At Old Buckenham High school, our curriculum is our teaching plan for students within our school. This plan includes both the knowledge rich schemes of learning taught within classrooms and the experiences and extracurricular offerings that occur outside the classroom but within our learning community.
We are proud to offer a curriculum that is broad and balanced, offering a wide range of courses to all students. We follow the national curriculum but also ensure that the needs of the local area are reflected in both the courses and enrichment that is offered, meeting the needs of all students.
We believe that the curriculum at Old Buckenham High School enables all students to enjoy an enriched learning experience with strong moral and learning values that allow students to flourish and become the very best that they can be.
Our School values underpin our curriculum
- Equality
The design of our curriculum promotes Equality. Curriculum areas plan innovative and stimulating schemes of learning that consider the needs of all students such as prior attainment, gaps in prior knowledge, educational need, and disadvantage.
- Cooperation
We believe that we are better and stronger together. As a learning community we work together to create a supportive environment that both listens and acts to help each other. We also have strong interschool partnerships with other Sapientia schools, using shared experience and resources to review and update our curriculum, enhancing its efficiency, diversity and richness and promoting high rates of success.
- Tolerance and Mutual Respect
Our curriculum encourages the development of knowledge and cross-curricular understanding through an approach to learning which both inspires and challenges students to be self-reflective and develop agency, preparing students for ‘life’ as a global citizen. We seek to challenge discrimination of any type and promote the British values of tolerance and mutual respect in all that we do.
- Fairness and integrity
We believe all students can succeed. Students entering in year 7 experience a wide variety of academic and creative subjects upon which to base their options choices in year 9. All courses are open to all students and personalised options coaches help students to make the right choices for their futures.
Curriculum structure
The curriculum is delivered through a 15 lesson a week timetable, each lesson lasting for 100 minutes. Students also receive a 20-minute base time session each day, where students receive a personalised small group tutoring session with their base tutor on a rotating basis. These sessions are designed to allow students to develop their own agency, helping them to become more effective learners. In addition, students also have 30 minutes of independent learning each day, allowing students to effectively plan and action their own learning activities with the guidance of their tutor.
Assessment milestones are planned into the school year. We do not assign levels to year 7 to 9 and instead comment on individual effort and attitude to learning. Formal assessment is focused on identifying and closing gaps, preparing students for increasingly demanding levels of task. From year 10, subjects assign GCSE 9-1 grades for all students. These grades are based upon GCSE standard tests which are moderated for accuracy.
In year 9 students choose their specialisation ‘options’ for the next two years of study. Before this process begins, we undertake a curriculum review, ensuring that the courses offered are the most relevant and purposeful on offer. Students select from a broad range of course options, benefitting from a personalised coaching meeting to ensure that students access the best options for their future ambitions.