Curriculum Statement

Curriculum statement for 2025-26

At Sir John Thursby Community College, we have designed a curriculum that is broad and balanced.

Our ambition is to develop young people that are well educated, well qualified and who are capable of benefiting from and contributing to society when they leave us. We recognise that in preparing our young people for successful lives we need both an academic and pastoral curriculum within school.

At SJT we believe in delivering a curriculum that changes lives, and as such we provide our students with a broad and balanced offer. This is a broadly academic curriculum, alongside a strong range of vocational subjects, which is supported by a pastoral programme that prepares our young people for life outside of school.

Our curriculum is based on the following principles:

1.  All students should have a broad and balanced curriculum that is at least as ambitious as the       National Curriculum
2. The curriculum is taught in mixed attainment groupings with access to all areas and high ambition for all students
3. The curriculum will provide the opportunity for all students to study the EBacc qualifications until the end of Key Stage 4, maintaining entry rates of 70% or above. The EBacc qualifications are the gateway subjects for post 16 study and are English Language and Literature, Mathematics, Science, a modern foreign language and a humanity (Geography or History)
4. Students will develop skills and experiences at Key Stage 3 to prepare them for vocational qualifications at Key Stage 4 which are closely linked to the local labour market
5. For a very small number of students, who need more support with Literacy and Numeracy, we offer a foundation learning in place of one GCSE preference. This will ensure that they receive all of their English and Maths lessons from a specialist teacher and are also able to access high quality interventions to support their basic literacy and numeracy development, for as long as this support is needed.

We believe that it is important to continue to offer a broad curriculum in Y10 and Y11, and as a result we continue to offer students 4 preferences. However, in order to support outcomes for students studying all 3 sciences we have created a route where one science will count as one of their options.

A small number of students follow bespoke curricula, linked to their needs. These are delivered in our MAP centre and through our Foundation Learner group.

The school will continue to enter the vast majority of students for EBacc subjects as we believe these are key gateway subjects for our students. We will continue to see a large percentage of students entered for languages.

Curriculum and our values

Our curriculum is designed to deliver outcomes inline with our school values of AMBITION, RESPECT and BELONGING

Curriculum organisation

Our curriculum is organised into a three  year Key Stage 3 and a two  year Key Stage 4.

In Years 7,8 and 9 our students follow our knowledge rich curriculum Key Stage 3 curriculum, which meets the requirements of the National Curriculum and prepares our students for the academic and vocational qualifications that they will complete in Key Stage 4.

Our KS3 curriculum consists of

• The core subjects of English, Maths and Science
• A modern foreign language (French or German)
• The humanities subjects of Geography, History and RE
• Technology subjects (Resistant Materials, Graphics, Textiles and Food)
• Arts subjects (Art, Music, Drama)
• ICT and Computer programming
• PE
• RE
• SMSC (Social Moral Spiritual and Culture)

 In Years 10 and 11 we deliver a strong academic curriculum, where the majority of our students study the qualifications included in the EBacc.  In addition to the strong academic curriculum in Key Stage 4 we offer a wide range of vocational subjects including Engineering, Construction, Child Care, Hair and Beauty, Health and Social Care, Animal Care, Sport & Leisure, I-Media, Cookery and Hospitality.

All students follow the core curriculum of

• English Language and Literature
• Maths
• Science (Combined or Triple) 

 and 4 preference subjects from 

In addition to the strong academic curriculum in Key Stage 4 we offer a wide range of vocational subjects including Engineering, Construction, Child Care, Hair and Beauty, Health and Social Care, Sport & Leisure, I-Media and Hospitality.

Our pastoral curriculum is delivered through a strong careers programme, assemblies, form time, external speakers, visits and events within school.

 Curriculum plan 2025 26