“A school’s curriculum is everything a learner experiences in pursuit of the four purposes. It is not simply what we teach, but how we teach and crucially, why we teach it.” (Welsh Government, Curriculum for Wales, 2020).
From September 2023, we will be delivering the new Curriculum for Wales on a statutory basis to Year 7 and 8 learners, with a view to extending this provision, year on year, to years 9 – 11. Our aim is to maintain a centre of excellence for teaching and learning, to create ambitious, capable learners; creative and enterprising individuals; ethical, informed citizens; and healthy, confident young people.
Vision
At Denbigh High School, our vision is for all learners to be healthy, happy, curious and courageous.
Healthy – Learners recognise and enjoy healthy relationships with their peers, families and teachers. They fully engage with the curriculum at Denbigh High School to learn how to make a significant and positive contribution to the world in which they live and represent the school with pride and respect in the local community. The Curriculum at Denbigh High School has learner health and wellbeing at its core. We will provide all learners with opportunities to improve their physical fitness and to recognise the impact it has on mental wellbeing and academic performance.
Happy – Learners and teachers work together to promote an extraordinary learning environment and celebrate high performance in all fields of endeavour. The curriculum at DHS will provide frequent and relevant opportunities to develop independent reading skills as an access route to all other learning and will relentlessly promote the value of reading for pleasure, recognising its influence on mental health.
Curious – All learners value and embrace our knowledge rich curriculum. Every member of our school community recognises that knowledge is the foundation of all further learning and the development of all life-skills. Our curriculum will provide the best quality learning experiences to deepen understanding of highly relevant subject matter, in every lesson, every day.
Courageous – The Denbigh High School curriculum will develop calculated risk taking during the learning journey, and learners will have the courage to accept that mistakes can be made, recognising the value of misconceptions in the learning process and to recognise and value diversity in all its forms.
Guides for Parents
Watch the video below and click on the CfW Guide for Parents which explains the new curriculum in more detail.
Assessment and Progression
Assessment and progression are integral to our curriculum, with a focus on Assessment for Learning strategies. This allows us to identify gaps in learning, provide support, and challenge students accordingly. Our assessment process facilitates active engagement and continuous improvement, helping us understand individual strengths and areas for development.
Assessment has three main roles in the process of enabling learner progression:
• supporting individual learners on an ongoing, day-to-day basis
• identifying, capturing and reflecting on individual learner progress over time
• understanding group progress in order to reflect on practice.
Parents will be invited to attend an assessment and progression meeting in the Autumn term where we will endeavour to explain our new reporting system.
Learning Journeys
Each Area of Learning and Experience’s subject learning journeys can be found by clicking on the button underneath each image below. Please note that these are subject to change as learning journeys unfold over the year.
