Curriculum Model

Curriculum Statement

Baines school’s curriculum is designed to be ambitious, inclusive and coherently sequenced, ensuring that all students, regardless of background or starting point, gain the knowledge, skills and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. Rooted in our motto, nil sine labore – nothing without effort – we cultivate resilience, intellectual curiosity and pride in achievement, explicitly teaching pupils to value effort as the pathway to excellence. Our carefully structured curriculum builds knowledge cumulatively over time, enabling students to know more and remember more, while providing rich opportunities for personal development, character education and preparation for life in modern Britain. Through high expectations, purposeful assessment and meaningful enrichment, we ensure that every child is supported and challenged to fulfil their potential. Every subject’s curriculum is broad and balanced and has clear progression in subject knowledge and skills as students move through the years. We know our students and our journey for our students does not end at 16 as we endeavour to prepare each and every one of them for next steps in Further Education, Higher Education, employment or further training.

Our PSHE curriculum in Year 7 to Year 11 is age appropriate and we look to embed SMSC opportunities into all aspects of our work.

We continue to keep every child’s personal development and welfare at the centre of everything we do.

Through our curriculum, both academic and pastorally, we develop further opportunities to demonstrate our commitment to the whole child and strengthen our students understanding of British Values and how to keep themselves safe from relevant risks such as abuse, sexual exploitation and extremism, including when using the internet and social media.

Our REP provision allows SMSC to be further explored and promotes tolerance and equality.

At Baines School we believe that our statement of vision and intent, found on the school’s website, makes explicit our fundamental belief in many of these values.

This statement is the foundation of all our work with our students.

British values are embodied in the following more specific ways: All our students study REP (Religion, Ethics and Philosophy) from Year 7 -11.

The REP curriculum contains the following elements which are directly applicable to promoting British values:

• Belonging and living in different communities
• Ethical and moral values and principles
• Free will and individual choice
• Christianity as the dominant religion in a multicultural and multi-ethnic society

Students participate in at least an hour lesson per fortnight of PSHE from Years 7-9 and one lesson per fortnight in Years 10-11. The PSHE curriculum has a citizenship module in each of Years 7-10 and this contains the following directly relevant elements:

• Diversity, Prejudice & Bullying (Year 7)
• Gambling (Year 8)
• Democracy and the law; British Values (Year 9)
• Financial Education (Year 10)

There are varied opportunities for personal growth and development offered to young people throughout their time with us. Whether academic, practical, sporting, generally talented or initially less than confident, Baines’ students are positively challenged to participate in the breadth of school life and to grow and develop so that they can take on, and successfully meet, new and exciting opportunities in order to find out about themselves, test their abilities and be able to work with, and relate to, peers and other people from all walks of life. As a voluntary-aided (non-denominational), non-selective co-educational school, we want Baines to provide an education and experience that young people respect, value and desire from the moment they join us in Year 7 right through to Year 11. We wish all students to look back over their time with us and feel that they have succeeded at their personal and academic heights, that they have valued and enjoyed their years here and can positively state that they have grown as a person as a result of their experience. The Governing body are regularly involved in discussions regarding curriculum provision ensuring that statutory requirements are met.