“My favourite subject is Art – the teachers allow you to be really creative so that you can explore your ideas fully.”

Georgina, Year 9

Curriculum

Here at Highsted, we have a very serious, very clear, very simple purpose - to provide the very best education possible.
We also aim to make learning fun!

Highsted students pursue an ambitious seven-year curriculum journey. In Years 7–9, students study a broad and balanced key stage three curriculum covering 15 subject areas. The key stage four curriculum prepares students for their GCSE examinations, while students in the Sixth Form study a full programme of four A-levels and an Extended Project Qualification.

The connected curriculum aims to engage students’ cognitive ability as well as build compassion to become effective leaders of the future. Our focus at Highsted, reflects the whole school ethos, on developing the skills, attributes and habits of mind that will equip our young women as life-long learners. Our aim is to launch them into the world as self-starters, focused but flexible, armed with the courage to grasp opportunities and the resilience and humour to negotiate setbacks along the way.

A comprehensive personal development curriculum complements our academic curriculum, including a structured programme of relationships and sex education to support our students’ physical and mental wellbeing and careers guidance to ensure they have the knowledge to make informed choices about their future.

To see the details of each subject and the journeys that Highsted students undertake during their seven years at the school, please follow this link to Our Curriculum Journey webpage.

Our curriculum has a traditional grammar school framework, with a particular emphasis on preparing for success in the twenty-first century. As a school we gained recognition for specialist science status, with sponsorship from Microsoft. But that doesn’t mean just science - we understand the need for excellence in all subjects, and we also recognise the vast range of opportunities for women in many aspects of engineering and technology, the arts and business - using the very real female strengths of communication, problem-solving and team-work. All students follow the National Curriculum and all are expected to take GCSEs in those subjects, as well as a wide choice of optional courses made available at the end of Year 9.

In the Sixth Form, this breadth and depth of curriculum provision is extended further through a wide range of opportunities in partnership with two other local schools. Find out more about Entry to Sixth Form.

So through our curriculum we seek to create a balance, but we do not accept that there are any areas of study that are unsuitable for our students because of their gender - from artist to politician; engineer to zoologist, there is no career in which Highsted girls cannot and do not excel. Likewise, we aim, as far as possible, to meet the individual learning needs of every student. In keeping with the SEND Code of practice, the views of the student and their parents/carers are at the centre of all decisions relating to the support of students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Through this collaborative approach we can ensure that the appropriate adjustments to our provision are made so that any potential barriers to learning are removed. Our full policy regarding SEND provision and SEN Information Report can be viewed through this link.

A key part of our aim, therefore, is to prepare for a changing world. At Highsted we recognise the need for a real grasp of the advantages and disadvantages of future technologies - how to be a discerning user of the tools that are available, as well as those that we can only begin to imagine at this point in time!

In order to support our learning, we subscribe to a Code of Conduct which applies both within and beyond the classroom. To access our Behaviour Policy & Statement of Principles, please follow this link; to read our Mobile Phone Policy, click here. Through these principles, we aim to make our school a safe and secure environment in which every member of our community can thrive and enjoy their learning.

For details about the areas studied in each key stage, follow the link: Highsted Curriculum Statement. For more detailed Sixth Form curriculum information, click here.