Curriculum Intent
At King Edward VI King’s Norton School for Boys, we have designed our curriculum with our students’ learning at the centre. We have an ambitious curriculum that provides a broad and balanced education for all our students, and it has been designed to give all learners the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life, both academically and personally.
Our school motto, Humani Semper Contendimus, ‘We humans are always striving’, drives us in providing the best quality education for our boys, as does the understanding that ‘We are all learners’.
We are proud of the opportunities available to students at King Edward VI King’s Norton School for Boys, and we offer our students a wide range of new and exciting experiences, including in the classroom, in form room and through extra-curricular activities that are designed to build Self-discipline, Teamwork, Resilience, Initiative, Vision and Endeavour. These are our core STRIVE values.
We believe that the most effective way of preparing our students for a rapidly changing world is to provide them with a holistic education, covering a wide range of disciplines and subjects. Our curriculum ensures that students follow a rigorous pathway that is balanced between traditional academic subjects and the more creative, practical subjects. Our provision at each Key Stage ensures that students are fully prepared for the next stage of their education and lives.
The curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced to facilitate the accumulation of sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment, and it offers them excellent opportunities to develop as individuals, as well as learners. Our Curriculum Leaders regularly review and adapt their sequencing of lessons to ensure that students are appropriately supported and challenged.
We require all students to gain a secure understanding of the knowledge specified in the curriculum for each year and, we believe, a three-year Key Stage 3 provides our students with the breadth and space to achieve this.
Provision
The KS3 curriculum offers students a variety of subjects and learning opportunities to deepen their educational experience and build a solid foundation of subject knowledge and skills. Students study a full range of academic and creative subjects. English, maths and science are given a prominent share of curriculum time, with humanities and languages also studied by all. Computing, RE, music, art, technology (including food) and drama add further variety and challenge, and with two hours of active PE per week, boys have a rich, healthy and varied diet. Personal Development is integral in many curriculum areas at various times throughout the year and is also delivered in a dedicated lesson for one hour per week for Years 7 and 8, and within a subject carousel for Year 9,through which we aim to prepare our students for life in a diverse, modern Britain.
Our Key Stage 3 curriculum offer meets and, at times, exceeds the requirements of the National Curriculum, with students accessing a wide range of compulsory and non-compulsory subject areas, including RE. Any parents that would like to withdraw their child from one or more of their RE lessons, should contact the school directly to register their request. They will then be contacted directly by a member of the Senior Leadership Team.
Pathways are structured to allow students free choice and to enable us to meet the specific needs of our students. They continue to study the core curriculum subjects but can also select four option subjects from the beginning of Year 10. Students and their parents are supported during the options process in Year 9 via a dedicated Options Evening and a parents’ consultation evening, Subjects offered continue the philosophy of providing a rigorous, broad and meaningful curriculum for our students. A good proportion of boys study the full suite of EBacc subjects, and all vocational courses feature on the DfE list of approved qualifications. This ensures that students leave KNSB with qualifications that will serve them well as they embark upon their next steps.
Students also enjoy regular active PE, assemblies and a weekly Personal Development programme that continues to contribute to student well-being and help them prepare for their next steps in life as they mature.
Our intent is that the Curriculum:
- provides a broad, rich and challenging curriculum that is truly comprehensive and accessible to all our students, thus developing independent and aspirational learners
- enables high standards of academic achievement where outcomes empower students to progress to Further and Higher Education opportunities.
- equips our students with life-long, transferable skills to prepare them for the responsibilities and challenges of adult life
- fosters a strength of character and builds resilience that will help students to cope with choices and overcome the challenges they are likely to encounter in life
- develops kind, thoughtful, respectful citizens who have a strong sense of self-worth and emotional resilience
- cultivates in our students a strong sense of pride and belonging in our school, which enables them to make a positive contribution to their community.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Article 29 states that education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures, and the environment. We will not allow any attempts to narrow the curriculum or to deny our children and young people their right to education.narrow the curriculum, or to deny our children and young people their right to education.
