Senior School Curriculum
The Senior School curriculum is designed for boys to pursue academic success: to enable them to grow in knowledge, skills and understanding and to develop as independent learners. The curriculum is balanced and broad and promotes intellectual, pastoral, creative, physical, spiritual and moral development. It extends beyond the classroom into all activities and experiences undertaken by the boys.
There is emphasis in ensuring that each boy develops good core skills of numeracy and literacy since these form the bases for learning in most other subjects and, increasingly, on the use of information and communication technology across all subjects.
All boys are taught by teachers who are subject specialists.
Boys generally sit for nine or ten GCSEs and all GCSE subject courses and specifications have been chosen and designed with our boys’ strengths in mind. There is, therefore, a carefully balanced and managed programme of coursework- and examination-assessed work.
Informative and genuine feedback is important to boys’ motivation. Grades and reports are sent home to parents three to four times each term. School examinations are sat twice a year in November and in June.
The vast majority of boys study French as a Modern Foreign Language through to the end of Year 8. Spanish is introduced in Year 8 and thereafter boys may choose either French or Spanish or both. All boys are encouraged to pursue a Modern Foreign Language to, at least, GCSE standard.
In Year 9, boys begin to prepare for their GCSE subject choices by choosing two subjects from Art, Music, Spanish and Technology. The following year, in Year 10, boys are entered for GCSEs in core subjects of English, English Literature, Mathematics and the Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) and choose a further four optional subjects from: Art, French, Geography, History, ICT, Music, Physcial Education, Spanish and Technology.
We have an active Support for Learning department that provides appropriate support for individual boys at different levels.