As at Key Stage 3, our Key Stage 4 curriculum is designed to equip students with the key knowledge and skills that will lead to success within each subject specialism and in their later life but also to develop our range of Alive values, skills and attributes which allow each individual to develop their unique gifts to the fullest extent and to benefit from a learning experience which is greater than the sum of its parts: a human being “fully alive”.
At Key Stage 4, the majority of students follow courses that generally lead to nine GCSEs (or their equivalent). As with all areas of school life, teaching and learning is under-pinned by our ALIVE values and in particular the value we place on diversity and choice.
All students take GCSEs in English (Language and Literature), Mathematics and Combined Science. So much communication in our society is driven by fluency in these areas and we want all students to be equipped and confident. As a faith school, we believe that it is important for all of our students, regardless of their faith, to understand the value of faith in the world and be knowledgeable about and sensitive towards people of faiths other than their own. For this reason, GCSE Religious Education (RE) is also compulsory for all students. There are also non-examined lessons in Physical Education and Values in Practice, which covers personal, social, health and economic education, careers and citizenship education and enables students to understand how to make important life decisions from the position of the values that they hold. For further details of the Values in Practice curriculum please see this overview.
Three additional GCSE choices can be made. All students must choose one subject from History, Geography, Separate Sciences, French, German or Spanish and, because of the strength of our EBacc subjects, the number of students choosing both a humanity and a language continues to rise and we continue to strongly encourage those students for whom it is appropriate, to study all of the Ebacc. subjects.
Two more choices can be made from these or our other options subjects: Computing, Design Technology Product Design, Textiles, Food Preparation and Nutrition, Art, Photography, Music, Physical Education, Business Studies, Media Studies and Drama or Technical Awards in Health and Social Care or Child Development. This allows our students to maintain a wide balance of subjects, particularly as RE is compulsory, as well as providing a wide range of arts and technical subjects.
We feel that this is essential for a school that is at the centre of such a vibrant, multi-cultural city with a strong reputation for the media and the arts, including television, animation, art and music, as well as being a hub for engineering and financial services as well as reflecting the employment opportunities within the local economy within the care and service sector.
We do not put students into ‘streams’ or pathways as we believe that young people should keep their options open and be able to maintain high aspirations. The balance of structure and choice in KS4 keeps the doors to university, top quality apprenticeships or employment open to all students.
For further information on each subject please click below. For further information on homework at Key Stage 4 see our Homework page.
Year 11 Catch-Up Interventions 2022-23
Subject catch-ups are running from October 2022 onwards for invited students. Speak to your subject teacher for more information.
