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Curriculum Overview
At Coombe Girls’ School and Sixth Form, our curriculum (11-18) is well designed, context driven, inclusive and carefully sequenced to provide all students with a rigorous foundation for future progression. Our curriculum provides a rich, inspiring and broad learning experience that engenders high expectations and challenge in order to build students’ resilience and self-belief.
We celebrate the development of students’ character, personal development, health and wellbeing through the unique experiences that our curriculum provides. Students have vast opportunities to take their knowledge and skills beyond the classroom and therefore develop their love of learning, independence and creative thinking
At Coombe Girls’ School and Sixth Form, our curriculum will:
- remain broad, balanced and well matched to all students’ needs and interests to keep them curious and engaged
- be well designed, inclusive and carefully sequenced to provide all students with a foundation for future progression
- embody qualities in line with our values and develop pupils’ character, health and wellbeing so they are able to make a valuable contribution to society
- enable students to take their education beyond the classroom to develop cultural capital, creative thinking and foster a lifelong love of learning
- raise aspirations and build students’ independence, resilience and self-belief so they approach their ‘World of Opportunity" with confidence
- provide an appropriate range of opportunities and experiences to inspire students to succeed in the next stage of their education, training or employment
- permeate a ‘brave not perfect’ philosophy and within this, allow students to embrace challenge without fear of failure
Developing our vocabulary at Coombe
Coombe Girls’ School is committed to developing the vocabulary of all of our students and we continually strive to make our school a word rich environment.
We believe that enriching our students’ vocabulary can help them towards success in school, in exams and in life in general. Over the last few years, leaders and teachers from across the Coombe Federation collaborated on a Trust wide vocabulary working party which explored key elements of research in relation to vocabulary teaching. We continue to act on the findings of the working party, taking on board ideas from crucial research such as that of Alex Quigley.
"The explicit teaching of vocabulary can enrich children's knowledge and understanding of the world."
Alex Quigley, Closing the Vocabulary Gap
Across Coombe Girls' School teachers use a range of methods to deliver specific vocabulary instruction. Approaches such as the SEEC method and the Frayer model are used across the curriculum in order to foster a vocabulary rich environment.
Vocabulary teaching is also part of our pastoral programme. Tutors are provided with Word of the Week resources at the start of each half term and cover these words with their groups in order to further develop the vocabulary of their tutees. Our use of The Day resources also exposes students to further vocabulary learning while our Sixth Form Reading Mentors provide vocabulary guidance as part of their one to one reading sessions with selected Year 7 students.
As of December 2023 we have also begun to trial new tutor time resources focused on key word roots which are designed to encourage students to see patterns and connections between words they encounter across the curriculum.
Exam Board Information
