AET Specifications

Our AET Specifications set out the minimum knowledge that every pupil is entitled to acquire in each subject for a specific age group.  

We choose the knowledge of AET specifications carefully. Led by the subject networks, and overseen by our curriculum networks,  this is a collective endeavour. We prioritise the most fundamental and empowering knowledge, ensuring the content we choose can unlock the wider world and the highest levels of subject achievement.  

Our schools align around these specifications, ensuring that the knowledge they contain is taught within the school subject curriculum and supplementing this with additional content chosen locally. This ensures that our pupils have access to a strong and broad body of knowledge that will empower them to be successfully academically and beyond as well as content that has local or contextual significance. It also ensures that we are able to collaborate meaningfully as a network, sharing teaching materials, approaches and professional learning. 

Each specification takes the form of a list of knowledge, organised by knowledge domain within each subject. Schools must teach the knowledge within their programme but the sequencing and teaching approach remains a local choice. 

At the end of each academic year, we engage in network-wide assessment sampling from the content of our AET specifications. This enables us to determine the extent to which this core content has been acquired and to gain insights that can shape future work and training.