Curriculum Intent

Our intent is to provide a knowledge-rich, ambitious secondary school curriculum that is designed to give all students, irrespective of their backgrounds, the knowledge and skills they need to succeed not only in their exams, but also in their future careers and as fully participating citizens in society.

Moor Park High School and Sixth Form’s curriculum is driven by our core values and we are committed to guaranteeing:

An academic curriculum
Excellent teaching
High expectations
That every child is known
Exemplary behaviour
Quality enrichment

Moor Park High School and Sixth Form aim to give all students a strong foundation of knowledge. We provide a broad and balanced curriculum that is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment. Our curriculum is not only aligned with the National Curriculum but goes beyond, ensuring that it is tailored to our students’ needs and interests. Our curriculum is designed to ensure that students build rich, subject-specific schemata, with new knowledge and skills built upon previous ones. At its heart, our curriculum is about the ‘substance of education’: what do we want pupils to know? We focus on imparting powerful knowledge that enables students to think beyond their experiences.

Our curriculum is designed to be inclusive, catering to the needs of all students, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. We strive to ensure that every student is challenged to reach their full potential, fostering high academic ambition for all.

The curriculum extends beyond purely academic subjects, incorporating personal development, a comprehensive PSHE programme, excellent careers provision, and a wide range of extracurricular opportunities.

Curriculum Implementation

Structure

The School operates a 3 year Key Stage 3 and 2 year Key Stage 4 within which we teach the latest National Curriculum as prescribed by the Department for Education. Our 3-year KS3 delivers the entirety of the National Curriculum, ensuring our curriculum is broad for as long as possible. This approach leads to a firm grounding in a range of subjects and allows students to make informed choices at KS4. Click here to find out more about options – Year 9 Options – Moor Park High School & Sixth Form in Preston, Lancashire

In Key Stages 3&4, students follow a fortnightly timetable of 50 lessons. Each lesson is 60 minutes long with additional time allocated for form. All students, regardless of prior attainment, are entitled to study Humanities, Sciences and a Language over 7 years.

At Key Stage 3 students study the following lessons over a two-week period:

Maths – 8 lessons

English – 8 lessons (including a reading lesson)

Science – 6 lessons

Spanish – 5 lessons

PE & DT – 4 lessons each

Geography, History and RE* – 3 lessons each

Art, Computing, Music – 2 lessons each

At Key Stage 4 students study the following lessons over a two-week period:

Maths – 8 lessons

English – 10 lessons

Science – 10 lessons (triple science have an additional 5 lessons)

RE* – 4 lessons

PE – 3 lessons

Options Subjects – 5 lessons each (every student chooses 3 option subjects) – 3D Design, Art, Computing, Geography, History, Business, Sociology, GCSE PE, Engineering, GCSE Food, Music and Spanish

Click here for more information on our options process – Year 9 Options – Moor Park High School & Sixth Form in Preston, Lancashire

At Key Stage 5, students’ study programme equates to the required 360 guided learning hours, meaning students study 4 60 minute lessons per week (and 5 if studying for a BTEC Extended Certificate). Students requiring maths and English (either through re-take or because they have not previously sat the qualifications) attend additional timetabled sessions (currently 1 x session per week, but this will be increased in line with government requirements during the next academic year).

As a school we focus on the following areas to ensure the successful implementation of our rich and knowledge led curriculum:

Curriculum planning: Great thought and time is devoted to the planning and sequencing of the curriculum in each subject. Departments work collaboratively within their team and with external specialists (e.g. Ark, White Rose Maths and Lancashire Local Authority) to ensure that relevant knowledge, skills and concepts are incorporated from Year 7 with each year building on prior teaching and learning. Departments are staffed with specialist teachers and Faculty Leaders have autonomy when designing their curriculum through a trusting relationship with senior staff.

Medium term plans are available for all units of work in all subjects and they set out the school expectation of high aspirations and consistency amongst teachers. Medium term plans draw out both the disciplinary and substantive knowledge that is being studied along with common misconceptions and the baseline knowledge that will be taken from the unit in order to access future learning. We believe in collaborative planning. Faculties will jointly plan indidivuidal lessons; these are taken as a starting point for teachers and amended to reflect the needs of individual students sat within each classroom.

Planning is reviewed and refined throughout the academic year in order to ensure our curriculum continues addresses the needs of our students.

Teaching Methods: Quality first teaching is a priority for the school, as excellent teaching is the most important lever to improve pupil attainment. The school follows an evidence based approach to teaching methods and has adopted Barak Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction to develop teaching practice.

Subject specialism is at the heart of all departments; staff have considerable control in making decisions regarding the pedagogical approach to be used in their subject area. Faculty handbooks are in place and consequently there are differences in the way that the curriculum is delivered across departments.

Professional Development: Our teachers engage in continuous professional development to stay updated with the latest educational research and pedagogical techniques. This ensures that our teaching methods are effective and relevant. In school we have dedicated a significant amount of meeting time to faculty based CPD. This time focuses on subject specific CPD including curriculum development, pedagogical approach, peer observations & feedback and collaborative planning & moderation.

The school has strong external links with Teach First, Preston School Alliance(PSA), NCETM NW Maths Hub, LCC faculty networks and Ambition Institute; a large number of teaching staff engage with at least one of the networks to support their CPD. The school supports staff who wish to undertake NPQs, Post Graduate qualifications or undertake work for examination boards.

Inclusive Education: We will ensure that our curriculum is accessible to all students, regardless of their abilities or backgrounds. This includes providing additional support for students with special educational needs, pastoral support and literacy/numeracy tuition with our KS2 teacher. For students who require additional support in English and/or Maths, we have nurture groups for a small number of students in years 7-9; the National Curriculum is fully covered in these lessons.
Assessment: We regularly assess student progress through formative and summative assessments; teachers will mark work according their faculty policy. Common assessed pieces of work are in place within units of work so that there is parity across a year group. Teachers will report home on student knowledge of the curriculum twice a year, using formative and summative data to inform their judgements.

Student in Years 7-9 complete GL assessments in English, Maths and Science upon entry to the school and each Summer Term. This allows the school to monitor student progress compared to a national picture.

Parental Engagement: We believe that parents play a crucial role in their child’s education. Parents can request a meeting to discuss their child’s progress at any point during the year. Live classroom information is also available through the school synergy portal. Parents will receive 2 reports regarding their child’s knowledge of the curriculum during an academic year; the table below details what is included in each report.

Report 1

Report 2

Years 7-9

RAG rated assessment criteria for all subjects.