Academic Curriculum

KS3-KS4 Curriculum

Key Principles: Intent

Marylebone Boys’ School is an academically rigorous school. We believe that knowledge and skills are available to all who are prepared to work for it. Furthermore, we believe in setting of high expectations for all students, within a framework which is tailored to meet the distinctive needs of different groups of learners.

From day one of Year 7, we believe it is essential that our boys are offered a deep grounding in core academic subjects by engaging with essential GCSE skills as well as subject specific knowledge and understanding. We believe that this acquisition of high-level knowledge combined with the application of core skills is an important partnership. Every pupil will strive to achieve the EBacc qualification and master a wide selection of academic subjects through a 5 year curriculum.

Furthermore, it is our core belief that the boys will be equipped with knowledge and skills that will enable them to succeed in every aspect of their life at Secondary School and beyond. For us, this means delivering an academic curriculum, as well as a robust personal development programme consisting of enrichment, tailored intervention, PSHCE and exposure to experiences of different careers. This all-encompassing curriculum aims to instil a set of independent learning habits, mind-sets and behaviours to ensure success in later life. Our approach to teaching and learning is rooted in our three values which we strive to instil in all of our pupils: Positivity, Professionalism and Productivity.

Implementation

The 4Rs

Our delivery model is rooted in our motto: Studio et industria (Success comes through application and hard work). The implementation of the curriculum is rooted in the promotion of four learning powers which develop a growth mind-set. A growth mind-set is the belief that intelligence and personality can be developed rather than being engrained traits. A growth mind-set thrives on challenge and sees setbacks as a springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. We believe that the 4RS promote a growth mind-set which allow students to focus on improvement instead of worrying about how clever they are. We believe our boys will be able to access every aspect of the curriculum by promoting and monitoring the following learning powers or habits:

• Resilience (curious, not afraid to take risks, persevering)
• Resourcefulness (Problem solving, reasoning, questioning, independent)
• Reflection (reconsidering, revising, re-articulating, improving)
• Reciprocity (collaborating, actively listening, responding)

We know that in a national context, girls outperform boys. We know that biologically, boys mature less quickly than girls. We know that some boys truly believe that academic success is out of their reach. Some who have goals often have very little idea of how much work it takes to achieve them. We also know that most boys aren’t interested in learning something unless they believe it’s relevant to their lives. We therefore understand that how the curriculum is delivered is crucial in order for our boys to succeed and achieve their potential.

Active learning and deep thinking

We believe that the curriculum should be delivered through active learning and deep thinking strategies. Teaching and learning is centred on interactive, dialogic approaches to encourage student engagement and development.

We believe that the pupils should that do the majority of the thinking and doing in lessons and the teacher’s job is to facilitate this process.

We believe that boys need to be actively engaged in thinking at all times and as teachers, it is our role to ensure that every boy in every classroom is engaged in full and energetic participation combined with rigorous and demanding work.

The MBS curriculum overview below summarises our curriculum intent, our approach to implementation and how we measure impact:

In the tabs below, you can browse a breakdown of each subjects’ curriculum which include the following documents:

*Please note that in light of the current COVID pandemic, some curriculum maps have been amended due to students being currently unable to access specialist classrooms and equipment, as well as the need to catch up on gaps in knowledge and put in place a recovery curriculum.