Our Curriculum

“I wonder what they do teach them at these schools." 

So said Professor Digory in CS Lewis’s famous book The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, published in 1950. And, well over half a century later, this is a question that many will still ask today.  

Everyone has a view about what schools should teach, and there are only so many hours in the day, meaning that a school curriculum is always a compromise. How do we go about making those compromises at Thetford? 

First, the school broadly follows the outlines of the National Curriculum, which was last updated in 2014. You can read the National Curriculum here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum. The National Curriculum sets out the subjects children ought to study, and some broad things taught as part of those subjects, but a great deal is left to individual schools to decide.

As part of the Inspiration Trust family of schools, we have a trust-wide approach to curriculum, teaching and assessment. You can reasd more about this approach here: https://www.inspirationtrust.org/18/curriculum. 

On the rest of this page you’ll find out what we teach, and there are links to more detailed documents going into the fine detail. 

Years 7, 8 and 9 (key stage 3)

The aim of the first three years of school is to provide students with a broad foundation of knowledge about the world, both for the purposes of future study and because knowing about the world is in and of itself a good thing. Students study: 

Years 10 and 11 (Key Stage 4)

Once students reach Year 10, they continue to follow core academic subjects and physical education, but otherwise have the freedom to specialise by choosing their options. 

Information about all of the courses below can be found in our Key Stage 4 Curriculum Booklet. 

  • Maths 
  • English  
  • Science 
  • Physical Education 
  • Pastoral Programme 

Students then pick four subjects from the following: 

  • Art & Design 
  • Business 
  • Computer Science 
  • Dance 
  • Design Technology 
  • Drama 
  • French 
  • Geography 
  • Health and Social Care 
  • Hospitality and Catering 
  • History 
  • Religious Education 
  • Music 
  • Photography 
  • Physical Education 
  • Psychology 
  • Sociology 
  • Spanish 

Thomas Paine Sixth Form

To find out about what subjects can be studied in Years 12 and 13, please visit the separate Thomas Paine Sixth Form website.