Curriculum

Northolt High School: Our Curriculum

Our curriculum is carefully crafted to meet the needs of our students and the demands of their studies and is underpinned by three approaches:

• Mastery
• Interleaving
• A clear assessment journey.

A mastery approach means that we aim for students to develop a fully comprehensive and confident understanding of knowledge and skills. Part of this involves developing students’ long-term memory so that they are able to retain and refer back to knowledge in order to make new connections and enrich their understanding. Our interleaved curriculum brings different topics together and students switch between these and revisit them at intervals throughout the year. Our clear and structured assessment calendar regularly tests students’ understanding and progress.

At Key Stage 3, students in years 7, 8 and 9 follow the full National Curriculum meaning our students learn through both academic and creative study. At Northolt High School, we see Key Stage 3 as being a crucial stage in the development of students' powerful knowledge and, inspired by Mary Myatt's work, have developed a broad and balanced curriculum that prepares students for both their future study and future their lives.

At Key Stage 4, students study and are examined in the following subjects: English, English Literature, Mathematics, Science and either History or Geography. Students also choose options subjects from the following list: Art, Biology, Business Studies, Catering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Drama, Film Studies, French, Health and Fitness, ICT, Music, PE, Photography, Physics, 3D Design. In addition, all students study PE, PHSCE and RE as non-examinable courses.

At Key Stage 5 we offer the following courses at A Level: Biology, Business Studies, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Law, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology. We offer BTECs in Applied Science and Sport.

As a school, Northolt High has a moral as well as a legal obligation to ensure that students who have a Special Educational Need (SEN) and/or English as an Additional Language (EAL) have full access to the curriculum.  Students are placed on the SEN or EAL register based on information from previous settings, information from parents and school assessments. Staff take into account students’ disabilities and work collaboratively with the Inclusion Team to support learners within the classroom environment and around the school. 

Additional in-class support is offered by teachers for students who identify as SEN or EAL, for example, key vocabulary teaching, writing frames and visual stress strategies to enable students to make progress. Depending on their need, students may also receive interventions outside of the classroom such as social communication groups, Maths, Literacy (including phonics) and handwriting which are provided by Teaching Assistants, the Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA) team, as well as external professionals such as the Speech and Language Team.  

As a school, we recognise that some students require curriculum support outside of lessons and to improve their emotional, mental and social development there are designated spaces around the school for them to work, such as the Regulated Learning Suite and the Inclusion Area. 

If you would like to find out more about our curriculum, please contact our Subject Leaders (for queries about individual subjects), Mr Haresnape, Senior Deputy Headteacher or Mr Mathews, Deputy Headteacher.