We pride ourselves upon our commitment to recognising and addressing the educational needs of all our students. Ensuring access to a broad and balanced curriculum, whilst supporting them in academic progression and examination success. As well as academic achievement there is a focus on developing teamwork, independent learning and presentation skills to ensure students possess the skills to be lifelong learners. We aim to support students, who at times have difficulty accessing aspects of the curriculum. These difficulties may be physical, emotional, behavioural or academic. It is our duty to provide for these needs, treating each student as an individual.

At Alsop all want what is best for the students and realise that it is increasingly difficult for parents and students to choose the correct options. Our students benefit from high quality Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance, allowing informed decisions to be made. Our careers conventions, options evenings, parents evenings and review days are extremely popular and we aim to ensure that every student feels supported in their future choices

Whole School Curriculum Intent

What?

It is our strong belief that Alsop students are entitled to learn the most powerful knowledge that exists across all disciplines. As such, we endeavour to teach a curriculum made up of the very best that has been said, thought and written from across the ages and around the world. Our curriculum is a transformative journey throughout which students’ world view will develop, evolve and refine as they become more tolerant, compassionate, global citizens.

Why?

Knowledge, respect and opportunity is the bedrock of our vision for Alsop. Our knowledge-rich curriculum is designed to enable all students to go beyond their individual experiences and navigate the world around them with increased confidence. It aims to unlock the full range of opportunities available to them and break down barriers, allowing them to become the best versions of themselves and positively influence their communities and society at large. We are committed to developing confident, empathetic and respectful individuals ready to take up their place in multicultural modern Britain.

How?

At Alsop, the knowledge we teach is developed in a coherent and sequenced manner, informed by research into the science of learning – an area that we continuously develop in school. We ensure that all pupils gain a mastery of knowledge by developing their memory skills. Individual facts are of little use, however: it is through the acquisition of interconnected knowledge that you are able to build a mosaic of information that is a prerequisite for deep understanding. Through careful planning, knowledge is secured through spaced learning, over-learning and retrieval tasks which build schematic networks in the brain to enable our students to become lifelong learners.

Since intelligence is malleable, we have developed a curriculum that is underpinned by deliberate practice to ensure our students secure greater expertise and, thereby, become more intelligent than those who do not.

Fundamentally, our progression curriculum breaks the key knowledge for each subject area into units with clearly specified objectives that are pursued until they are achieved. Learners work through each block of content in a series of sequential steps. Teachers seek to avoid unnecessary repetition across years by regularly assessing knowledge and its application and ensuring that misconceptions are addressed with immediacy. Additional tuition in intervention sessions is provided to ensure that all learners are given the opportunity and support required to deepen their knowledge-base. Those students who demonstrate mastery in their subject areas are challenged further to manifest their knowledge in new and different contexts and ensure its permanence and continuous development.

Our curriculum is ambitious for all of our students, challenging them academically and building on cultural capital to provide them with the opportunity to become the best version of themselves. All students are given the opportunity to study the EBacc curriculum and are given free choices in the Options process.

Inclusivity is fundamental to our curriculum. All students are able to access the same curriculum, though some will receive additional support to overcome specific learning barriers. The universal philosophy that underpins our pedagogy is quality first teaching for all. This is implemented through a top-down model and a ‘no ceiling’ approach to learning which allows students to experience educational excellence in all disciplines during their time at Alsop. Nothing is inherently too difficult to learn.

All of our students will travel on a journey through the curriculum; a journey that will change the way students think and see the world around them.

For  more details about our curriculum, please contact Miss N Bruns at n.bruns@ahs.omegamat.co.uk or click here to find details of curriculum overviews for each year group.