At St Richard Reynolds our core purpose is to provide outstanding learning and teaching opportunities for all our students. Our curriculum aims to offer challenge, leading to the highest standards of personal achievement through the recognition of individual needs and provides varied co-curricular experiences as well as progression within and between the Key Stages.
We offer to all students an interesting, broad and balanced curriculum: a curriculum which promotes examination success and recognises personal achievement at all levels. Religious Education is at the heart of our curriculum and lessons are carefully planned to ensure that all areas of the Bishops’ Curriculum Directory are met. Catholic Social Teaching is also embedded in our Programmes of Study to ensure that engagement with religious teaching is not solely the preserve of RE lessons but part of the development of the whole person.
To put our curriculum into practice, staff will:
- Have high expectations of students
- Employ a variety of appropriate teaching and learning methods
- Ensure that students Including those with SEND are found means to access the curriculum and given opportunities to succeed
- Deliver program of study which build upon students’ previous experiences
- Provide work which offers depth, challenge, motivation and inspiration
- Provide regular feedback through assessments and encourages students to evaluate their own learning
- Develops students’ skills to become independent learners.
- Reward and value student achievement
- Work in partnership to keep parents informed regularly
At Key Stage 3 the formal curriculum is divided into 30 periods a week with each lesson lasting 50 minutes. All National Curriculum subjects, Religious Education and Latin are taught alongside opportunities to develop spiritually, socially, morally, physically, culturally and academically.
At Key Stage 4 the formal curriculum is divided into 31 periods a week with each lesson lasting 50 minutes. Students study for 6 compulsory GCSEs and choose an additional 3 GCSE subjects. The choice is open to allow students to tailor the curriculum to their needs and interests, this is done in partnership with parents and teachers. Students are encouraged to continue studying history or geography and a language.
The following subjects are currently available as Option subjects: Art, Business Studies, Design & Technology, Drama, Food Preparation and Nutrition, French, Geography, History, Latin, Music, Physical Education, Spanish, Travel & Tourism BTEC. Some students will be invited to study additional English and/or Mathematics in place of one GCSE option, receiving an additional 3 periods per week teaching in these subjects. Other students will embark on additional GCSEs in Separate Science, Further Maths or a Language.
At Sixth Form the formal curriclum and co-curricular activities come together and are divided into 31 periods a week with each lesson lasting 50 minutes. Students study 3 A level courses and each is given 6 lessons a week. The following subjects are currently available:
Art, Biology, Business Studies, Chemistry, Economics, English Literature, French, Geography, Government and Politics, History, Mathematics, Media Studies, Physics, Psychology, Religious Education and Sociology.
Students then partake in core Religious Education lessons (Core RE). Year 12 have a lesson once a week, Year 13 have 1.5 a week – 3 a fortnight alongside a ShAPE programme (Self-help and Positive Engagement) running for two periods per week which provides the opportunity for students to develop the wider skills they need to prepare for adult life and includes time to develop study skills, think about careers and next steps after life in Sixth Form.
Students also have six timetabled, supervised study periods in a week. These provide students with the facilities, opportunity and support to undertake independent, self-directed study. Finally there is one Service period where the Sixth Form undertake one period of student leadership, potentially assisting with the Primary School or acting as a lead learner in a subject they enjoy.
Co-curricular activities
All students are encouraged to take part in co-curricular activities offered within the school which we believe will help them develop fully as individuals and establish the habit of being a life long learner.
We believe great learning and teaching is underpinned by the SRR10 – our list of non negotiables that happen every lesson for all children alongside our Brilliant Basics which detail how we approach our classroom practise.