Curriculum Overview
A broad and balanced curriculum helps pupils develop as independent thinkers and learners beyond the boundaries of the classroom and traditional lessons. We ensure our pupils all receive a good grounding in sports and in the performing arts. The importance of core skills and knowledge are recognised with substantial time being devoted to English, Maths and Science. The Ebacc study pathway is available to all pupils who wish to pursue this, and includes the foreign languages of French, Spanish and Mandarin.
From Year 7 to Year 11 the curriculum is structured to meet the needs of the pupils and maximise their potential. This approach to curriculum planning and design ensures breadth and depth and aims to be ambitious for all pupils. In the lower school pupils access a broad curriculum, setting them up with the requisite national curriculum requirements for their knowledge and understanding. In the upper school pupils continue with a broad curriculum but also have the opportunity to select three areas of the curriculum that they may be interested in and have not yet experienced. The upper school Level 2 programmes of study offer pupils a wealth of subjects that include the core subjects as well as Drama, Art, Photography, Food Preparation, PE, Design and Technology, Creative I media, Computing, Media Studies, Business, Enterprise and Marketing, Health and Social Care, Music and Sociology. This extensive range includes academic and vocational courses, which offer pupils the qualifications they need for their next steps, and to achieve future success.
Any pupil starting school now, will be entering a job market where many of the careers with which we are familiar, will have changed. As a result, at Kingsford Community School, we are constantly looking at ways to improve our existing offer, researching and adapting our curriculum to meet the needs of our young people better in a rapidly changing world. In particular, we have recognised the additional challenges faced by vulnerable pupils and those with complex needs. To this end, we have introduced greater curriculum flexibility, revised the approaches to inclusion and developped effective systems to ensure that the additional needs of pupils are met, whilst maintaining high aspirations and ambitions for the academic outcomes of all pupils. Together with appropriate levels of challenge and support this ensures that our pupils have the best possible framework for maximising their full potential. Central to the Kingsford curriculum is an academic core of English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities and Modern foreign languages. This is complemented by an exciting range of other subjects including vocational and creative subjects, which are key to supporting confidence, creativity and character.
Kingsford Community School believes in choice and opportunity for progression so that all pupils regardless of background, can achieve highly. We get to know our pupils well, so that we can give them high-quality support to maximise their potential, and to enable them to move on to the next stage of their lives. Ultimately, we want all our pupils to be happy and successful in their lives, and to make a positive contribution to the world.
September 2024 - August 2025 Curriculum Overview
Kingsford Community School operates a two-week timetable
- Lesson duration is 60 minutes
- There are 5 x 1 period lessons per day
- There are 25 lessons a week (and 50 lessons a fortnight)
Each week pupils are in school for at least 33.33 hours.
The official school start time for pupils is 8.30 a.m. and all pupils remain at school until at least 3.10 p.m. (meaning a provision of at least 33.3 hours per week in a typical week.) Many pupils choose to stay at school until later in the day to take advantage of the vast array of clubs, extra-curricular activities and study support groups available.
The model at the bottom of this page shows how many sessions are allocated to each curriculum subject on a fortnightly cycle.
