CCHS Curriculum

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”

Malcom X

Education isn’t just about knowledge or facts, as the Dalai Lama says, it’s also about educating hearts. At CCHS we educate our young people, through our PROUD values, to be kind and empathetic as well to have the ability to think, listen and speak out confidently about what they believe in, enabling them to be successful in life. But what determines whether an individual is successful in life? And what defines success?

The dictionary describes success as “attaining wealth, prosperity and/or fame” but we all know that money/and or fame doesn’t buy happiness. Successful people are confident and can lead themselves, as well as others. They have their own vision and mission and seek to bring it to life on a daily basis. Being successful means the achievement of desired visions and planned goals.

As educators at CCHS we have developed a culture of high expectations for all, which raises aspirations transforming lives. We believe anything is possible if you have the right attitude to learning. Through our broad, ambitious curriculum and our PROUD values, which are threaded throughout, we aim to develop character and confidence making a positive difference to every young person's life chances, regardless of their starting point. Encouraging our students to explore all their talents and allowing them to experience a wide range of opportunities, opens their minds to a brighter future enabling them to achieve their dreams and goals, in short, to be successful...

HIGHER EXPECTATIONS, RAISING ASPIRATIONS, TRANSFORMING LIVES.

Curriculum Delivery

‘The main purpose of curriculum is to build up the content of long-term memory (the Schema) so that when students are asked to think, they are able to think in more powerful ways because what is in the long-term memories makes their short-term memories more powerful. That is why curriculum matters.’ (Wiliam 2018)

At CCHS we know our students learn best through emotional engagement using stories, dilemmas, provocative art and controversies to ignite their curiosity. Humans are a curious, challenge seeking species, and being challenged is an entitlement for every child.

Our broad, ambitious, well sequenced curriculum delivered using pedagogical techniques such as Rosenshine's Principles, Cognitive Load Theory, Generative Learning, enables our students to learn and remember more, assimilate and apply their knowledge to different contexts giving them the confidence to articulate their ideas or challenge others.

Knowledge is important to all thinking. We understand new things in relation to what we already know. Retrieving knowledge helps us to remember it for longer. During teaching, we focus on two key parts to make knowledge powerful; the learning of knowledge, skills and techniques and the remembering of that knowledge, skill or technique.

During exploration students develop their understanding of skills or knowledge, asking the “how” and “why” questions, through challenging, thought provoking tasks, experiments, hands-on practice or debate. Exploration provides opportunities for teachers to show students how to practice, assimilate and apply their knowledge to a variety of contexts.

Through communication teachers are able to feedback, probe and address misconceptions ensuring students are able to communicate their understanding with confidence and clarity through either oracy or the written word.