The Curriculum Summaries on this site provide a detailed account of the provision throughout the school.

They are divided into three sections (Kindergarten (EYFS) to Transition 2, 1st to 3rd Form and 4th to 6th Form) to reflect the developing approach to teaching arrangements through these phases.

The size of the school is such that we are able to employ specialist Heads of Subject in all departments and a range of specialists within each department. In contrast to smaller schools, this allows us to have specialist teaching of Drama, Music, PE, ICT and DT from the outset and throughout the school. While the teaching of the very young is otherwise in the hands of the main class teacher (with full time classroom assistance), the children encounter an increasing range of specialists until, from the 4th Form onwards, they find themselves in the hands of subject specialists throughout.

All staff are able to benefit from pursuing their areas of particular expertise and their further professional development is promoted through a very generous training budget that supports them both in the pursuit of higher qualifications externally and through a programme of training which takes place in the holidays, in training days at the start of term and in 'twilight' sessions. This training programme is managed by the Director of Studies, who has overall responsibility for the curriculum.

Staff also devote time outside of the school term to the school's Pupil Review procedures. For at least two days before the beginning of each academic year and again after Christmas, each child's progress and welfare is fully reviewed by teachers, tutors, Heads of Year, Heads of Department and Senior Managers. This process is informed by all relevant assessment data accumulated since the last point of review, by internal and published reports on endeavour and progress and by a full understanding of each child's wider circumstances. Each child's 'Pupil Profile' is held on a central database accessible to all staff and, in addition to teacher assessment of coursework and exams and results of standardised tests, it includes wider information about Health, Medical Issues, extra-curricular involvement (including sports teams represented and music grades taken) and learning support. The profile supports staff in their wider task of gaining a full understanding of each child and, at the review points, this understanding is translated into an action plan for each child in the school. The action plan is stored electronically, is reviewed as part of the weekly cycle of year group meetings and is updated as appropriate to each child's circumstances.

A further benefit of the school's size is that, should the need for learning support be discovered, the school has an outstanding Individual Needs department, with highly qualified staff available to provide individual or small group support. The school is therefore able to intervene in a child's best interests at a very low 'threshold' of difficulty. It is interesting, in this respect, to note that the percentage of those children who go on to gain academic awards and have received learning support is higher than the average for the school as a whole. The school is committed to extending the most able children and the pupil review procedure outlined above promotes the identification of the most able, whose progress is tracked to ensure that appropriate provision is in place.

In all of the above ways, the school seeks to meet the individual needs of each child as set out in its Ethos and Aims and in its Teaching and Learning Policy.

January 2013