Curriculum
We believe the best way to achieve excellence is to challenge every student, fast-tracking the most able and providing additional support for those who need it. Setting in Maths and English will begin in Year Seven and Latin will be compulsory. Modern Foreign Languages will be introduced in Year Eight, with scope for students to study up to two at GCSE level. All students will be encouraged to stay on in the Sixth Form and go on to university. We will offer a range of support for university applications, including applications to Oxford and Cambridge.
While the emphasis will be on academic achievement, ICT will be taught up to Year Eleven, as well as Music, Art and PE. In Years Seven and Eight students will take part in Faculty Studies where they’ll take an interdisciplinary approach to studying a topic, such as ‘Ancient Greece’ or ‘The Renaissance’. This holistic study will enable students to step outside narrowly defined subject approaches to a problem and see it from many different perspectives.
In Years Seven and Nine there will be ‘Support and Stretch’ time built into the curriculum. Those students who need reinforcement of foundation skills in English and/or Maths in Year Seven, or who would benefit from further support in Year Nine, will have one or two periods a week set aside for this. At the same time, other students in Years Seven and Nine will attend courses in Politics and Philosophy, giving them some basic instruction in the thought of Plato and Aristotle. In Years Ten and Eleven learning will be directed towards GCSE exams, but students will also take a World Affairs course that will be based in the humanities and take a holistic view of issues such as globalization and the world economy.
The core GCSE learning will include English Language and Literature, Mathematics, a language or Latin and Science (worth between one and three GCSEs). This will lead to between 5 and 7 GCSEs depending on the depth of Science study. Students then choose an additional three options from another language, Geography, Economics, RS, ICT, PE, History, Music, Art and Classical Civilisation.
The West London Free School’s Sixth Form will be an opportunity for students to advance their understanding of up to five subjects at A Level. There will still be an emphasis on holistic education with students encouraged to undertake an ‘Extended Project’ where they research a topic of their choice and present a paper on it to a small group, as well as produce an extended piece of writing. This is an excellent preparation for university study -- highly valued by universities -- and worth half an A Level. Other courses will include an ab initio language and Critical Thinking. Subjects available will be the same as those at GCSE except that Computing will replace ICT. Politics and Philosophy will be available as well. The Sixth Form will have common time set aside where students can undertake community service, work experience and attend weekly lectures and debates.
The overall aim of the curriculum is to produce ambitious, well-rounded students with the confidence to take on any challenge, no matter how daunting. We want them to regard no goal as out of reach. As Max Weber said, only by reaching for the impossible do we find out what’s possible.