Curriculum intention, definition and structure 2025-2026
What is the intention of the Highbury Fields School curriculum?
Highbury Fields School understands that the content and quality of our school curriculum is vital in ensuring that all students in our care enjoy academic and social success both throughout school and beyond into university and the workplace.
What does the school mean by academic success?
If our curriculum is fully meeting its intention, throughout their schooling our students will:
- Enjoy accumulating, and be able to apply, an array of knowledge and skills that have been learnt across a wide range of academic disciplines
- Develop and maintain a passion for reading and understand that reading broadly and well is inextricably linked to their future chances
- As a consequence of their desire to be lifelong learners, make strong progress and achieve excellent outcomes that put them in control of their future choices
- Be ready to take their next steps in education and will do so with the confidence and determination to fully discover who they are and where their interests lie
What does the school mean by social success?
As they mature into young adults, Highbury Fields students will:
- Have developed an independence that enables them to create and sustain positive relationships that improve their quality of life and contribute to their interpretation of it
- Know how to spend time constructively, both on their own and with others, and will have developed pastimes that aid their ability to keep well, but which also deepen their cultural appreciation and broaden their world view
- Have a wide scope of interests and a continuing curiosity, which encourage an enjoyment of ideas within and beyond their specialist field
- Have excellent communication skills, which ensure they are able to engage meaningfully in discussion and debate across a range of spheres
- Have the confidence and determination to make the very most of their lives, not just for themselves, but so they can improve the community and society of which they are such an integral part
How does Highbury Fields School define ‘the curriculum’?
At Highbury Fields School the curriculum is defined as the planned learning experiences that support students in their holistic development during the time they are in the school. The curriculum underpins every moment of students’ educational journey and should imbue the feelings of safety, happiness and confidence in all students. It should also equip students with a knowledge and skills set that promotes academic curiosity and which enables students to think flexibly and thus be adaptable in their preparation for the excitement and challenges of adulthood.
The school recognises the significance of all aspects of the curriculum and understands that the studied, wider and pastoral curricular have equal bearing on students’ future success and are mutually supportive of one another. Whilst the school curriculum has consistent ambitions for every student, the school understands that, to provide an inclusive and equitable educational experience, bespoke adaptations will be required to best support all students in achieving academic and social success, which is the principal mission of the school.
Highbury Fields School also understands that the knowledge and skills associated with each aspect of the curriculum need to be effectively sequenced and structured over time, to ensure they are relevant to the needs and context of all students in our care at every stage of their development. The school is firmly committed to continually evaluating the impact of the curriculum, to ensure that it provides the very best experiences and opportunities for all of our students.
How does Highbury Fields School structure the curriculum?
The overarching purpose of Highbury Fields School curriculum is to provide all students with the knowledge, skills and characteristics that enable them to be academically and socially successful, both throughout school and in future life. The school structures the curriculum in three aspects:
- The studied curriculum, which includes the subjects and lessons which students learn throughout the educational journey
- The pastoral curriculum, which includes the ways in which students are taught to safeguard themselves and one another and how the school values of community, respect and tolerance are threaded throughout students’ learning
- The enrichment curriculum, which includes the opportunities and experiences provided for students outside of their timetabled subjects and lessons
Each of the three aspects of the curriculum are interrelated and all are integral in providing students with the foundations for a successful future and an understanding of how reading throughout life supports both academic progress and keeping well.
The studied curriculum
The core purpose of the Highbury Fields’ studied curriculum is to induct students into academic disciplines in a manner that inspires them to have a lifelong love of learning. The studied curriculum is intended to motivate students in the quest for knowledge both within and beyond school. Learning opportunities are framed as moments of discovery, with students encouraged to actively ‘find out’ and creatively apply new knowledge, rather than simply being recipients of it.
Highbury Fields School has a clear vision of how students should develop into curious, independent learners throughout their schooling. Our studied curriculum is therefore carefully sequenced both within and throughout each curriculum year, to support students in acquiring, rehearsing and applying the knowledge and skills that are necessary for future academic and professional success and, just as importantly, allow them to develop a broad and balanced world view. Students’ experiences of learning are carefully aligned to their development, allowing for the continual layering of appropriately challenging knowledge and skills, that ensures students become confident, determined learners, who enjoy and understand the empowerment of education and are ready for each stage of it.
The school recognises that the joy of learning for students is most often located in the discovery of stimulating, life changing knowledge and ideas and that the skills required to fully appreciate such concepts can only be fully developed once the spark of interest has been ignited. Highbury Fields is deeply ambitious for our students and through the studied curriculum, they are exposed to vital canonical thinkers and texts, but also to a wide range of cultures, histories and traditions that have helped to shape the values of twenty first century Britain.
Lessons and schemes of learning are carefully planned to uncover students’ prior understanding of topics, before introducing new knowledge and its relation to the world in which we live. The manner in which students learn and apply this knowledge seeks to develop the competencies that students need both in a classroom setting, but also to be successful throughout life. Emphasis is placed on students developing effective communication skills and, in particular, on their ability to listen, read, speak and write well. In this way, the studied curriculum provides students with the tools that they need to make successful progress throughout school, but also to interpret and contribute meaningfully to wider society.
The pastoral curriculum
The school understands that as students develop into adulthood, they will form a multitude of different and sometimes complex relationships. The pastoral curriculum is designed to help students interpret and evaluate these relations and to support students in making safe, positive choices for themselves and when supporting others. Through the pastoral curriculum, students learn to identify when they, or another person, may need help, where or who to go to in such circumstances and coping mechanisms to manage on-going moments of difficulty.
By introducing students to the challenges faced by some members of our community and in wider society, the pastoral curriculum also seeks to imbue in students the values of mutual respect and tolerance, as well as to ensure that inclusivity, diversity and equal opportunities are celebrated and that students know how to appropriately challenge in society instances that are not aligned to these values. In this way, the pastoral curriculum ensures that all students feel they are valued and supported both in and outside of the school community, but also that they have the responsibility of helping others to feel the same way.
The pastoral curriculum therefore supports students to learn the emotional intelligence and resilience that are required to make an active and responsible contribution to school life and that they develop the necessary strategies to continue such positive contributions to wider society as adults.
The enrichment curriculum
The enrichment curriculum is designed to complement the studied and pastoral curricular by further developing in students the confidence and determination that are so vital in successfully navigating the challenges of adulthood and future employment. Broadly themed into adventure and sport; arts and culture; careers and enterprise; community; curriculum depth; public speaking and debate; science and technology, the enrichment curriculum exposes students to subject knowledge, cultures and viewpoints that extend beyond the studied curriculum and enables them to practise and apply skills across a wide spectrum of contexts, thus honing their expertise for higher education, the workplace and adulthood.
By offering opportunities across a range of areas, the enrichment curriculum ensures that all students have access to a breadth of experiences that allows them to accumulate cultural capital throughout their educational journey. Just as importantly, by encouraging participation in fun non-academic pastimes, the enrichment curriculum helps students to develop strategies to look after and manage their emotional and physical health both throughout school and as they become adults. Through the enrichment curriculum, students are actively contributing to their own self development and sense of identity and broadening the parameters of what success in school means to them.
The contributions and support that students offer to one another through the enrichment curriculum nurtures and strengthens important relationships across the school and further fosters the strong sense of community that is both an integral feature and value of Highbury Fields School. In this way, the enrichment curriculum fulfils the essential function of enabling students to have fun in a meaningful way and thus together to create lasting positive memories of their time in school.