The curriculum at The Philip Morant School & College is influenced by the work of Martin Robinson’s Trivium 21C. At its core, it is about students learning substantive and important knowledge and having the opportunities to explore, debate and discuss, as well as being able to communicate effectively. The school also recognises that reading is a master skill. We want all of our young people to become confident readers and be exposed to challenging texts.
The school’s curriculum supports Sigma Trust’s key ambition that ‘no child is left behind’ as a coherent, rigorous and appropriate curriculum is a key driver and guarantor of true equity. We are aware that our young people do not always start school at the same point with the same level of prior knowledge and skills. Every student is piecing together ideas, information, experiences and concepts to form a coherent web (schema) that constitutes their understanding and fluency with the material in hand. Our curriculum and approaches to teaching will endeavour to provide the most appropriate form of instruction to help students to develop their schema.
As a school, we are mindful of the rigor of the new, revised examinations and the demands our young people face in the ever-changing global economy. We need our young people to have a deep foundational knowledge, which allows them to be responsive and informed as they navigate their place in the world. At the Philip Morant School & College, our Personal Health Social Education (PSHE), Relationships, Sex Education (RSE), Community, Beliefs and Life Skills (CBLS) and Co-curricular programmes provide students with opportunities to not only develop their wider interests but also help them to become informed and active citizens.
At the centre of our curriculum is the development of character. We want our students to have ‘something about them’. This can only be achieved when we teach our students the ‘best that has been thought and said’, alongside the development of an understanding of a sense of self. At The Philip Morant School & College, we define character as having the grit and determination not to give up, as well as having the ability to make relationships and build trust, and for students to understand that a ‘good life’ is one shaped by commitments that are serious and long-term.
Curriculum teams have considered the substance, sequencing of learning and how this will be assessed for each unit. Teachers will endeavour to make authentic links with other subject areas to help our students connect their learning and develop their schema, for example students will explore the socio-political context of England in the post-war period before studying An Inspector Calls in English.
We want our young people to be: