The school has a much higher than average EAL intake. To bridge the gap more curriculum time is given to the teaching of English. At KS3 Reading Library lessons take place once a fortnight. These are supported by English teachers and the school’s librarians, and promote reading for pleasure, giving students the opportunity to read books of their choice and to develop their oracy skills through informal discussions, such as Book Chat. Additional small group induction for some recently arrived EAL KS3 students takes place during the school day funded by catch up. Many of these students also receive support from EAL intervention (before or after the school day) led by the EAL coordinator.

Despite the high deprivation index of the local area of Southall that the school serves, the community is very aspirational (100% of students stay on in education post-16, some 80% progress on to university). Our curriculum model is designed to ensure every student is able to progress post GCSE and the vast majority are able to continue with their post -18 study aims.

At entry from KS2, the school has significantly fewer students with a higher ability profile and more with a lower ability profile than the national percentage. Our broad and balanced hybrid Year 9 curriculum allows our significant numbers of EAL and MA/LA students a longer timespan to master the necessary subject specific academic literacy to ensure the breadth and depth of understanding needed to achieve outstanding outcomes.

(from FFTAspire)

How does the local labour market influence our curriculum? Ealing (London) Nomis official labour market statistics:

• 71.5% (72.1) of all residents were economically active while 5.2% (4.9) were registered as unemployed equivalent to the figures for London as a whole.
• 46.1% of the workforce were managers, professionals and technicians. 10.7% were administrators or secretarial, 7.5% in caring, leisure and service occupations and 6.1% were plant and machine operatives.
• 16.5% of the over 16 year old population had no qualifications compared to 17.7% for London as a whole.
• The density figures represent the ratio of total jobs to population aged 16-64: Ealing has a low job density 0.72 of the 16 to 64 – year old population compared to a London job density of 1.02. Heathrow Airport is a major local employer for people living in Southall.
• The 12 sectors employing the most people in Ealing (and London) are:

1. Wholesale and retail and motor vehicle repair 14.4% (13.5%)
2. Human Health and Social Work 9.8% (10.7%)
3. Education 9.0% (9.6%)
4. Professional and technical services 8.8% (10.5%)
5. Information and Communication 8.4% (6.8%)
6. Construction 7.9% (6.8%)
7. Transportation and storage 7.3% (5.2%)
8. Administrative and support services 6.8% (5.8%)
9. Accommodation and food service activities 6.7% (6.0%)
10. Manufacturing 4.7% (3.7%)
11. Finance and Insurance 4.1% (7.3%)
12. Public administration and defence; compulsory social security 3.8% (5.1%)

Our curriculum is justly ambitious.  The school is already meeting the government’s initial target for the increase in EBacc take-up to 75% or more.

The table below illustrates the take-up of the arts and non-traditional applied general subjects and how they have been affected by the introduction of the EBacc.

We review our curriculum model regularly at fortnightly curriculum planning meetings attended by senior managers and the heads of English, Science and Maths. 

We want to deliver subject specific (substantive) knowledge and (disciplinary) skills in a relevant and meaningful way that stimulates students’ curiosity and deeper thinking. That means recognising the importance of each individual subject in its own right. We want to provide a rich extra – curricular programme that develops students’ cultural capital (especially those from a disadvantaged background). We understand that the skills delivered by each subject are epistemic – so, students can learn to think specifically like scientists or historians or mathematicians. These skills cannot be taught by one subject for another!

Every subject should develop the 6 competencies (identified by Fullan and Scott in 2014) for the 21^st century:

• Critical thinking
• Collaboration
• Communication (digital, reading, oracy, writing and numeracy) 
• Citizenship
• Character
• Creativity

Our curriculum is designed to meet the needs, strengths and interests of our students and the aspirations of the local community. We aim to deliver subject specific knowledge and skills through a broad range of subject disciplines and the rich provision of extra-curricular enrichment.

At Featherstone High School we have moved to a three year KS3 and a 32.5 hour week for students (26 hours of lesson time per week) in September 2023. We know the acquisition of foundational subject disciplinary academic literacy and oracy at KS3 is a fundamental requirement to deepening and broadening knowledge and understanding of subject specific vocabulary at KS4. We believe that our curriculum model, designed to cater for our EAL context, is a critical factor contributing to our students being able to break down the barriers of accessibility and achieve success in their chosen curricular pathways.

