RHS student’s journey through Key Stage 3

Welcome to our Key Stage 3 Curriculum booklet. At the Royal High School we see these vital years as some of the most exciting in any girl’s school career. These are the years where foundations are laid for future success and happiness; intellectual curiosity is piqued, life-long friendships are formed and talents are discovered and nurtured.

Our curriculum is designed to provide students with a wide variety of intellectual experiences. These will bring them the skills they need to succeed and thrive, and the wide and secure knowledge base they will need later in life for further study. I confidently predict that the girls will start Year 7 in a flurry of excitement. The specialist teachers, excellent facilities and new subjects will mean that your daughter will have many ‘new favourite’ subjects. Year 8 brings greater specialism: new language options and separate science classes will add greater depth to learning. Year 9 is both the culmination of what went before as well as the gateway to something new. Further new options emerge, Classical Civilisation, Greek, and Dance, as well as the need to make GCSE choices that will satisfy their aspirations and interests. In this booklet each department describes the learning journey they have lovingly designed for their students both inside the classroom and beyond it. We are very pleased to introduce you to the Royal High School Learner Qualities. These are a set of six characteristics we identify as being instrumental in allowing our students to flourish. We will help each student develop these qualities and provide opportunities for them to be; Brave, Reflective, Inquisitive, Collaborative, Kind and Sparky. In 2022–23 we also begin our introduction of Problem-Solving Skills lessons to the Year 7 Curriculum. These weekly sessions will provide the students with specific real-world challenges. They will learn effective teamwork through a variety of projects by innovating and problemsolving. They will also be asked to share their results of their work with stakeholders from the school and wider community. We are very excited about the opportunities this programme will give to our students.

However, your daughter’s development as a learner will not only occur in lessons but also with tutors, on school trips, in co-curricular activities and in the many off-timetable and cross-curricular events we offer to keep our curriculum fresh and innovative. Great examples of these in recent years have included the Enterprise Challenge, the Industrial Cadets award and the ‘Festival of Ideas Project.’ With no external exam pressures, Key Stage 3 is a time where a school can exert its greatest power over its curriculum choices. To quote Voltaire (or St. Luke, or Spiderman’s Uncle Ben if you prefer!), ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ I hope you can see from the contents of these pages that at the Royal High this power is not something we take lightly: we plan courses and opportunities carefully so that your daughter can develop the knowledge and skills she will need as a learner at GCSE level, in the Sixth Form, and beyond. These years are fabulously important for the girls but it is also important that the girls find them fabulous. With this in mind we present a curriculum that is broad, challenging and stimulating but, most of all, fun!

Mr H Briggs

Deputy Head (Academic)