Curriculum and Results
Taking full advantage of every learning opportunity
Our unique curriculum
Thomas Estley Community College is dedicated to providing an enriching, excellent quality comprehensive community education service for all learners and the wider community.
We ensure that learning is engaging and effective through establishing consistently high quality teaching and learning, and aim to develop our students into positive citizens through our enriched curriculum. Thomas Estley will ensure that every student fulfils their potential, enjoys their learning experience and develops a positive set of values, leadership, and character traits needed to set them up for a successful future. We prioritise Kindness, Respect, Resilience, Perseverance and Courage in addition to our student leadership focus.
Thomas Estley has an excellent reputation, locally and nationally, for its innovative and high quality curriculum, chosen by the national curriculum authority as a case study and a source of excellent practice for other schools. We at Thomas Estley are extremely proud of our innovative curriculum, delivering skills for life and work through a range of subject specialisms and cross-curricular modules. We are a SSAT leading Edge School. We work closely with feeder primary schools and local secondary schools to ensure smooth transition from primary to secondary through to sixth form for our students, with collaborative planning and provision particularly focused in Years 6-7 and throughout Key Stage Four.
Extra Curricular Activities
All students have access to extra-curricular activities including foreign and British residentials, ski and sports trips, day visits to enhance the curriculum, fieldwork, sports fixtures, clubs in most curriculum areas, performing arts clubs and performances, links abroad and other special interest clubs and activities. The latter generally take place before and after school and during school lunchtimes.
Targeted provision
Students who would benefit from extra support generally or in particular curriculum areas can access our ASDAN and lifeskills provision, long or short term projects, study and learning support within the curriculum, targeted catch-up provision, targeted visits and clubs.
Students who would benefit from extension and stretching generally or in particular curriculum areas can access more able provision within and outside of lessons, including visits, challenges, masterclasses, competitions, clubs, chances to lead and to teach, and to showcase their talent.
In order to support high attainment and progress in GCSEs, we have a daily targeted Year 11 session (T6) which runs from 3.05pm – 4.05pm. Students are invited to attend these progress workshops if they are in need of additional support in curriculum areas or need additional time to complete practical elements of their GCSE course. Parents and students can also request to attend these additional sessions. Parents are notified of these sessions via ParentMail and students are informed the week prior in tutor time.
Careers
We are very proud of our careers programme, which spans all 5 years that students are with us. For more detail, please visit our Careers and Post 16 page.
Impact of our curriculum
We are proud to have achieved outcomes above or well above national and local averages over the last four years across all key performance indicators. The main performance indicator for secondary schools is progress 8, which reflects value added across the five years a child is in secondary school, from their end of primary school individual starting point and across all subject areas. A score of 0 means that the child has made average progress in all areas compared with all schools nationally. A score of +0.25 means that the child has achieved a quarter of a grade higher than expected in every area, given their end of primary school starting points.
In 2022, our progress 8 score was +0.47
In 2023, our progress 8 score was +0.24.
Full information about our curriculum outcomes in Year Eleven can be found here:
and a summary of this year's key performance indicators are shown in the gallery below.
If you would like more curriculum information, please contact admin@thomasestley.org.uk with 'Curriculum Query' in the email heading.
Curriculum subjects and foci
Years 7-9
In years 7-9, students learn a wide range of subjects to experience a broad and balanced diet of knowledge and skills:
- English
- Maths
- Science
- History
- Geography
- French and Spanish
- Computing and IT
- Art
- Resistant Materials, Textiles and Food technology
- Physical Education
- Music, Drama and Dance
- Citizenship and Religious Education
- Personal, Social and Health Education including Sex and Relationship Education
- Careers and guidance
- Personal Development drop down days and module focus days to enhance PSHE, careers and SRE elements.
As well as the above, in year 9, students opt into a Specialisms which takes place once a week. Specialisms develop students' skills and leadership development, in a context of their choosing.
Read more about our Specialisms curriculum HERE.
Year 10-11
GCSE learning starts in Year 9 in all core subjects, beginning with building student knowledge and understanding, and working towards developing exam response techniques and study skills that will enable students to succeed in their GCSEs. GCSE learning in other subjects begins in Year Ten as a two year programme. Students also study core PE, core Citizenship and RE, and PSHE/Personal Development, as well as accessing a regular Careers curriculum and careers and guidance support.
In addition to the core subjects, students opt into a further 4 subjects:
- a language (French or Spanish)
- a humanity (geography or history)
- two further free-choice options
With over 20 optional subjects to choose from, and supported with guidance and advice, we equip your child with every chance to succeed.
Read more about our GCSE options and process HERE.
See information about subjects taken by our students last year here: Subjects entered at key stage 4 - Thomas Estley Community College - Compare school and college performance data in England - GOV.UK (compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk)
2023 GCSE key attainment indicators
Performance and Results
Our school was rated Good in all areas in the last Ofsted inspection in 2019. The full report can be viewed here 50059148 (ofsted.gov.uk) or downloaded below. Our monitoring report during the pandemic can be viewed here 50155906 (ofsted.gov.uk)
Our 2023 GCSE results can be viewed in the gallery above. They are above and often well above national averages across the board. We are very proud of the hard work of our students and teachers to produce these very strong GCSE results - a testimony to the hard work of the whole college community.
BUILDING LEADERSHIP AND CHARACTER TOGETHER
College Ethos, Vision and Values
Governors, staff, parents and students were involved in agreeing a set of core values which define the college’s ethos, within the mission of our Trust, which is Building Leadership and Character Together.
We define ourselves as a "Community of Courage and Commitment to Success". The 'values' statements below describe the college’s professional behaviours and expectations, as we work to build leadership and character together:
- Aiming to achieve our best.
- Taking full advantage of every learning opportunity.
- Showing resilience through our experiences and challenges.
- Seeking out our talents and following our dreams.
- Reaching out for opportunities to lead and encourage others.
- Making a positive difference and celebrating success.
- Including the whole community, sharing, caring and giving time as needed.
- Treating each other with kindness, fairness and respect.
- Finding space in our lives for fun, joy, praise and laughter.
British Values
Our Ethos and Values align with the fundamental British Values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and belief.
We promote ‘British Values’ through our spiritual, moral, social and cultural education which permeates through the school’s curriculum and supports the development of the ‘whole child’.
We recognise that such development is most successful when those values and attitudes are promoted by all the staff and provide a model of behaviour for our students.
Thomas Estley KS3 curriculum
Thomas Estley KS4 only curriculum learning journeys
KS3 Curriculum knowledge organisers
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01455 283263 / admin@thomasestley.org.uk
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