Curriculum Plan and Overview

New Mills School is an inclusive school.  We want to provide a broad and rich academic curriculum from which all students learn the essential knowledge they need to succeed in life.  We believe everyone benefits from a knowledge-led, carefully planned and sequenced curriculum. Our curriculum aims to ensure that pupils understand key concepts and that they transfer key knowledge to long-term memory and apply it fluently. Our curriculum provides windows to the world that extend beyond the immediate environment of the local area and equips students with the knowledge they need to contribute to society.

We see the most challenging tasks, the construction of sophisticated essays, the solving of complex problems, the development of high-quality practical tasks, as a combination of a number of components.  Our curriculum is set out to identify these components, teach them in a logical sequence so that they are remember, then bring them together in order to develop students’ composite abilities in the subject. 

The curriculum is planned as a five-year journey. Students spend three years studying a broad range of subjects at Key Stage 3, followed by two years studying a range of GCSE (and equivalent) courses in more depth. We believe that this model enables us to provide a strong foundation through enhanced curriculum time in all areas at KS3 while still providing them with personalisation and choice for their GCSEs. Further information about the curriculum in each subject area can be found under the heading 'The Curriculum'.