We have high expectations of everyone; each member of our school community is nurtured and supported to develop academically, socially, emotionally and morally to be the best they can be. Every interaction between our members is well planned, deliberate and meaningful. Learning happens everywhere in our school, in a variety of different ways and together with our curriculum, we ensure that all students, regardless of starting points or barriers, enjoy learning and leave school equipped with the learning behaviours, acumen and skills to achieve academic success. We engender our students into lifelong learners who progress onto positive destinations, fulfil their high aspirations and make a positive contribution to society.

​

Our curriculum is broad, balanced and ambitious continuing to operate with a traditional 3-year KS3 and 2-year KS4. We strongly believe that all students should have the opportunity to study the full range of subjects, if our students are to discover and reach their full academic and creative potential.

​

Our curriculum enables students to develop the knowledge and skills required to be successful and take advantage of the range of opportunities offered once they leave Kinver High.

​

The KS4 curriculum is underpinned by an ambitious and coherently planned KS3 curriculum. In KS3 (Year 7-9) students have the opportunity to study a full curriculum which includes Art, Design, Music, Drama, Food Technology, IT, PE, History, Geography and RE and Ethics, Maths, Science and English with the addition of a separate Forensic Reading lesson. All students study one modern foreign language from either Spanish or French. In Year 7, students also study L2L (Learning to Learn) that affords students the opportunity to develop their skills and critical thinking. In KS4 students have the opportunity to acquire ‘work ready’ skills and develop their cultural and religious awareness of Modern Britain alongside further development and practise of revision skills, through the KS4 Skills programme.

​

Decisions at KS4 are rooted on the principal of ‘choice’ and all decisions are always made in the best interests of students. As a school we do ‘the right things for the right reasons’ and our curriculum decisions follow the same principles. We believe that engaged learners make successful learners.

​

Presently at KS4, students have three free option choices and an additional guided option choice. These are studied in addition to English Language & Literature, Maths and Science. We offer both a Triple Science and Combined Science pathway. Our ambitious curriculum offers students the opportunity to be successful in a wide range of subject areas, alongside a fundamental focus on the core. Students typically achieve 9-10 qualifications, putting them in the top 15-27% nationally for the number of qualifications achieved.

​

We believe that the curriculum should be regularly reviewed to ensure it remains aspirational, challenging and relevant for the needs of our students. We believe that our curriculum and a good CEIAG programme are integral components that work in unison to ensures that our students and their parents can continue to choose the most appropriate pathways to enable them to achieve their potential and career aspirations. Our curriculum will always remain student centred, and we remain resolute in continuing to uphold the values of our students and their parents, to not be driven by external influences and pressures. However, we remain ambitious for all our students, and will always continue to encourage all of our students to choose the most challenging and appropriate qualification that will best prepare them for their chosen future pathway.

​

In addition to the taught curriculum, there is wide range of extra-curricular activities and curriculum enrichment opportunities available to all students. We want our students enjoy learning and leave school equipped not only with academic knowledge but with the learning behaviours, acumen and skills fulfil their high aspirations so that they continue to make a positive contribution to society throughout their adult lives. These wider opportunities consolidate and extend learning and, along with our curriculum offer, promote outstanding student engagement and behaviour and contribute to the contextualisation of learning and development of cultural capital.

​

We want every learner to be successful and in order to support the learning of all students, the curriculum is successfully adapted for students with SEND and additional needs. We are committed to improving the literacy and numeracy skills of our students and have invested in programmes such as the ‘Accelerated Reader Programme’ and Hegarty Maths to better support students. We will always seek to be creative in our creation of bespoke timetable packages for our more vulnerable learners and will continue to develop our use of personalised core intervention in KS3 and KS4 and seek out alternative supportive qualifications such as our ‘Step up to English’ entry level qualification. Furthermore, to ensure our learners leave with digital competency, core ICT provision in KS3, bookable computer suites and lunchtime ICT accessibility offer our students the opportunity to become digital leaders whilst continuing to support their growing independence.

​

We are committed to the process of a continuous cycle of self-review to ensure that students are provided with quality first teaching. We will continue to ensure that all students, regardless of starting points or barriers, achieve academic success and become the best that they can be; to leave school ready to fulfil their high aspirations.

​

For further information on our curriculum please contact Mrs Spooner - Deputy Headteacher : c.spooner@kinverhigh.co.uk