The curriculum intends all our students to become:

• Successful learners, who acquire subject specific knowledge and skills that lead to a minimum of 8 meaningful qualifications and enable them to make outstanding progress.
• Confident individuals who are able to meet the challenges of an increasingly changing world - leading safe, healthy and fulfilling lives; and making successful transition to employment, training, further and higher education (thus avoiding becoming NEET).
• Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society and uphold “British values”

Rationale: We will be:

• Developing a rich body of knowledge and a deep understanding of big concepts across a range of subject disciplines and enrichment opportunities. Thus ensuring curriculum breadth and depth across the subject curriculums and within each subject curriculum.
• Equipping each learner with the cultural capital and vocabulary to become a “well rounded individual” with positive British values and attitudes that ensure their physical and emotional well-being.
• Providing access to an ambitious curriculum (that is also responsive to the needs of the local community and the local labour market) valuing each individual learner equally and challenging every learner to keep aiming high building on the “Growth Mind Set” model.
• Teaching every learner to the top – promoting a culture of challenge that provides clear explanations and models to scaffold learning; and targeting questioning and feedback to improve learning outcomes (through the Featherstone Way).
• Providing learners with opportunities to acquire new knowledge in a logical sequence that builds upon their prior knowledge; and then apply that new knowledge to develop skills through practice and repetition.
• Building continuity and progression from KS2 to KS5, providing every learner with the opportunity to move successfully onto aspirational pathways (that meet their needs and ambitions) post 16 and post 18.
• Committed to meeting the central government target of 75% of all students following the English Baccalaureate pathway (for first examination in 2024). More than 79% of the 2023 Year 11 cohort were following an Ebacc. Pathway and 85% of the current year 11 cohort are following the English Baccalaureate pathway.

For successful implementation we believe:

If knowledge is to be taught to be remembered (enter long term memory) and not just encountered; students should be able to R-O-C-K – recall of core knowledge.  Students must be able to make connections with their previous learning and regularly re-visit big concepts as part of any spaced practice in an interleaved scheme of learning.

In revisiting the “Growth Mindset.” Our inclusive curriculum that is both ambitious and undiminished is taught by the most experienced teachers teaching those students who face the greatest barriers in their learning. These teachers put in place the scaffolding needed to bridge those students’ attainment gap.

In using Year 7 to introduce the big “need to know” ideas and the big concepts. There is no need for curriculum overload or even the “neat to know.” Students are 5 years away from any public exam!

Although teachers are not required to produce formal lesson plans, they share a common understanding that all lessons should follow the Featherstone Way providing challenge (teaching to the top), clear explanation, modelled solutions, effective questioning and feedback (refer to the FHS teaching and learning policy). Scaffolding the delivery of skills and knowledge in incremental steps supports pupils to make measurable progress over time.

All subjects illustrate their sequence of learning and explain the rationale behind that sequence on their on-line programmes of learning (updated annually). These documents explain how subjects build on prior learning rather than repeating it. SMSC, key home learning tasks; and opportunities for reading, writing and numeracy are mapped on the programmes of learning. Visit our departmental pages for further information.

FEATHERSTONE HIGH SCHOOL PROPOSED CURRICULUM MODEL 2023 to 2024 A MINIMUM 32.5 HOUR WEEK FOR STUDENTS INCLUDING 26 HOURS OF LESSONS PER WEEK / 52 HOURS PER FORTNIGHT

• *Design and Technology is not taught. Although Textiles, Cookery, Graphics and Art based design is.
• Timetabled KS3 enrichment - 1.33 hours given to IT in year 7, enterprise in year 8 and decolonising humanities course in year 9
• In Year 9 students choose 3 art subjects to continue with. Year 9 is the third year of KS3
• In Year 10 students can choose between history and geography although they can opt for both. Other options include the arts, business, BTEC health and social care, GCSE PE, computer science and triple science
• In Year 11 students have 2 options as a trial and do a short core RE course
• Personal Development – RSE programme delivered through PSE lessons and Citizenship, Careers, Assembly, SACRE Reflections & Reading to be themes of daily 25- minute morning registration tutorials.

• Students doing Further maths as a 4^th A level do not have supervised independent study time
• Model retains early finish Wednesdays for curriculum development and year team meetings. Subject meetings timetabled during the teaching day.

