Heritage senior school
The same principles that guide our approach to education from Reception through Year 6 guide all that we do at the secondary level.
Heritage is will be serving children up through Year 8 from September 2011 and will continue to grow with this leading generation through the GCSE level. All core subjects are covered in Years 7-9: maths, English literature, English language, biology, chemistry, physics, history, geography, religious studies, music, PE, French, Latin, Spanish (planned from September 2012), art and D&T. PSHE topics will be covered each half-term and IT will be built into other subject work, with occasional lessons focussing upon computer science generally. An Enrichment Programme – i.e. opportunities for outings or other unique sessions usually on Friday afternoons – will continue to be a regular part of the learning experience at Key Stage 3.
From September 2013 we will be utilising a mixture of GCSE and iGCSE courses in our exam programme. Exam courses will be offered in all of the subjects listed immediately above except physical education and information technology. However, regular, high quality PE coaching will be delivered through Year 11. We will actively pursue opportunities to participate in a range of competitive sports. The use of computers will also be a regular part of ordinary class work.
Although we will be delivering all that is necessary for our students to succeed in exam courses, we will continue to emphasise the value of learning for its own sake and the greater good of preparing children effectively for rich, rewarding and responsible adult living.
Strong foundations
We emphasise the importance of an orderly and systematic presentation of knowledge and development of key skills, ensuring mastery of the basics before advancing. Nowhere is this more important than in the ‘three Rs’: reading, writing and arithmetic. We use leading programmes for literacy and numeracy. We also emphasise, for example, the importance of narrative history and developing a clear understanding of the sequence of historical events using times lines.
Our unique emphasis upon narration (retelling in detail what was just read aloud) also helps lay a secure knowledge base. Verbalising what was heard makes it ‘stick’ and encourages discussion. The effectiveness of this method allows us to deliver lessons that are short and to the point, which keeps the flame of curiosity alight and releases time for other life-enhancing activities.
Narration also leads naturally into discussion of the key ideas presented, and it forms the basis for high quality essay writing, particularly at the secondary level. As the skill of narration develops students become confident communicators of the spoken and written word.
An ambitious curriculum
Our curriculum is ambitious in content and breadth. It is intellectually ambitious because we have a high view of every child’s mind. Every child needs ample ‘mind food’ if he or she is to flourish as a learner. We aim to deliver substantive learning across every subject area. As a rule, this means we prioritise ‘classics’ – material that has proven itself over time.
We are committed to a broad curriculum, which we liken to an ‘abundant feast’. This matters because forming a relationship or sense of familiar connection with every major facet of the human experience – God, nature, language, literature, art/craft, music, sport, technology, etc. – is something to which all children are entitled. To fail to do this, even in part, is to disenfranchise and diminish. We want our students to emerge into adulthood with wide interests. A narrowed curriculum could fail to cultivate the diverse range of gifts or aptitudes amongst our students or undermine the love of learning.
At Heritage we begin French with a specialist from Year 1 and start Latin in Year 4. From Year 2 students go on a nature walk and have sport four times each week. They also have weekly art and music lessons with specialists. From Years 7-9 specialist teachers are involved in an increasing number of subject areas – particularly the maths, biology, chemistry and physics – depending on the background of the core class teacher. Exam courses in Years 10-11 will be taught exclusively by subject specialists.
Friday afternoons are special at Heritage. This is an open slot in the weekly timetable where we go on outings or deliver sessions of special interest. Our Enrichment Programme is an important way of celebrating learning for its own sake.
Homework and exams
We keep homework to a minimum in the early years, focusing almost exclusively upon reading skills, because we emphasise effective and efficient learning during the day. As children mature, however, we also recognise that doing a modest amount of homework cheerfully helps build important study habits and keeps parents involved in the learning process. In the later primary years, homework will be up to about 20 minutes per night. In Years 7-9 homework will increase toward 45 minutes per night. It will then be set as required for exam courses in Years 10-11.
Prior to exam courses in Years 10-11, Heritage students from Year 2 and up have extensive in-house examinations twice per year in each subject. Up to age 9 most exams, with obvious exceptions such as maths, are conducted orally with a scribe taking down each child’s answers. Children are given open-ended questions that allow them to display what they know rather than what they don’t. Because of the effectiveness of our methodologies these are not stressful occasions nor do we spend time revising. Children develop a relaxed confidence with examinations generally. We utilise standardised assessments as part of these examinations so that we can assess how our students are performing against national standards.
Books and computers
We consider it essential for every child to enjoy books, whole books (not just extracts) – and lots of them. Why? Because the most careful thinking the world possesses is found in books, and books are the tools par excellence of self-education in adult life. We also consider it essential that a child develop the patience to engage with a sustained argument or narrative if he or she would become a careful thinker. We give children new books each year to encourage them gradually to build and take pride in their own library.
In more book-based subjects at the secondary level we place an increasing emphasis upon students learning for themselves from books, rather than seeing the teacher as the primary source of knowledge.
Computers are part of the air we breathe. We encourage their use at home so that children form a natural confidence with these tools. At the primary level the use of computers at school is rare. We do not use interactive whiteboards. This is because we believe it is a higher order skill to have one’s imagination set alight by words on a page rather than by images on a screen and we want to create a sufficiently de-cluttered environment visually to enable this to happen.
Into the secondary level, laptops are made available to learn, first, how to touch type and, second, to produce neatly word processed work that would otherwise have been hand written. This is particularly important for those with dyslexic tendencies. In this and similar ways, such as the use of spreadsheets or slide presentations, computers are utilised as tools to present information. Research projects are primarily book based, at least initially, to avoid a ‘cut and paste’ approach to information manipulation. Occasional lessons in computer science, including programming, hardware and networking, will enable children to develop a general grasp of computer technology.
Nature study and picture study
At Heritage we go on a nature walk every week, rain or shine. Its purpose is to encourage detailed observation and identification of ‘ordinary’ natural phenomena such as local wildlife, flowers, plants and trees. Students keep a Nature Notebook where what was observed is identified, described and painted using water colours. Nature study encourages children to have ‘seeing eyes’. Charlotte Mason wrote: ‘Eyes and No Eyes go for a walk. No Eyes comes home bored. He has seen nothing, been interested in nothing, while Eyes is all agog to discuss a hundred things that interest him.’
Picture study encourages a similar attention to observation and investigation. It involves looking with concentrated attention at a reproduction of a great painting once each week. The painting is then turned over and its details are described from memory. In this way children will get to know a great artist and his work each term and have great delight in visits to museums to see the original works.