The curriculum is the FABRIC of our College. It is the essence, foundation and spirit of the school and it is built upon the following principles.
Focused – regularly evaluated for improvement. Reacts to what students know/don’t know and can/ can’t do
Appropriate – displays a careful selection of knowledge and skills that are cumulatively assessed
Broad and balanced – includes a range of academic subjects and builds ‘Cultural Capital’
Rigorous – Challenges and supports all students to be able to know more and remember more
Integrated - to be progressive – there is clear vertical progression in each subject from year to year
Coherent – there is clear intent about what our students will learn at each stage1
Our intention is to give our students access to the absolute best that has been thought, said, written, performed, and calculated in line with our motto; Floreat Sapientia. We want our students to be engaged with and enthused by a richness of knowledge in a variety of subject disciplines allowing them to build character and cultural capital as well as to achieve success in their public examinations. We are committed to learning beyond core knowledge to explore the valuable ‘Hinterland’ of subjects. When we use the phrase ‘cultural capital,’ we mean the essential knowledge and skills that will enable students to leave the College being able to understand key cultural aspects of life and being able to fully function and participate in society. Our aim is for all our students, to have access to a curriculum that is rich in knowledge in all their subjects to achieve this.
We adopt a 5-7 Year spiralling curriculum that is sequenced to build on prior learning and prepare students for future learning so that they know more and can remember more. Our students follow a broad curriculum in Year 7 and Year 8, before taking some ownership of their curriculum pathway in Year 9. Almost all our students are put forward for the ‘English Baccalaureate’ from Year 9 to ensure that they have access to a range of academic subjects at GCSE including English, Mathematics, three Sciences, a Modern Foreign Language and either Geography or History. In addition, students continue to study a range of other subjects throughout Years 9, 10 and 11 so that their academic experience is as broad as possible.
Our Sixth Form students choose three subjects to pursue at A Level. We offer a range of traditionally academic A Levels, as well as the Extended Project Qualification, Further Maths and other enrichment courses that help to prepare our students for study at university and for life beyond the College, such as a bespoke ‘Futures’ programme, PSHCE and Games. Sixth Form students have a Floreat lecture and tutorial each week in Year 12 and a lecture each week in Year 13.
Wymondham College meets its’ statutory obligations to teach careers education, relationship and sex education, economic wellbeing and financial capability and drugs education through the programme of study in Personal, Social, Health and Careers Education. (PSHCE) The statutory requirements for the teaching of Religion and Philosophy Education (RPE) are delivered through the Norfolk SACRE: Norfolk Agreed Syllabus 2019 with all students studying the GCSE RE short course. British values and social, moral, spiritual, and cultural education are taught explicitly in the PSHCE curriculum and across many other subjects. Safeguarding and careers education are also integrated into many subject curriculums where appropriate and through assemblies.
Our curriculum extends beyond the classroom; we call this ‘Wymondham Life.’ This includes activities such as Combined Cadet Force (CCF), sport and over 75 other clubs. We draw upon high quality external agencies to add value to our curriculum, such as The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Wymondham College values character education and the acquisition of cultural capital. For this reason, students in Year 7-9 have a ‘Floreat’ lesson once a fortnight. These lessons focus on character development, cultural capital and forming connections between subjects. They provide opportunities to develop students’ leadership and provide students with access to and knowledge of cultural experiences that they would not otherwise encounter in their day-to-day curriculum.
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