Curriculum

Curriculum Overview:
Number of hours taught across the 2 week timetable

KS3 Curriculum Overview


All students in Years 7-8 study English, Mathematics, Science, Art, Design and Technology , Drama, French, Geography, History, ICT, Music, Physical Education and Religious Education. Personal, Social and Health Education and Citizenship are delivered through the curriculum, as a series of discrete lessons, and on planned drop down days. Students in year 7 also have Literacy lessons to support the development of their literacy skills which are crucial to success across the curriculum.

KS4 Curriculum Overview


Students at Norlington choose their options for GCSE in the spring term of Year 8, and are supported in making these important choices with a planned Options programme.


In Year 9 the first three cycles that students follow are a ‘mini GCSE’ where they are introduced to the requirements of each subject, and develop the skills they need to be successful at GCSE. At the end of cycle 3 each student will sit a formal assessment in each subject area and they will then begin the GCSE course in cycle 4 of year 9.

In Years 9 -11, all students follow a core curriculum of GCSE English, GCSE English Literature,, GCSE Mathematics, Science (GCSE Core Science, GCSE Additional Science), GCSE Religious Education, Sports Education and Personal, Social & Health Education (including Careers, Citizenship, and SRE.) All students have to choose Geography, History or a language as one of their option subjects.


In years 9-10 all students complete an ICT qualification.


In addition, students choose from a wide range of option subjects which may be revised from year to year, but usually include: GCSE Art, GCSE Design and Technology, GCSE French, GCSE Geography, GCSE History, GCSE Computer Science, GCSE Music, GCSE Physical Education, GCSE Triple Science, GCSE Urdu. and BTEC Performing Arts.


We discuss option choices carefully with students and parent/carers and will take into account the most appropriate future pathway for each individual student. Students may be directed towards a pathway that will lead to the English Baccalaureate. This pathway currently includes GCSEs in English, Maths, Science, Computer Science, a language and either Geography or History.


We actively encourage any of our students who speak any of the community languages to be entered for a GCSE in those subjects. These usually include Arabic, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.


Programmes are in place to support students in both KS3 and 4 with Special Educational Needs or English as an Additional Language. We run intensive language courses for students who speak very little English with the aim of developing enough functional English for them to access the full curriculum and make rapid progress

Homework Schedule


The homework schedule details how much homework each student would be expected to receive every week. Your son should already be recording his homework in his diary. This is monitored on a weekly basis by his form tutor when the diary is signed. The schedule is a guide. He may receive a little more or a little less based on the work he is doing in class that week.


All homework will also be put onto Show My Homework which allows students and parents to easily see what homework has been set each week.


All homework deadlines need to be met with students given homework at least 2 days before it is due to be handed in. This will allow him to clarify any aspects of the work he does not understand. All homework should be marked and returned to the student.

Literacy


Year 7 students will follow a Literacy course. It has been designed to support them to develop higher literacy skills. As part of this course students use a programme called Accelerated Reader. This is a literacy programme aimed at accelerating the learning of all students. The package is backed up by literacy lessons and a 1:1 support programme. Students who complete the programme will move on to a project based programme to develop their research skills.


As part of their weekly homework students will be expected to complete ½ hour of Accelerated Readerhomework a week. This is completed online. If a student does not have access to the internet at home they can access computers in the library at lunchtimes or after school.

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