The transition curriculum is designed to make the transition from primary to secondary school as smooth as possible whilst developing the skills necessary for success at GCSE. A core part of the curriculum is the Opening Minds programmes. Opening Minds is a theme based teaching strategy that develops skills applicable across all subjects such as learning how to learn. We have two models working at the school in the foundation years

• OM Humanities - Geography, History and RE are taught by one teacher who delivers the subjects through themes such as Smart Brain, Conflict, It’s not fair and Global affairs.


• OM Arts - Art, music and drama combine to deliver themes. The first theme is the formal elements such as composition, tone and colour, followed by ‘Africa’ and then ‘elements’ where they develop a piece of drama, the music to accompany it and the stage sets.

Subjects are grouped into the Communications and Creative Arts Cluster, the Maths and Humanities Cluster and the Science and Technology Cluster. Each cluster will group pupils in differing ways based on their achievement particularly in the core subject at the heart of each cluster. This means that a student who has high ability in Maths can be in a top set in this cluster to assist them in their continued excellent development in this area, but if they are middle ability in Science and English they will be in appropriate sets in these clusters to provide suitable stretch and support in these areas allowing the teaching and learning to be as personalised as possible. Most classes will be of 28 - 30 pupils but those who have literacy and numeracy development issues will be placed in a set that should have smaller numbers giving them the support and expertise to help them catch-up.
From the summer of 2010 Year 8 students will receive end of 'KS3' teacher assessments.

Year 9:

Academic year 09/10 is the final year that Year 9 will be included in what has been known as 'Key Stage 3' at BES. Year 9
will receive an end of key stage teacher assessed level . There are no longer SATs at the end of 'KS3'.

All pupils follow a core curriculum, reflecting the requirements of the National Curriculum, which includes English, Maths, Science, RE, Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Core PE.

In addition to the core, pupils will have a number of choices to make about additional subjects. Some of these subjects will last for one year, some two, allowing pupils to build up a portfolio of level 1 and 2 qualifications, either GCSE, BTEC or the new Diploma qualifications. One subject will be a technology subject e.g. Electronics, Textiles, Graphics, Engineering, IT or Food technology. Beyond that there is a choice covering subjects such as Art, Business Studies, Drama, French, Geography, History, Music, Spanish and Society Health and Development.

The development curriculum gives flexibility of choice by offering courses that will be one or two years in length and an 'Options' process at the end of years eight, nine and ten.

We have a large joint sixth form, which is shared with Oldbury Wells School. This collaboration has enabled us to successfully offer a wide variety of A Levels, together with additional vocational qualifications, such as BTEC and Applied A Levels. Some of the subjects are joint taught by staff from each institution whilst others are solely offered at one school.

We are constantly striving to update this curriculum offer and aim to provide students with as much choice as possible. Our shared timetable with Oldbury Wells allows most subjects to be taught in double periods. Students could well be attending lessons at either campus (Oldbury Wells is a short 15 minute walk away) and movement time is built into the timetable. A typical day would see a student having fours hour of teaching in the morning. The afternoon session would consist of some time spent in mentoring with a specialist tutor following which students would be attending guidance and general activities, GCSE English or Maths re-sit classes (where applicable) or independent study in our new sixth form centre or the main school library.

Post-16 students have regular mentoring sessions where they receive more personal guidance and are linked to vertical tutor groups which are family groups of students from all years. We welcome the support and hands on practical help sixth formers can provide to the rest of the school. They are also key role models in our school and we encourage them to develop their mentoring and independent learning skills and look to offer opportunities for students to demonstrate leadership and initiative.

Please use the link to see departmental information on any additional courses available.

To download a copy of the Curriculum Handbook please Click Here