Curriculum Intent: Purpose and Principles

Our curriculum is guided by our core principles of excellence, care and high expectations. This means we hold dear the belief that every single young person at our school, with the right support, can achieve something extraordinary.  

Excellence is embodied in our curriculum through the high value we place on subjects and our teachers as experts in their subject areas. We want pupils to have access to the best that has been thought and said. Therefore, our teachers think in detail about what to teach and in what order. We want pupils’ future options to be wide, so we ensure our curriculum is broad and balanced.  

Care is demonstrated through our evidence informed approach to planning and teaching. We believe pupils are more likely to remember all they have learned if the delivery of that knowledge has been carefully sequenced and matched to appropriate teaching strategies. Our ethos, underpinned by the gospel values, respects each pupil as unique individuals. All adults within the school foster close and productive relationships with pupils so showing them a blueprint for how they can engage positively with their wider community. 

High expectations are evident through the rigorous, academic and vocational curriculums on offer. At GCSE, the vast majority are entered for, and excel in, EBacc subjects. By ensuring broad coverage of academic and vocational subjects, we ensure all pupils are not only prepared for public exams but life afterwards.  

Our curriculums are planned backwards from the end of each Key Stage but enriched from the level above. This is to ensure that our curriculum offer is ambitious for all students. We design it so that a pupil will excel at university or acquire the subject knowledge and skills for a future career, whatever the route they take. We want pupils to leave the school with the widest possible life choices, so they can find their place as active, educated citizens within society.  

Curriculum Intent: Entitlement

At St Thomas the Apostle we break the curriculum into three areas:

Academic – What subjects do they study in lessons
Enhanced – How we support students’ personal development outside of lesson
Elective – How we inspire students to develop their own personal interests

Academic

KS3 

English, Maths, Science, RE, History, Geography, MFL, PE, Art, Design Technology, Food Technology, IT, Music, Drama, Life Skills.

KS4 

English, Maths, Science, RE, History, Geography, MFL, PE, Art, Design Technology, Food Technology, IT, Music, Drama, Business Studies, Computer Science, Vocational Business Studies, Vocational IT, Sports Studies.  

KS5 

Art 3D Design, Biology, Business Studies, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, English Literature, Further Maths, Geography, History, Maths, Music, Philosophy & Ethics, Physics, Psychology, Sociology, Spanish, BTEC Business, Cambridge Technical in IT, BTEC Medical Science, BTEC Sport

Enhanced

  • Year group assemblies 
  • Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education (PSHCE) 
  • Careers and Employability programme
  • Tutor Time reading
  • Tutor time subject intervention 
  • Tutor time current affairs programme
  • Sixth Form Enrichment Programme
  • Trips and Visits 
  • Literacy intervention 
  • Numeracy intervention 
  • Bedrock Vocabulary  

Elective

  • Duke of Edinburgh Award (Bronze, Silver, Gold) 
  • After school extra-curricular programme

 

If you would like to find out more about the curriculum, please contact Mr Gould-Elia at  enquiries@stac.southwark.sch.uk