Lower school curriculum

Quantock Education Trust Curriculum Intent

Why is the curriculum important at QET?

The Quantock Trust vision is to enrich life opportunities for all members of our community, working and learning together with aspiration, ambition, and care, in our schools and wider society. Our ethos is as much about ensuring children are prepared for life, as it is about ensuring they are prepared to achieve academic success. Having broad, balanced and ambitious curricula in our schools is one of our cornerstones of excellence.

Fundamental to the delivery of that vision is a well-designed, knowledge rich curriculum that is designed to enable children to develop an intellectual and informed sense of the world and enjoy their learning, as well as a powerful sense of self and a compassionate and empathetic sense of others.

We believe for children to excel in their academic subjects they must also develop character attributes to support that learning such as, ambition, resilience, determination, collaboration, honesty, empathy and many more. We see these attributes being just as important as knowledge and at QET we believe that character education should be ‘taught, sought and caught’.

We see no tension between a rigorous and stretching academic education, and outstanding wider personal development, in fact we see them as unified and reciprocal concepts. Our intention is that children who are educated within our Trust become ethical people who treat others with respect and compassion and stand up for what is right; they have cultural capital so can engage meaningfully in the world and with others, are skilled, knowledgeable, and resilient communicators with strong character and the ability to shape their own future.

Content and organisation of the lower school curriculum

At Sexey’s School, our curriculum is designed so that the learning pathway of all students is broad, balanced, and appropriate. Although Sexey’s is an academy, the broad outlines of the National Curriculum are followed across the school.

We strongly believe that it is crucial that students develop the knowledge, skills and understanding to allow them to progress in their studies throughout the school and also to prepare them fully for life beyond the school gates. Our mission statement stresses that:

we are passionate about preparing Sexey’s students for a life in the ever-changing world of work: ensuring that they leave us with the qualifications, skills and experiences to make certain that they are ready for the next stage in their journey of lifelong learning.

Key Stage 3 subjects

In Key Stage 3, all students study English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, Religious Studies, Art, Drama, Food Technology, French, Computer Science, Photography, Physical Education, Music, Product Design and PSHE.

Key Stage 4 subjects

As students move into Key Stage 4, they are given the opportunity to opt to follow certain subjects while following a core curriculum. Students all study English Language, English Literature, Mathematics, Science (at least two GCSEs), French, Spanish, Physical Education, Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE). Students select at least one option from Geography, History or French and can then select additional subjects, including Triple Science, Religious Studies, Art, Food Technology, Design Technology, Computer Science, Sport, Photography and Psychology. We also offer Functional Skills in numeracy and literacy to support learners identified by our SENDCo.

All students are required to follow the KS4 Compulsory Curriculum.

Sexey’s Seven Core Values

At the centre of the school’s ethos you will find our Christian values. We have seven core values: these are the building blocks of our individual character and through these we grow and develop as individuals and as a community. As such we take care to link our teaching and curriculum to our core values. This can be seen in our subject curriculum maps, available here for Lower School and here for Sexey’s Sixth.

Intervention strategies

A range of intervention strategies are deployed in the school which include supporting students with additional learning needs, including those who are deemed most able. Additional support is provided across our subject areas through our ‘PLuS’ SEND base.

Assessment and feedback

We focus on supporting students to improve their learning by providing on-going feedback in class (‘live’ feedback) and through assessments. Students’ progress is communicated to parents at various points throughout the academic year.

School timetable

The school operates Monday to Friday on a 50 period fortnightly timetable, each period being an hour long. The hours spent on teaching during a normal school week, excluding collective worship, registrations and lunch, total 25 hours per week. This compares with the recommended minimum of 24 hours/week, suggested by the Department for Education.

Students with extra educational need

If, at any stage, pupils are identified as having an extra educational need, we endeavour to support it. This applies as much to extending the Most Able as to providing necessary support for those with specific learning difficulties. More details can be read here.

Our policy for supporting students with additional educational needs is available here, which compliments the school’s Teaching & Learning and Curriculum policies.