Curriculum Overview

‍Trust Curriculum Intent

Our mission is to provide a cradle to career education that allows our children to enjoy lives of choice and opportunity. By the age of 18, we want every child to have the option of university or a high quality alternative. 

Curriculum Intent

Our intention is to provide a broad curriculum that allows students to build powerful knowledge and cultural capital regardless of their starting points or levels of need. By reverse planning from ambitious end-points at Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5, we ensure that our curriculum is rigorous and offers all students the chance of excellent outcomes. By focusing on “know that” and “know how” knowledge, we plan for progression throughout the key stages and by learning from the research of cognitive scientists, we aim for this content to be delivered and learned in the most complete and successful ways. 

Curriculum Principles

• Reverse Planning means that teachers and curriculum leaders ask themselves what students should know or know how to do in their terminal exams and on their entry into higher-level study or work within their given field. The dominant strands are then traced backwards to year 7 so that clear progression can be planned and monitored as content increases in complexity.

• Powerful Knowledge is the best that is thought, said and conducted within a given domain. Teachers and curriculum leaders select from this the knowledge that will be most transformative for Brigshaw students so that they can transcend everyday knowledge, succeed in their exams and begin to think and learn like experts.

• Cultural Capital is considered by all teachers and curriculum leaders so that students learn about societal norms and cultural influences locally, across the nation and across the world. By doing so, we offer the students currency within the local, national and global community to contribute and to thrive.

• “Know That” Knowledge is highlighted in planning and delivery so that students know the content which will allow them to succeed in exams and enter society as well-rounded young people with secure knowledge in all of their curriculum areas.

• “Know How” Knowledge  features equally, so that students know how to apply what they have learned to various situations and find success in solving problems within or outside of subject domains.

• Cognitive Psychology informs our practice within lessons as we follow set routines to habitualise the small stuff and leave more working memory free for learning. It informs our standardised lesson design so that teachers encourage retrieval of existing knowledge before sharing and assessing the accumulation of more. It benefits our long term planning to make sure that interleaving modules allows for content to be re-covered and deepened at regular intervals.

How can you support students’ learning from home?

• Ask your child about what they have learned each day - encourage them to talk at length about it.
• Encourage your child to read for 20 minutes per evening - books can be  borrowed from school for this, if they have read everything at home!
• Check your child’s planner each week - are they recording their homework accurately and are they completing it? You can cross-reference their records with those on Arbor. Key Stage 3 students should have approximately 5 hours per week and Key Stage 4 students should have between 10 and 12.

How can you learn even more about Brigshaw High School’s Curriculum?

Please browse the subject pages available to learn about how they have selected and organised their curriculums. 

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact Chris Kilby - Assistant Head for Curriculum and Teaching and Learning at kilbyc01@brigshawtrust.com

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Curriculum and assessment

Our students follow a broad and rigorous curriculum. You can find out about what our students learn by selecting a year group, and then clicking on each subject area.

What we are Studying in Half Term 1:

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

Year 10

Year 11