE all enable students to foster a curiosity about Britain and the wider world.
Students enjoy the investigative approaches taken in geography, the complexities of Anglo-Saxon Britain and inter-war Germany in History, and debating the ethical and philosophical issues that arise in their study of RE.
Our Arts offer encompasses GCSE Music, GCSE Photography, GCSE Art and GCSE Drama. Many of our young people enjoy the creativity associated with these subjects, but also the technical discipline required for performing, composing and analysing.
GCSE Physical Education remains one of our most popular options. Covering anatomy, physiology, movement analysis and socio-cultural influence, students learn about a huge range of topics to complement their love of sports.
Full list of option subjects
- French
- German
- Spanish
- Geography
- History
- Computer Science
- Art, craft & design
- Hair & Beauty
- Child development
- Design and technology
- Drama
- Engineering
- Food preparation & nutrition
- Music
- Photography
- Physical education
- Religious studies
- Statistics
How our curriculum is implemented
The school day is structured with five 1-hour lessons per day, with some double lessons for practical subjects and option blocks in the upper school. There is a registration session to set up students at the start of the day. A split lunch ensures students are nutritionally ready for the afternoon lessons, with the other half of the student body engaged in our pastoral curriculum delivered by vertical tutors. This unique element of our school structure is a significant way in which we develop positive attitudes towards school and the wider world.
Students learn in different ways. We group students according to the needs of the individual and to allow for appropriate teaching, including setting and mixed ability teaching. In the lower school setting, it takes place in the core subjects and mixed ability teaching continues in the remainder of the subjects. We adapt groups as required throughout the year and at the start of each year.
We pride ourselves on our ability to support students and as a result, identify those who are T5 (top 5% of students in each cohort), and provide extension programmes and enrichment activities within their specific subjects.
Every lesson at The Henry Beaufort School follows our ‘Teaching and Learning Cycle’. Student learning moves through different phases: Connect, Explain, Model and Practice, and Check. During these phases, teachers will use a wide range of teaching strategies, offer different types of learning opportunities and check understanding, such as: lead retrieval practise, introduce key vocabulary, give clear and concise instruction, demonstrate, model, and use questioning to check understanding.
hb2
Our learning environment is built around the principles of (hb)2 habit building skills that promote independence in students that are crucial to successful futures beyond the academic outcomes this supports.
Home Learning
Home Learning is an extension of the curriculum that students study in the school day. The aim of this is to embed positive habits, as well as offering students the opportunity to learn in more depth or breadth about particular topics. In addition, setting Home Learning enhances student’s ability to recall and retrieve information they have learnt in lessons, strengthening their memory retention in preparation for tests. Details of time allocation can be viewed in more detail on our website.
Find out more about home learning
Numeracy & Literacy
Our curriculum builds a wide range of skills and knowledge that are both disciplinary but also overarching. The curriculum offer support transferable numeracy and literacy skills for all learners.
Find out more about numeracy & literacy
English as an Additional Language (EAL)
We are proud to have a student body from a diverse range of backgrounds. We work closely with our service families to ensure they are supported throughout their time at The Henry Beaufort School. Our school is a diverse, international community with over fifteen different languages spoken by its staff and students. We offer additional support for students for whom English is an additional language depending on their level of proficiency in English.
Find out more about eal
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The impact of our curriculum
We report summative assessment data to parents which focusses on student progress/attainment data, attitude to learning and attitude towards home learning. These are spread across the year at different points to suit the needs of the year group, for example, Year 8 to make informed choices about options or Year 11 reports following November mock exams. We also have online progress evenings (parents evenings focused on student progress) where parents can meet with subject teachers to review in-year progress and support future successes
Performance measures
The Henry Beaufort School is proud to be recognised as a top 10 school in Hampshire for Student Progress. Our Progress 8 score for this year is 0.27 which is recognised nationally as ‘above average’ and places us 8th out of 148 schools in the county. This consolidates our Progress 8 trend for the past 6 years: students leave our school achieving a quarter of a grade better on average than their key stage 2 scores predict.
Find out more about performance measures
Culture Capitals
We are proud to secure students a successful pathway to their chosen future training or education. Alongside our Year 10 work experience programme, we work with Education Business Partnership (EBP) to provide all students with tailored careers guidance. The school goes beyond the Gatsby Benchmarks to provide high quality employability skills through the five-year curriculum.
Find out more about culture capital
“Leaders have designed a curriculum that is broad and interesting”