Curriculum Strategy

Implementing the Curriculum

The curriculum is of vital importance at Selby High School and decisions around our curriculum offer are made with a great deal of thought and consideration. Our curriculum is a carefully mapped and sequentially planned learning journey from a student arriving in year 7 through to leaving us in year 11, building effectively on their prior knowledge. Our knowledge-rich curriculum focuses on a wealth of opportunities to learn, participate, and be inspired, in a full range of endeavours and disciplines.  We aspire for all of our students to be happy, respectful and motivated learners who take responsibility for their own actions and want to do well. Our focus is on excellence for all by removing any barriers to the curriculum so that students are prepared, as educated, successful citizens, to take their next steps in life. As a school, we collectively will ensure that:

• There is logical Content and Sequencing of the curriculum;
• Teachers develop excellent subject knowledge;
• Teachers embed key concepts and explore connections in order to deepen understanding;
• Reading is a priority for all students including through:
• - Carefully selected interventions
• - A reciprocal reading approach
• - Planned use of high challenge texts for all
• There is a consistent approach to the Selby High School Teaching & Learning Strategy, including Literacy and Numeracy. Current focus areas include: T2 Vocabulary and Metacognition & Independent Zone

• A whole school approach to retrieval practice
• Teachers promote effective Home Learning, to reinforce learning;
• Students can effectively use Knowledge Organisers;
• Staff have high expectations for all groups of students;
• All students are continually developing their cultural capital needed to succeed in life;
• Every teacher is a teacher of SEN;
• Groups are planned carefully; the right students and the right teacher;
• All students have high aspirations for post-16 destinations;
• Students know how to look after the well-being of themselves and others.

Measuring the Impact of the Curriculum

At Selby High School, our curriculum will:

• Use assessment effectively to check understanding and inform teaching;
• Consider the best assessment methods, in different cases, in each subject – not testing for the sake of testing;
• Review how we know that students are making progress, checking that the curriculum is meeting the needs of all students, and is progressively more challenging;
• Consider how effectively students are responding to, and acting upon, the feedback they receive and how common misconceptions are addressed;
• Select the best methods to ensure that learning is embedded in long term memory;
• Consider how we measure the wider impact of the curriculum;
• Make sure that the sequence of learning is carefully though-out so that it builds on prior learning and lays the foundations for future learning;
• Give students the opportunities to learn about the World in which they live, developing an appreciation and a level of respect for the values and beliefs of others;
• Guide students to make educated choices for their next steps and beyond, gaining qualifications that will allow them to access future employment;
• Be regularly reviewed, including through student voice.