You can visit each department page to find:

• Online Programmes of Study for each subject and year group (where the course is running currently)
• Learning Journeys
• A brief subject intent statement

Measuring Impact in subjects – The schemes of learning used by our teachers identify the (substantive) knowledge and (disciplinary) skills students should have mastered at end of each programme of study (the end points students are working towards). However, we are moving away from summative end of unit tests towards formative assessment. Lead teachers are asked to identify which pieces of centrally planned and standardised classwork and home learning tasks their teachers will mark as part of their subject assessment calendar. Teachers are then asked to use their comparative judgement to moderate and compare their students’ responses. Only through regular formative assessment can students’ misconceptions be picked up and addressed so that their learning remains on track.

Summary of our School Priorities – INTENT, IMPLEMENTATION AND IMPACT for 2023 to 2024

Every subject area should have a subject intent statement, an on-line programme of study, a complimentary learning journey for each year group, an assessment calendar outlining which standardised pieces of work are to be marked; and an audit of their contribution to the development of students’ cultural capital.

In the 1970s and 1980s French Sociologist Pierre Bourdeiu first made the link between someone’s background and knowledge and their success in life. A person with “cultural capital” has the knowledge, vocabulary and habits that will enable them to get ahead in life. That person is likely to be on a higher rung on the social ladder. 

The Ofsted definition of cultural capital states: 

“.. the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.”

In 2019, the then Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman explained that:

“By [cultural capital], we simply mean the essential knowledge, those standard reference points, that we want all children to have. ... So for example, it’s about being able to learn about and name things that are, for many, outside their daily experience.”  

Why is the development of Cultural Capital important?

1. To prepare our students for life in modern Britain celebrating all the cultures (including their own) found in the local community as well as those cultures not found in Southall.
2. To enable our students to practise and adhere to the FHS values of care, respect, challenge, resilience, partnership and inclusion.
3. To equip our students with a range of personal and social skills to become responsible citizens contributing to our wider society in general, able to compete with their peers (nationally) for educational opportunities and for work or career – related opportunities.
4. To give students the confidence to aim high regardless of their starting point whether that be for university or college or training
5. To improve students’ oracy (confidently presenting to different audiences), using acquired “hinterland” knowledge and higher tier two and three vocabulary.

At Featherstone High School we develop students’ cultural capital through everything we teach weaving it into a wide range of activities and experiences such as:

• Music and Drama Productions
• Guest speakers including “speakers for schools”
• Extra -curricular clubs including sports clubs
• School based activities during “science week,” “arts’ week” and “curriculum week”
• Work led by the Oracy co-ordinator with the Jack Petchey foundation
• Educational visits programme including “curriculum week” trips and visits abroad to Barcelona and WW1 sites in Belgium.
• Careers and work -related learning including work experience
• Morning tutorials (carousel centred on reading, citizenship, careers and SACRE related reflections) and assemblies
• Through all the subject curriculums including PSHE and RE
• Specially timetabled IT lessons for year 7 (separate from computer science)
• Specially timetabled Enterprise lessons for year 8
• Specially timetabled Humanities lessons for year 9 (separate from history and geography and above and beyond requirements of the National Curriculum)

We recognise that there are six key areas of development that are interrelated and contribute to building a student’s cultural capital:

The table below outlines some of the opportunities we have in place to build up cultural capital at Featherstone High School:

How does the Tutorial Carousel work? Structuring 2 hours and 5 minutes over the week

Each activity other than the assembly is timed for 15 minutes to permit other pastoral engagement for the remaining 10 minutes.

Science Week – 5^th to 9^th February 2024

What will the new Arts’ Week Look like?

Monday 19th to Friday 23rd February 2024

Summer Curriculum Enrichment Days for Years 7 to 10: 24^th to 28^th June 2024

Please click here to see the full Cultural Capital Audit for PE

Role Model Display 

Every year, we hold our summer Curriculum Week. The timetables are collapsed and students in Y7-10 are given the opportunity to participate in visits to London museums including the V&A, British Museum and Natural History Museum, Kew Gardens, London Zoo, Westminster Abbey and local places of worship. We also have a carousel of fun activities in school including STEM lessons, financial literacy, and careers days.

Click here to see the timetable for this year.

We can see the impact of our broad and balanced curriculum in the results our students achieve and their destinations after leaving school.

Click here for our results and destinations page.

Please contact Mr Thacker, Deputy Head Teacher, if you would like further information.