Our core values — Ambition, Respect, and Care — are embedded in every aspect of our curriculum, shaping our teaching and learning environment to ensure that every student feels valued, understood, and supported.

These values create a culture where students thrive both personally and academically, fostering a love for learning and a strong sense of belonging within our school community.

Our curriculum is guided by our core values:

Ambition

We inspire and challenge each person to strive for excellence, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and perseverance. This empowers everyone to push through their boundaries to unlock their full potential, and achieve remarkable things beyond what they thought possible.

Respect

We celebrate the diversity of our community and treat every individual with kindness, dignity, and consideration. By acknowledging the unique backgrounds and perspectives of each person, we create an environment where mutual understanding and acceptance flourish, fostering a culture of trust, inclusivity and unity.

Care

We cultivate an environment where compassion and empathy are paramount, nurturing the holistic well-being of every member of our community. By prioritising the emotional and physical welfare of individuals, we demonstrate a commitment to their overall health and happiness, fostering a supportive community where individuals feel valued, heard, and supported through life’s challenges

These core values underpin everything we do at The Avon Valley School, shaping our curriculum, teaching strategies, and school ethos. Through engaging lessons, meaningful experiences, and a supportive community, we empower students to embrace opportunities, overcome obstacles, and experience the joy of learning. By embedding Ambition, Respect, and Care into our daily practices, we ensure that every student leaves us equipped not only with academic excellence but also with the skills, character, and confidence to succeed in life.

Curriculum Principles

Within our curriculum we aim to balance the four broad philosophies of what education is for:

  • To develop the potential of the child (personal empowerment)
  • To pass on “the best which has been thought and said” (cultural transmission)
  • To prepare young people for life and work (preparation for work)
  • To build communities and overcome social disadvantage (preparation for citizenship)

Our seven whole school principles of curriculum are that the curriculum must be:

Balanced

Promotes intellectual, moral, spiritual, aesthetic, creative, emotional, and physical development.

Rigorous

Seeks to develop intra-disciplinary habits of mind; powerful ways of thinking that are developed through sustained engagement with the discipline.

Coherent

Makes explicit connections and links between the different subjects and experiences

Vertically Integrated

Focuses on progression by carefully sequencing knowledge; provides clarity about what ‘getting better’ at the subject means.

Appropriate

Matches the level of challenge to a pupil’s current level of maturity and knowledge.

Focused

Seeks to keep the curriculum manageable by teaching the most important knowledge; identifies the big ideas or key concepts within a subject.

Relevant

Seeks to connect the valued outcomes of a curriculum to the pupils being taught it; provides opportunities for pupils to make informed choices.

How We Organise The Curriculum

Years 7, 8 and 9

In Key Stage 3, students study a broad and balanced range of subjects within the Faculties of Technology, Art, Performing Arts and Computing as well as the traditional subjects of Maths, English, Science, PE, Social Studies and Modern Foreign Languages.

The school has maintained its specialism in Performing Arts and discrete lessons in Dance, Drama and Music are firmly embedded within the curriculum. Our curriculum is designed to challenge students of all abilities to achieve their academic potential. All subjects have a curriculum plan which is appropriately sequenced ensuring gains in students’ knowledge and understanding of discrete subject disciplines as they progress through the school.

Click below for our curriculum outlines

Year 7 Curriculum Outlines
Year 8 Curriculum Outlines
Year 9 Curriculum Outlines

Year 10 and 11

In Years 10 and 11, all students continue to study the core offer and four chosen option subjects which, collectively, provide a varied and challenging curriculum designed to meet the interests and academic ability of all students. Students are offered a mixture of practical and academic subjects from all areas of the curriculum. This model ensures that students have access to a wide range of progression routes for the next step of their education, and ensures equity of delivery, with all pupils having equal access to subjects. 

Qualifications Offered
Subject Level Awarding Body
English Language GCSE AQA
English Literature GCSE AQA
Mathematics GCSE EDEXCEL
Combined Science GCSE AQA
Biology GCSE AQA
Chemistry GCSE AQA
Physics GCSE AQA
Art  GCSE OCR
Computer Science GCSE EDEXCEL
Creative iMedia BTEC EDEXCEL
Dance GCSE AQA
Design and Technology GCSE WJEC
Drama GCSE AQA
Enterprise and Marketing Cambridge National Level 2  OCR
Geography GCSE AQA
Health and Social Care Cambridge National Level 2  OCR
History GCSE EDEXCEL
Hospitality and Catering Level 2 Award WJEC
Media Studies GCSE WJEC
MFL: French GCSE AQA
MFL: German GCSE AQA
MFL: Spanish GCSE AQA
Music Technology Level 2 Technical Award NCFE
Physical Education GCSE AQA
Psychology GCSE EDEXCEL
RE GCSE AQA
Sports Studies Cambridge National Level 2  OCR
Textiles GCSE OCR

Enrichment

Alongside the traditional curriculum, the school plans many opportunities to extend the experiences and learning of students.

The school launched the ‘Cultural Capital Passport’ for Years 7-9 in September 2020, (relaunched September 2021) promoting 40 activities to broaden the learning experience of students before they leave AVS. There are a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities, with a mix of academic and physical activities; day visits to museums, universities, sporting activities, residential trips and conferences, all of which add memorable experiences to support student self-development.

The school continues to organise Splash days – complete days where the timetable is collapsed and students engage in a range of learning opportunities: team work; PSHE focus days; revision conferences; study skills days; leadership workshops and a variety of other activities. In June 2022 students performed the musical ‘Matilda’ to much acclaim.

Student participation is tracked for all organised opportunities, to ensure all groups of students are accessing the full range of activities available.

Get in touch

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, we’d love to hear from you.

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