Outline and Aims

Our aim is for all students to be prepared for the next stage of their education by having the confidence and aptitude to make their own valuable contribution to their community.  We want to prepare our students to be ready to meet new challenges with resilience and strong mental well-being, and to develop student independence by ensuring that their ‘love for learning’ continues throughout their time at Aylestone. We have a core curriculum that engages and suits the needs of all our students and our wider curriculum creates a culture of participation, opportunity and ambition. 

Curriculum Aims

For all students to be:

• Happy
• Successful, making good progress and achieving excellence together
• Prepared for the next stage of their education
• Ready to meet new challenges
• Independent with a ‘love of learning’
• Respectful responsible citizens, reflecting Federation values, who can make their own valuable contribution to their school and wider community

By developing:

• confidence and aptitude
• resilience and strong mental well-being
• self-discipline with an ethos of hard work and commitment
• engaged in their learning and we work hard to deliver this
• a lively enquiring mind with the confidence to question
• the ability to debate rationally

Strategic intent

The Curriculum will:

• create an aspirational, high achieving culture
• raise standards of attainment
• engage and suit the needs of all our students to help them achieve the highest standards of work of which they are capable
• ensure each student acquires the knowledge, skills and training relevant to their own personal growth and ambitions, and to the world of work
• go beyond the classroom to create a culture of participation, opportunity and ambition
• prepare students for adult life as citizens, employees/employers and parents/carers
• provide effective careers advice and guidance for all students, which will fully prepare them for their next steps after secondary education

Curriculum – As a matter of principle

• Achieving excellence together
• Learning time is maximized so that every lesson counts
• Clear progress over 5 years accelerating student progress through targeted support and additional challenge for student progress to go beyond national expectations
• Deep and connected learning and embedding key learning principles
• Ensure that students have the essential literacy and numeracy skills needed for life and to access the full curriculum
• Focus on development of reading through targeted reading strategies
• Federation understanding of primary curriculum intent, implementation and impact ensure effective transition and progress of students from year 7 onwards
• We will offer a wide and varied enrichment program, supplemented by educational visits and engaging visitors to the school, which provide students with memorable learning experiences
• High prior attainers are supported with appropriate enrichment opportunities through the Lumos group

The Curriculum

This will be taught over a two-week timetable Week A and Week B. There are five 60 minute lessons a day, a total of 25 hours of contact time each week.

Intervention supports the curriculum offer for students who require additional support to rapidly catch up.

Year 7, 8 and 9

We have a broad KS3 curriculum meeting all the national curriculum requirements. The curriculum includes:

• English
• Mathematics
• Science
• Humanities – history, geography, religious education and empowerment
• MFL
• Art and design
• Computing
• Music
• Physical education (two hours per week)
• Design and technology

Year 10 -11

A KS4 curriculum is designed each year based on the needs and aspirations of every child in that year group so that they receive challenging, stimulating, worthwhile and enjoyable experiences. In Year 9 students undergo a curriculum consultation process. A wide variety of GCSE subjects are presented and students indicate which subjects they would prefer to study at GCSE. A bespoke curriculum offer is then developed.

All students must study the following:

• English – literature and language
• Mathematics
• Science – combined science or triple Science - biology, physics and chemistry
• Physical education (two hours per week) – No external examination
• Issues and Ethics – Covers PSHE, sex education, citizenship, careers, religious education  – No external examination

Issues and ethics study is supported by subject immersion days periodically through the academic year and topics covered during form time.

Alternative Pathways

We offer a range of pathways to GCSE to meet the specific learning needs of our students but to enable them all to be highly employable:

All students opt to study at least one Ebacc subject in the option blocks – computer science, French, German, history or geography.

Note: The third pathway supports our students who may need additional time to secure their progress in English and maths to support their access to the next stage of their education and/or training.

Further Information

Mr N O'Neil

Email: noneil@aylestone.hereford.sch.uk