All students have access to the full curriculum, irrespective of gender, SEND, ethnicity, academic ability, social or cultural background.
Our curriculum, encapsulates students’ whole learning experience during their time in school and is underpinned by the core belief that we are Values Led College.
Our aim is to provide an excellent education for all our students; an education which enables all to be successful learners and prepares them for success in life. Our curriculum is designed to provide students with the core knowledge they need for success in education and in life, to maximise their cognitive development, to develop the whole person and the talents of the individual and to allow all students to become active and economically self-sufficient citizens.
By drawing on the best that has been thought, said and done in each subject, our curriculum enables students to appreciate and participate in the full richness of the human experience, developing positive lifelong values.
The curriculum as a core academic curriculum is founded on these key principles:
Whilst academic success is very important, at Brixham College we believe that there is more to a good education. As well as ensuring our students succeed in exams, we aim to develop our values of high expectations, knowledge, character, leadership and continued improvement. Throughout their time at Brixham College students are expected to contribute to our community and to society. We want students to try things they cannot do, to persist in the face of difficulty and to become resilient in overcoming obstacles. To approach life with a growth mindset and a can-do attitude.
To achieve this, we provide a breadth of opportunities and experiences which seek to help our students become confident, well-rounded and ambitious young adults. Our curriculum and co-curriculum is overflowing with opportunities to try something new and develop new skills. In addition to our very wide range of additional activities, our students enjoy trips abroad or various residential, university visits, talks by inspirational speakers, as well as countless opportunities to collaborate with their peers from other schools across the region.
We are incredibly proud to deliver a Values Education, an education that challenges, inspires and excites our students and prepares them for success in learning and success in life.
Curriculum Implementation and Delivery
KS3, we deliver a traditional curriculum, the majority of students’ study one language either Spanish or French. We provide extra time in English and Maths for one ‘catch-up’ class in both Years 7 & 8, reducing (but not removing) the time they receive in Computing and Languages. All students have access to the widest possible curriculum, covering Values, Art, DT, English, French/Spanish, Geography, History, Computer Studies, Maths, Music, PE, Philosophy and Ethics and Science.
KS3 is delivered over 3 years to facilitate mastery and metacognition. Our KS3 curriculum is important to student’s future success as it is the bridge between childhood learning and the mature study of a young adult. It is a time of both physical and emotional growth, when our students begin to define their own discrete identities and aspirations. This enables students to make the right choice for them regarding GCSE options.
KS4 is delivered over 2 years. Students continue to study the core curriculum which includes English, Maths, Science, Physical Education and PSHEE. As part of the Key Stage 4 pathway, students will also have opportunity follow subjects of choice which are carefully selected following a range of advice and guidance. They are encouraged to select EBACC subjects within this pathway and all students are encouraged to take a language and a humanity subject in order to complete the full EBACC.
The development of students’ personal and social skills and their spiritual and cultural development are nurtured specifically through our Values Education curriculum and assemblies, as well as permeating the whole curriculum, both formal and implicit.
As a mastery curriculum our students study fewer topics in depth, with the expectation that students master knowledge and skills, revisiting misconceptions or gaps in learning. Key Stage 3 provides students with the time and space to gain this secure understanding, providing opportunities to support memory retention and retrieval. Our approach to teaching and learning supports a cumulative curriculum by ensuring that lessons build on prior learning and provide sufficient opportunity for guided and independent practice. In our lessons you will typically see all students grappling with the same challenging content, with teachers providing additional support for students who need it. Rather than moving on to new content, our higher attainers are expected to produce work of greater depth, flair and ambition. We know our learners and support with strategies from Teaching to the Top and scaffolding for SEND. In teaching, our learning foundations underpin the principles of Mastery with The Brixham Way. The Brixham Way comprises of 6 principles: Challenge, explanation, practice, modelling, questioning and feedback.
We support metacognition with the use of a Thinking Toolkit, such as knowledge organisers, thinking maps and hats, low stake quizzes and Think Pair Share. Every student has a knowledge Organiser with scaffolded tasks for their Seminar Study so that work completed beyond the classroom. Students have access to chromebook and a subject specific vocabulary book which supports them with this aspect of the curriculum beyond the College day.
In order to allow the mastery approach to be effective (i.e. students learn what they are expected to in the year they are expected to), early catch up is essential; we aim to promptly identity and support students who start secondary school without a secure grasp of reading, writing and mathematics so that they can access the full curriculum. Everything from which students learn at school – the taught subject timetable, the approach to spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, the co-curricular provision and the ethos and ‘hidden curriculum’ of the school – are to be seen as part of the curriculum. Our values Education is delivered through the curriculum in this broadest sense.
