Test Curriculum

Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School - Promotional Photography - 25-05-2021 - 080 (Medium)_e

The Curriculum

At HCCS

At Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School, our mission is to be a caring and inclusive school and college community that delivers an ambitious curriculum, rich with opportunities, that enables everyone to learn, grow and thrive as fulfilled, kind and resilient members of society.

Our Curriculum Intent

Our curriculum aims to deliver on our 4 values:

We learn together
We belong to this community
We are proud of ourselves and each other
We have consistently high expectations

Our intent is therefore to provide a powerful, knowledge-rich curriculum to where every student can experience meaningful success.

Our ambitious curriculum, rich with well-chosen knowledge, is designed to:

build independence, resilience and confidence,
open eyes and create ambition that is not limited by any barrier or glass ceiling,
create free thinkers and risk takers who are safe in the knowledge that they are valued and supported.

We want our community to:

appreciate their heritage and how that fits in with the wider world;
Be empowered to see beyond the everyday and construct meanings about the world they live in
to take the joy, ambition and confidence created through our knowledge based curriculum into their prosperous futures.

Implementation

The learning of powerful knowledge:

Our curriculum seeks to build our students’ knowledge and understanding of a broad range of subject disciplines, We believe that:

Each subject makes a unique and important contribution to the building of powerful knowledge and cultural capital
A curriculum that is inclusive, including and representative of diverse voices best empowers our students to flourish in the world of the twenty-first century.

We want everyone within our community to understand

The way that learning is sequenced in each subject to build understanding over the course of a coherent Curriculum Journey
How and when students’ progression through their Curriculum Journeys will be assessed

Therefore all of our subjects have considered the following things, which they share on their subject specific pages:

The subject intent

The unique contribution that this subject makes to developing powerful knowledge

The subject implementation rationale

The reasoning behind the decisions made by each subject in choosing what teach, when and how.

The subject learning journey

What knowledge is taught when

The subject assessment and feedback policy

How and when each student’s progress through the learning journey will be assessed

The subject home learning policy

How students are expected to practise independently, to build on their learning in the classroom

We implement this curriculum through our timetable at each Key Stage. The curriculum model is as follows:

In Key Stage 3 all students follow a universal, knowledge-rich, broad and balanced curriculum. This consists of: mathematics; English; science; computing & IT; PE; geography; history; RE; art; drama; music; design and technology; food studies; two modern foreign languages and PSHE (My Enriched Curriculum). The knowledge within each subject area is structured and sequenced to enable all students to make progress, with foundational knowledge at the heart of their learning.

In the Sixth Form College, students' have a choice of 3 A Level and other Level 3 (L3) qualifications including BTEC subjects. Some 4 A Level combinations may be possible and are considered on an individual basis. In addition, students who are needing to resit Maths or English may be able to access a two subject pathway alongside work experience. 6th Form Study Programmes include non-qualification activities as well as A Level/ L3 qualifications.

Non-qualification activity includes an innovative information advice and guidance programme, including expert-led lectures and seminars on topics such as drug abuse, sexual health, safe driving, preparation for higher education and apprenticeships, as well as UCAS support and guidance.

An enrichment programme allows students to develop skills not explored in their A level/ L3 subjects. They can choose from a range of options such as: Extended Project Qualification (EPQ); Study Skills; Work Experience; Primary and Secondary Placements; Core Maths as well as the Duke of Edinburgh award.

Taken as a whole, Sixth Form Study Programmes are designed to prepare students for the opportunities and responsibilities of adult life.To enable the widest range of choices, we run our timetable on option blocks. In 2024-25 these subjects were offered as follows:

During Year 9, students take part in the options process where they are offered a degree of choice to secure the foundations for progression. The underpinning principles of the options process are: to allow guided choice; to maintain a broad and balanced curriculum; to allow specialisation; to enable students to follow their interests and passions. These underpinning principles mean that whilst students are not compelled to follow the English Baccalaureate curriculum, this pathway is recommended and open to any child who wishes to follow it.

The English Baccalaureate is a measure of success in core academic subjects; specifically English language, English literature, mathematics, history or geography, the sciences (combined science or 3 of the 4 single sciences including computer science) and a modern foreign language. At HCCS, All students must pick one of: history; geography; computer science; French; German; Spanish or triple science

Those who would like to gain the Ebacc must choose history OR geography and a modern foreign language as 2 of their 4 option choices.

In Years 10 and 11, (KS4) the curriculum comprises the core subjects of English, mathematics and science alongside non-examined PE and PSHE & RE (My Enriched Curriculum). The rest of the curriculum is informed by the options process and allows specialisation and academic rigour, allowing students to follow their interests and passions.

Computer Science & IT