Our Approach to Curriculum

At Beccles High School, our curriculum is designed to meet our aim to give all young people the very best start in life that is possible. To achieve this, our curriculum is designed to meet the needs of every student, whilst offering opportunity to experience, enjoy and succeed in a wide range of subjects and additional experiences.

Our curriculum aims to take students beyond what they already know and enables them to be more socially mobile. It ensures that students acquire knowledge that they would not ordinarily have access to and challenges them to achieve and exceed prior expectations. It also aims to give students a love of scholarship for its own sake. Together, these aims will lead to subsequent success in adult life in line with our values of kindness, ambition and determination.

We see the importance of making the curriculum relevant and meaningful to students; that way it becomes transferable and allows them to build links across subject areas. Formative and summative assessment is used to capture student progress throughout the academic year. Gaps in knowledge, skills and depth of understanding are identified, informing future lesson planning, as well as subject specific curriculum design.

Heads of Department and lead professionals are given a level of autonomy to structure and plan the teaching of their subject as they have the specialist knowledge and expertise. There are then robust systems for senior leaders to quality assure subject plans and ensure they are being adhered to. Much of the curriculum has been created with support and expertise from other schools within the Trust, which include some of the most successful schools in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Our curriculum documentation sets out what we are aiming to achieve, how we plan to achieve it and how we check that it is working as planned. This includes explicitly identifying knowledge that is deemed crucial with the best way to deliver it. We have also spent time ensuring that we are delivering that core knowledge in the best sequence that we can, in order to introduce pupils to "the best that has been thought and said". Through the study of this essential knowledge, our aim is to ensure that our students are well educated future adult citizens.

Beccles High School is committed to delivering a curriculum:

• Where end points are clearly defined.

• Which is planned and sequential.

• Which reflects the local context of the school and its pupils.

• Which addresses gaps in knowledge and understanding.

• Which powerfully addresses social disadvantage.

• Which strives to deliver excellence in teaching and learning.

• Which prepares its pupils for life in twenty first century Britain.

• Which enhances the cultural capital of its pupils, through promotion of the best that has been thought, said, created and achieved.

• Which promotes the contributions of pupils to the school and local community.

• Which promotes equality and diversity.