Cotham School seeks to provide an education of the highest quality for all its students by offering an aspirational, broad and balanced curriculum. This includes a stimulating range of extra-curricular activities, trips and visits to support wider learning. 

The curriculum at Cotham goes beyond the national curriculum, and consists of all activities within the school.  It is designed to ensure coherence, relevance, appropriate challenge and progression between the Key Stages, to enable our students to access further and higher education of their choice and to give them the skills and knowledge they need to succeed there and subsequently in society and the workplace. 

In each Key Stage the curriculum intent and how the curriculum will be implemented and reviewed to support the best possible outcomes for students has been carefully considered for each Subject area. Cotham’s curriculum is designed to help students to become confident and resourceful young people, so that they:

• are ambitious for themselves and their peers

• are proud to be Cotham students

• develop  lively, enquiring minds and get excited about learning and the world around them

• work hard, are articulate, courteous, considerate and kind

• develop resilience, self-care strategies and positive mental health and wellbeing

• are working towards great futures and are well prepared to be active citizens of the world

• Make excellent progress throughout their time with us and achieve strong examination outcomes at the end of Key Stages 4 and 5

At Cotham we strive to do this by:

• Organising the curriculum and staff deployment to provide a high degree of consistency and quality in all Key Stages;

• Ensuring our staff have access to a high quality Continued Professional Development (CPD) programme which is responsive to their own and our students’ needs;

• Teaching our students a well considered rigorous, creative and engaging curriculum that meets their  range of needs and which motivates, challenges and supports their aspirations;

• Assessing our students in order to diagnose needs, group students for learning, plan and adapt appropriately, chart progress and give them targets to support their continued progress;

• Helping our students to develop strong literacy and oracy skills so that they are able to read and write well and express themselves confidently ;

• Helping our students to stay safe and to acquire understanding, knowledge and skills relevant to adult life, citizenship, employment and the world around them through excellent Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Careers Education and Guidance (CEIAG).

• Helping our students to develop spiritual, moral, social and cultural values based on respect for others, an appreciation of the diversity of cultures, religions and ways of life; and by understanding of the causes of inequality;

• Offering a broad and bespoke Personal Development provision at Post 16 (overview linked here);

• Raising our students self esteem by instilling the belief that they can achieve highly and promoting equity of opportunity for all by countering racism, sexism and all other forms of discrimination through the curriculum;

• Helping our students to embody Cotham’s core values of Achievement, Respect and Diversity and to develop personal values based on honesty, trust, tolerance, understanding, courtesy and respect for others and the environment;

• Ensuring that the taught components of the curriculum are enriched by and influenced by the communities in which our students live and by the wider community and which encourages respect for religious and moral values and other races, religions, social classes and ways of life;

• Cultivating lasting relationships with local Arts organisations, businesses, community organisations, local Independent schools, colleges and universities to provide our students with additional

• Opportunities and activities beyond our curriculum that enrich their educational experience and further develop their social and cultural capital;

• Keeping the school community informed of our curriculum and involving them in the process of review;

• Continually monitoring the curriculum and evaluating our performance in raising our students' outcomes

Curriculum Access and Delivery 

All students have equality of access to the curriculum.  Appropriate progression is available for all students from their particular Key Stage, course or pathway including progression to further education, higher education, training or employment. adaptation, enrichment and support are available for all students to ensure that the learning needs of all students are met. Appropriate assessment, reporting and recording arrangements are designed to support the progress of all students. 

Curriculum Monitoring and Evaluation 

The curriculum is subject to ongoing evaluation throughout each academic year and is also subject to annual review to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of our students. The  standards reached and progress made by students are also carefully monitored so that priorities for further development can be identified.