Subjects

A brief outline of all curriculum areas is given below:

ENGLISH
A specialised English course, consisting of two parts, making use of a wide range of  literary classic and modern works and the study of Language – including media texts – will offer students the opportunity to complete both Language and Literature GCSE examinations at the end of Year 11.

Students are assessed on their spoken English Language, reading and writing through a series of four examinations and one public presentation, during the course of Year 11.  Evidence of improvement will be gathered from a direct comparison with academic assessment prior to placement. Group work encourages students to contribute to discussions, develop reasoning skills and the ability to comment constructively on others’ viewpoints.

Classwork and home reading tasks encourage students to develop an awareness and understanding of texts and the literary techniques writers use to create effects. Students will also compare different writers’ ideas and viewpoints, and learn how to communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively when evaluating different texts.

MATHEMATICS
The new GCSE 9-1 mathematics curriculum will encourage students to:

  • Develop fluent knowledge, skills and understanding of mathematical methods and concepts
  • Acquire, select and apply mathematical techniques to solve problems
  • Reason mathematically, make deductions and inferences, interpret and draw conclusions
  • Understand, interpret and communicate mathematical information in a variety of forms appropriate to the context

Students are assessed following the completion of each unit and at the end of each term, in order to monitor progress.  At the end of Year 11 students will complete three examination papers:

  • Using and applying standard techniques
  • Reasoning, interpreting and communication mathematically
  • Solving problems within a mathematical context

BIOLOGY
As a result of changes to the Science GCSE curriculum students are currently following an accreditation in Biology, with first examinations in June 2018.
The course covers the following topics –
• Cell biology and organisation
• Infection and the body response
• Bioenergetics
• Homeostasis
• Inheritance, variation and evolution
• Ecology

WORK RELATED LEARNING
The option of work experience, during Year 11, is available to all students who demonstrate a positive commitment to their CBC programme.

SPORT
The BTEC Level 1 Certificate in Sport and Active Leisure is designed to give learners the opportunity to develop a range of sporting skills and techniques, personal skills and attributes essential for successful performance in working life.

Students have to complete two core units as well as three optional units from a list of ten. These range from understanding how the body works, planning a fitness program, understanding health and safety in sport and at work and being able to analyse their performance in the variety of sport activities provided.

BUSINESS
GCSE Business gives students the opportunity to explore real business issues and how businesses work.

Students explore different business contexts ranging from small enterprises to large multinationals and businesses operating in local, national and global contexts. Students develop an understanding of how these contexts impact on business behaviour

The subject covers six topics

  • Business in the real world
  • Influences on business
  • Business operations
  • Human resources
  • Marketing
  • Finance

Assessment:

Paper 1 – Influences of operations and Human Resource Management on business activity.

Paper 2 – Influences of marketing and finance on business activity

FOOD PREPARATION & NUTRITION
This is a GCSE curriculum initiative for Year 10 students. The course cover seven units:

  • Food Preparation Skills
  • Nutrition and Health
  • Food Science
  • Food Safety
  • Food Choice
  • Food Provenance
  • Preparing for Assessment
  • Students must complete two practical assessments and one final written exam for full accreditation.

HOME COOKING SKILLS
This engaging BTEC course aims to help students to learn the basic skills and recipes that will help them to make healthy choices throughout their lives.

They will learn essential knowledge and skills such as:

  • kitchen basics: what equipment you need and the best way to stock your store cupboard, fridge and freezer
  • food safety and hygiene: knife safety, fridge management and rotation
  • how to shop cleverly: shopping lists, seasonal food and planning ahead
  • preparing ingredients and understanding food labels

Students can achieve Level 1 or Level 2 in this BTEC.  Both levels require a completed Learner Record.  Level 2 includes a practical cooking assessment.

Under the supervision of teaching staff, all student groups take turns in preparing a well balanced daily meal for everyone at the Constance Bridgeman Centre. This also counts towards assessment.

RSHE
Develops skills and attributes such as resilience, self-esteem, risk management, team work and critical thinking in the context of 3 main themes :

  • Health and Wellbeing
  • Relationships
  • Living in the Wider World

Ensures students know about –

  • Different types of relationships, including friendships, family relationships, intimate relationships, dealing with strangers
  • How to recognise, understand and build healthy relationships, including self respect and respect for others, commitment, tolerance, boundaries and consent, how to manage conflict and recognise unhealthy relationships
  • Healthy relationships and safety online
  • Factual knowledge around sex, sexual health and sexuality, set within the context of relationships

Students will be supported and encouraged to develop the following personal skills –

  • Communication – how to manage changing relationships and emotions
  • Recognising and assessing potential risks
  • Assertiveness
  • Seeking help when needed
  • Informed decision making
  • Self respect and empathy for others
  • Recognising the need for a healthy lifestyle
  • Managing conflict
  • Discussion and group participation

ARTS AWARD
We offer Arts Awards Bronze and Silver Certificates. These explore different art techniques such as clay, spray paint and stencilling, acrylic paint and model making. Students develop their own art projects according to individual interests and ideas. As part of the curriculum, pupils visit Tate Modern and a local artist’s studio where they take part in a workshop and produce an art work. They also take part in leadership and community activities by teaching an art lesson at a local primary school. Students can follow their art studies at a college by taking the Arts Award Gold Certificate which will prepare them for an art degree course.

P4C


P4C (Philosophy for Children, Colleges, Communities) centres around encouraging students to develop their enquiry and questioning skills to deepen understanding of concepts. Typically, the teacher shares a stimulus and guides learners in choosing questions together to help them investigate that stimulus more deeply. This stimulus could be a book, a story, a short film or film extract, or even a piece of music. Students are then prompted and given time to think of and discuss questions that arise from it.

A P4C approach can be applied to all areas of the curriculum, and regularly incorporating P4C can build confidence and listening skills. The approach rests on the basis that all contributions matter and it aims to create a culture of collaboration in the classroom.

P4C lets us focus on developing a real articulation of thought. You are asking children to construct and analyse their own ideas and opinions, rather than just consuming answers. It takes time to develop, but the outcomes can be reaped across the curriculum and even outside of school. Simple but crucial skills are at the core of this technique – things like turn-taking, reasoning and compromise.

P4C is well established in many mainstream schools at all key stages. Independent research (see here and here) has shown it to be a solid approach that develops critical thinking and enquiry in learners, and we are one of a very small number of providers outside of mainstream schooling to offer it, and the first PRU in the country to gain official Bronze accreditation from the awarding organisation SAPERE.

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Please Note:
Where any subject award is achieved through coursework, we abide by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) rules on plagiarism, i.e. passing someone’s work off as your own. In summary, these are:

Candidates must not:

  • submit work which is not their own;
  • lend work to other candidates or allow their work to be copied;
  • allow other candidates access to, or the use of, their own independently sourced material or assist others in the production of coursework; (this does not mean that candidates may not lend their books to one another, but candidates must not plagiarise others’ research);
  • use any books, the internet or other sources without acknowledgement or attribution;
  • submit work word-processed by a third person without acknowledgement.

These actions constitute malpractice, for which a penalty (e.g. disqualification from the assessment) will be applied.