Broad Horizons. Confident Leaders.

At Saltash, we want students to develop a love of learning, not just in school, but for life. Our curriculum is designed to enable this: it provides students with a deep, broad and inspiring learning experience, founded on key concepts that sequentially build on prior knowledge and deepen understanding.

We are ambitious for our learners here. Whilst we teach students to appreciate our corner of the country, we want students to be curious, and have the knowledge and understanding about the wider world to venture out with an array of leadership skills when they leave us. We instil resilience, and offer a rigorous and culturally rich curriculum, so that background is not an obstacle. Everyone can achieve.

A TEAM Curriculum

Our curriculum is firmly underpinned by our TEAM values of Tenacity, Empathy, Aspiration and Motivation. We expect students to be committed to their learning and not give up; listen carefully to others and show sensitivity to different points of view; set clear, ambitious goals; and show initiative, enthusiasm and drive.

We help students to adopt these values in a number of ways: through our formal, taught curriculum, PD lessons, a comprehensive tutor programme and a myriad of extra-curricular opportunities. Our Heads of Department continually hone their expertise in curriculum design, and regularly review and develop their subject offer. In this way, we ensure that our curriculum responds to every learner’s needs, remains relevant and exciting, and above all, gives our students the chance to develop into knowledgeable, successful and confident young people. 

Curriculum Structure

We maintain a traditional approach to the length of each Key Stage.

In our view, this allows students to experience a broad curriculum in years 7-9 before progressively focussing on their areas of interest as they move through KS4 and KS5.

We do not view KS3 as a preparatory programme for GCSE. We recognise that many students will not choose to continue a subject beyond year 9 and as such, the KS3 programme needs to be substantive in its own right, sparking interest, promoting enjoyment, embedding deep learning and developing cultural capital.

 *Taught as part of the Maths curriculum for top set students.

Curriculum Approach

To support the approach to our curriculum, we follow our Saltash Teaching Principles. We set the bar high, and we expect our students to rise to the challenge.

• We insist on a purposeful learning culture, where we have clear routines so that every minute of learning time is maximised.
• Our curriculum is designed so that students have regular opportunities to recall information to embed learning into their longterm memory and grasp key ideas.
• Teacher explanations are clear and supported by high quality learning materials, so that students have complete clarity around what they are learning.
• Teachers ensure new knowledge is founded on prior knowledge and concepts, so that students can learn new ideas by referencing ideas they already know.
• We teach to the top, but support, adapt and scaffold in lessons so that all students achieve.
• We use a range of formative and summative assessments to inform the next steps in our teaching and help students to make progress.

Curriculum Overviews

For more details about each individual year group and curriculum overviews for each subject area, please click on the links below:

Curriculum overviews - KS3

• Year 7
• Year 8
• Year 9

Curriculum Overviews - KS4

• Year 10
• Year 11