OUR VISION FOR THE CURRICULUM 
The vision of Blackfen School is summed up as ‘Raising aspirations, releasing potential’. On a daily basis, we believe in raising aspirations and inspiring a belief that ‘anything is possible’. We nurture the values of resilience, respect and responsibility, so that students are ready to contribute positively to the wider community, now and in the future. These are the values which underpin the design and content of our curriculum offer. 

CURRICULUM INTENT
The intent of the curriculum at Blackfen School is to endorse the vision of the school: to be broad, balanced and aspirational for all our students, providing them with opportunities to study a wide range of subjects and immerse themselves in challenging and rewarding learning experiences. We consider the intent of our curriculum offer carefully in order to offer challenging learning within a supportive, respectful and inclusive environment. This means that we plan to meet the needs of all of our students, irrespective of their ability or additional needs and to ensure that curriculum opportunity, aspiration and access is available for all. We support students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development to promote tolerance and respect for the range of faiths, lifestyles and cultures they will embrace as young adults in society. 

In addition to these points, we recognise the importance of subject literacy to propel good progress across the curriculum, in all key stages. This means that students who are identified as working below their chronological reading age receive bespoke reading catch up, so that they can learn effectively in every subject. 

CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION
Distinctive features of curriculum implementation at Blackfen School include: 

• Curriculum delivery that is inclusive
Students with SEND are taught in mainstream classes following the subject curriculum which is adapted in teachers’ planning through reference to specialist materials. Students with an EHC Plan are supported by teaching assistants in English, mathematics and other selected subjects, depending on the guidance of the EHC Plan. We also operate ‘Jigsaw’, which is the school’s Resource Provision, established primarily for students with an EHC Plan and speech and language needs. Students are placed in the provision by the local authority.

• Personal development, leadership and independence in learning
We have developed a bespoke Key Stage 3 curriculum in ‘Social, Personal and Cultural Studies’ which is unique to Blackfen School. It combines Personal, Health, Social and Economic (PSHE) education, and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) with the Blackfen School curricula for Religious Studies, and Politics, Philosophy and Enterprise. The SPCS curriculum provides students with a holistic and thematic approach to exploring themselves and their views in relation to our society, enabling them to learn and grow, as individuals and as part of the national and global communities. The subjects of Drama and Dance are offered from Key Stage 3 through to Key Stage 5, offering a raft of opportunity for personal development alongside academic achievement, and Key Stage 4 students can select to study the Duke of Edinburgh (Bronze Award) or the Sports Leader or the Dance Leader Awards for their core Year 10 PE lessons.

• Development of reading skills
The Literacy Co-ordinator delivers the whole school reading programme which includes special activities such as the weekly ‘Drop Everything And Read’ sessions; themed assemblies for World Book Day, and the distribution of a ‘Wider Reading Booklet’ across all subject areas. Other literacy initiatives organised during the school year include participation in the Jack Petchey ‘Speak Out’ awards; the Year 7 Halloween Writing Competition; the Reading Scrapbook Challenge, the Bexley Children’s Book Quiz and the Carnegie Book Club, as well as the student Librarian scheme. Reading Mentors, TAs and sixth formers are trained in the delivery of additional reading strategies. All students in Year 7 and Year 8 attend bi-weekly scheduled Library lessons, using ‘Accelerated Reader’ or ‘Bedrock Learning’ to improve their literacy skills through guided independent reading. In Year 7, students whose reading age is significantly below their chronological age follow the ‘Hackney Literacy Intervention Toolkit’ programme to boost their range and grasp of vocabulary and grammar in order to engage fully with our English curriculum. 

• Curriculum guidance for students at key stage transition points
Personalised guidance from experienced staff, school and subject leaders is embedded in our curriculum implementation to ensure coherence throughout students’ learning journeys, as well as to support their curriculum choices and future aspirations. The school has met the Gatsby Benchmarks and students in all year groups benefit from an established programme of careers education which supplements the on-going curriculum guidance at key stage transition points. 

• Personal development outside formal learning experiences
Community Time is scheduled for 20 minutes every day, during which time students in Year 7 to Year 11 are organised in tutor groups, and follow a planned schedule of activities, including numeracy, reading and personal well-being. They also discuss current affairs and review topical issues.

DICE is the school’s extra-curricular programme. It schedules lunchtime and after-school activities at four different levels: Discover: Learn about for the first time; Initiate: Try out for the first time; Challenge: Extend learning and performance, and Elite: Develop expert learning and performance. The DICE programme promotes challenge and scholarship, thereby reflecting the school’s approach to adopting growth mindset attitudes to learning in all of its forms and supporting the ultimate aim of the school to ‘raise aspirations and release potential’ in all of our students. 

Discover is an end-of-year event for students in Year 7 – Year 9 which delivers aspects of cultural capital learning; opportunities to consider career options, as well as the chance to apply personal aspiration and try out a new activity for the first time. Discover provides time for students to develop personal strengths as well-rounded individuals as they explore new interests, learning environments, skills, challenges and have fun. 

CURRICULUM IMPACT
One of the immediate impacts of our curriculum is seen in students’ continuing academic achievement. However, we recognise that the long-term story of our students’ lives as successful, happy, young adults represents the most accurate description of the impact of curriculum experience and learning at Blackfen School over the course of 5 - 7 years. The destinations of Year 11 and Year 13 students to universities, colleges and to take up Level 4 apprenticeships after completing their public examinations suggest that the impact of the curriculum is an educational experience that has been well lived and enjoyed at Blackfen School.