Subjects
Curriculum Introduction
At The Wilnecote School, our curriculum is ambitious, coherent, and inclusive. It is the vehicle through which we deliver our values and prepare every pupil, including those with SEND and those who are disadvantaged, for successful futures.
Curriculum Intent
Rooted in educational research and the thinking of Mary Myatt, we believe that:
Ambition is for Everyone
We believe that no ceiling should be placed on what students can achieve, regardless of background, starting point, or need. High expectations sit alongside a compassionate, inclusive culture, ensuring that all students are challenged and supported to succeed. Our curriculum offer, setting rationale, assessment, feedback and targeting is implemented to ensure ambition is for everyone.
Knowledge Empowers
We believe that knowledge empowers students. Drawing on the work of Michael Young and Christine Counsel our curriculum prioritises powerful knowledge. Knowledge that takes students beyond their everyday experiences and enables them to think critically, make connections, and access future learning. Substantive and disciplinary knowledge is carefully selected and sequenced so that students know more, remember more, and can apply what they know with increasing sophistication over time.
Curriculum Components
Our curriculum is deliberately planned and logically sequenced so that learning builds over time. Informed by cognitive load theory, particularly the work of Sweller, subjects are structured to prioritise depth of understanding before pace, with planned opportunities for revisiting and strengthening learning over time. This coherence ensures that students develop secure knowledge and understanding rather than encountering disconnected or fragmented learning experiences.
Equity is Non-Negotiable
Our curriculum is a vehicle for progress. It is designed to remove barriers and ensure equitable access to powerful knowledge, rich vocabulary, and cultural capital for all students, particularly those with SEND and those who are disadvantaged. Adaptation and scaffolding support access without lowering ambition.
Planned opportunities for oracy, disciplinary reading, and extended writing are embedded across subjects. All teachers are teachers of literacy and numeracy, explicitly developing students’ vocabulary, reading fluency, and mathematical thinking within their disciplines.
Assessment is Purposeful
Assessment is purposeful and principled. It aligns with the school’s Assessment Policy and draws on the work of Dylan Wiliam, ensuring that assessment is used primarily to inform teaching and support learning. Assessment helps teachers identify what students know, what they have remembered, and what they need next, rather than encouraging superficial performance or test rehearsal.
Curriculum Breadth and Ambition
Students should have access to a broad and balanced curriculum where every student has the experience of a range of subjects and specialist skills to equip them in the years after school.
At Key Stage 3, students study the full breadth of the National Curriculum, securing strong foundations and avoiding premature narrowing. At Key Stage 4, students follow ambitious pathways that combine academic rigour with vocational and creative opportunities, ensuring that every learner is prepared for future education, employment, or training.
Co-Curricular
The Wilnecote School recognises the chance we have as educators to broaden a student’s experience. Co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities are important, and we strive hard to provide complementary study, activities, trips and visits to enhance cultural literacy so that pupils develop resilience, curiosity and the confidence to contribute positively to society.
Measuring Success of the Curriculum
We measure the success of our curriculum through multiple lenses, including attainment, progress, students’ retained knowledge, and the character they demonstrate. Learning walks, lesson observations, pupil voice, curriculum reviews, and stakeholder engagement all contribute to evaluating how effectively our curriculum intent is realised in practice.
If you would like further information about the curriculum at The Wilnecote School, please contact Mrs Jennie Marsland (Deputy Headteacher: Quality of Education) or Tom Croydon (Assistant Headteacher: Curriculum) via our contact page.
Key Stage 3
(Years 7-9)
Students study the full breadth of the National Curriculum. There is a deliberate emphasis on disciplinary literacy, numeracy, and vocabulary development to secure strong foundations in subject knowledge and ways of thinking. This approach ensures depth, coherence, and avoids premature narrowing. Lessons per week are indicated below:
|
Subject |
Year 7 |
Year 8 |
Year 9 |
|
English |
4 |
4 |
4 |
|
Maths |
4 |
4 |
4 |
|
Science |
3 |
3 |
4 |
|
Technology & Food |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
MFL |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
Geography |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
History |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
RE |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
PE |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
Art |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
Music |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
Drama |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
ICT |
2 |
2 |
1 |
Key Stage 4
(GCSE Years 10-11)
Our broad and balanced KS4 curriculum offers students the opportunity to select from a wide range of subjects in line with their interests and career aspirations.
Years 10 – 11
Students follow a rigorous core curriculum alongside a broad and balanced suite of options. Academic, vocational, and creative subjects are valued equally, and pathways are ambitious, flexible, and responsive to students’ strengths, needs, and aspirations rather than predetermined by prior attainment. Lessons per week are indicated below:
|
Subject |
Year 10 |
Year 11 |
|
English |
4 |
5 |
|
Maths |
5 |
4 |
|
Science |
5 |
5 |
|
PE |
2 |
2 |
|
Option 1 |
3 |
3 |
|
Option 2 |
3 |
3 |
|
Option 3 |
3 |
3 |