Curriculum Statement

At Stepney All Saints, our curriculum aims to give students a rich, inclusive learning experience that translates into outstanding outcomes.

Our broad and balanced curriculum is not limited by the walls of our classrooms. It is enhanced by all aspects of school life through:

• assemblies
• student voice
• pastoral and wellbeing support
• careers advice
• wide ranging extracurricular provision

The promotion of independent learning and challenge is at the heart of our curriculum. We strive to support students to be prepared for each new Key Stage and beyond.

Our curriculum seeks to empower and enable, giving students the currency to allow them to realise their aspirations. Our curriculum is sequenced to give our students a coherent and consistent learning experience that builds upon the previous Key Stage, across all subjects. It is challenging, aiming to support students towards outstanding outcomes and developing in them the skills needed to be successful at each stage. This is underpinned by a deep learning experience, both in and out of the classroom. Students are helped to gain confidence in applying what they have learnt to a range of scenarios, analysing information and drawing conclusions and evaluating outcomes, opinions and judgements, all of which are skills essential to further study. 

Our curriculum is evolving to exploit the benefits of virtual learning. With every student having access to their own laptop through school, our students are enabled to use our well established virtual learning environment to explore new ideas and skills through pre-learning activities. These are used as precursors to discussion, debate and exploration in class. In this way, students are supported to be at the forefront of their own learning experience – a unique opportunity within Tower Hamlets.

Each Key Stage builds upon the one before, developing confident and resilient learners equipped with what they need to take their next exciting and ambitious steps.

Each Key Stage has key characteristics to help develop our students:

• At Key Stage 3, our curriculum focuses on developing Independent Thinkers
• At KS4, we develop this independence and confidence with a focus on developing Subject Masters
• At KS5 we work to support students to become ‘restless learners’ – questioning, challenging and querying their learning as they become Critical Scholars.

Our curriculum is reflective of our community and our history. Following the school name change in 2020 we have further developed our work around the curriculum to ensure that it is inclusive, progressive and prepares students for the modern world in which they live. We aim to ensure the curriculum gives each and every student a rich, authentic and unbiased experience of the world we live in and their place in it as equal global citizens. As part of this, our curriculum works to:

1. redress the misrepresentation and underrepresentation of Black, Asian and ethnic minority groups throughout the school curricula.
2. teach students about Sir John Cass the person, the history of the school and the thought processes and events leading up to changing the school name and removal of the statues, using the name change and removal of statues as an example of how we as a community will stand together against racism in any form.
3. celebrate the contribution that minority groups have made and are making in our local and global community within the curriculum and the school as a whole.
4. create opportunities for all to share cultural experiences so students are knowledgeable and can develop self-awareness in order to challenge and unlearn any prejudices.