Curriculum Intent

The curriculum in each subject can be accessed here: subject specific pedagogy lies at the heart of our approach to teaching and learning and different curriculum principles and implementation strategies are in place in different subjects.  

Our approach to Teaching and Learning at Holland Park School is informed by current educational research, including cognitive science and Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction. We know that habits help students learn, and familiar routines in lessons allow students to focus on the ‘what’ of what is being taught, and avoid being distracted by confusing variation in ‘how’ it is taught. We talk about the Holland Park Lesson Framework – this is framed in every classroom as a constant reminder of what excellent teaching looks like, setting out the structure of lessons and the core routines that form part of all Holland Park lessons. Teachers check for understanding at all stages of lessons, presenting materials in small chunks before modelling and scaffolding students’ understanding to enable them to work independently, deliberately practising using the new knowledge and skills they have developed.  

From Teach Like A Champion: “One corollary of the fact that working memory is both powerful and limited is the realization that every task you can manage to do with minimal load on working memory allows you to use the remaining capacity for something more important. 

This explains why forming habits is so crucial to learning. Making common, everyday activities familiar enough that we can do them without having to think about them makes it easier for us to do them - and therefore more likely that we will - and means we can free our minds up to think more deeply while doing them.” (Teach Like A Champion: Chapter 1, Principle 2 – Habits Accelerate Learning) 

First impressions count. A strong start creates a positive learning culture in the classroom. Students are greeted at the door and stand behind their chairs and prepare their equipment.  

All lessons start with a ‘RoPE’ – Retrieval of Prior Education. This is the thread that ties lessons together: a warm-up activity to test recall of student knowledge. The RoPE Challenge strengthens students’ long term memory and provides students with an immediate opportunity to feel successful at the start of each lesson. 

Our teachers have excellent subject knowledge and are the ‘experts’ in the room. Teacher instruction ensures new knowledge (content) is provided for students to learn. Communication of subject knowledge is clear, confident and accurate, and teachers use visuals to support students’ understanding as we knew dual coding helps students grasp new ideas. The level of knowledge explored in lessons stretches and challenges all students to think hard and deeply. 

Teachers use models and worked examples to check for understanding, meaning that students become more confident with the new knowledge before engaging in deliberate practice. 

Deliberate Practice provides the opportunity for students to demonstrate the level of their new learning. At this phase a significant proportion of the class should be working independently and in silence (where applicable), providing an opportunity for 1:1 student support if required. 

A final review is provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate their new learning and teachers with a chance to evaluate what has been learned to plan the next lesson effectively.  

A calm dismissal prepares students for the next day as they organise their equipment and uniform and stand behind their chairs before departing for their next lesson row by row. 

Checking for understanding takes place throughout the lesson, through cold-calling and the use of mini-whiteboards to evaluate the understanding of the whole class in a snapshot. 

We seek to empower students and parents to take ownership of the curriculum and the knowledge within it by providing them with resources that outline the content studied in each subject in each year and providing an overview of the knowledge that students are expected to have learned.  

Students’ workbooks are custom-designed and unique to Holland Park School: they contain key vocabulary for students to test themselves on, guides to key equations and formulae, and diagrams explaining key concepts and ideas.  

The Parent Planner, given to families each academic year, contains a map of learning for each subject for each year. This provides a broad view of what is being studied at any given time in all subjects, so that parents can help students review previously taught content and prepare for topics to come.  

Our Parent Curriculum Maps provide parents with a finer-grain view of what students are learning as part of each unit, and provide them with key questions they can ask to check their children’s progress in addition to signposting other resources that might be useful.  

United Learning Knowledge Organisers and Learning Glossaries are given to all students in Years 7-9 to support their learning, and students in Key Stage 4 are well-resourced with knowledge organisers and examination revision booklets before each assessment series.  

We set lots of homework and believe in the power of time students spend independently consolidating their learning to help them secure more rapid academic progress.  

At Key Stage 3, students are set at least an hour of homework per night, and this expectation rises at Key Stage 4. Success in the Sixth Form is founded upon independent study, and students can expect to receive one hour’s worth of homework for every one hour of teaching time.  

Homework is timetabled at Key Stage 3 so that it is regular and reliable; parents are thus empowered to support their children with their homework at this stage as they know what to expect and when. 

Students are grouped by academic ability in a number of subjects as this enables teaching to be more directly targeted towards the precise needs of the students in the classroom. All students in all sets follow the same curriculum, with the exception of GCSE Mathematics and Science in Year 11 where tier of entry affects the content that must be covered.  

Students in Years 10 - 11 are set for all core subjects: English, Mathematics, Science and RE. Option subjects are taught in mixed ability groups.

Students in Years 7-9 are set for English, Mathematics, Science, humanities (History, Geography and RE) and languages (French/Spanish/Latin). Students’ grouping is determined by performance in assessments (see below) and teachers’ professional judgement. Student movement between groups is at the discretion of professionals in school and not by parental request.  

Our ambition is for all students to achieve the highest grades they possibly can when they leave us at GCSE and A-Level: we track students’ academic progress through a rigorous but reasonable programme of assessment throughout students’ school careers.  

The vast majority of assessments take place during lessons: teachers use ‘cold-calling’ to assess the understanding of individual students throughout the course of lessons, and mini-whiteboards are used to quickly assess the extent to which all students in a class have understood a new concept or can immediately recall new knowledge.  

Students in all year groups, save for Year 7, sit two significant assessments during the year. For Years 8-10 and 12 these comprise a mid-year assessment and an end-of-year assessment in the summer term. Year 7 sit one significant series of assessments during the summer term. These assessments test content taught throughout the academic year up until that point.  

• Years 7-9 sit assessments in  English, maths, science, history, geography, French/Spanish, RE, Music and Latin (where studied).  
• Year 10 sit assessments in English, maths, science and their four options subjects.  
• Year 12 are tested on content in each of their A Level subjects. 

Students in Years 11 and Year 13 sit mock examinations in each of their subjects in November and in February/March.  

After each mock exam or assessment, an academic report for each student will be produced and sent to parents. This includes a percentage mark for the student, an average percentage for the year group in that subject for context and comparison, a year group ranking per subject, and a GCSE/A-Level grade for students in Years 10-13.