The Good Schools Guide
It’s specifically designed to help our pupils discover their own special talents and interests. Whilst having the freedom to create a curriculum enables pupils to achieve their best, we do include elements from the National Curriculum that we know work well with our pupils.
As your daughter progresses through the school, her education becomes more specialised with increasing time devoted to her chosen subjects.
We’re very used to using technology at Withington and we believe that it should always serve the goal of learning – so we use the method that will work best for the relevant task. Of course, this will vary, depending on the subject and the different lessons within that subject.
There are 40 lesson sessions per week. Some subjects are taught as double lessons to allow for practical work and further development of ideas. Language learning is generally taught in single lessons, as this is helped by more frequent exposure.
Pupils are mostly taught in their form groups except for the following, where smaller groups help with teaching and learning.
In Year 9
Pupils make their GCSE subject choices towards the end of Year 9.
At the end of Year 11, pupils currently take nine GCSEs (or ten if they are entered for the Further Maths GCSE).
All pupils study:
Optional subjects available for GCSE study are:
Every pupil is expected to choose at least one modern foreign language.
Those studying Separate Sciences may choose two other GCSE subjects.
Pupils studying Trilogy Science may choose three other GCSE subjects.
All pupils:
The subjects available to study will depend on the choices made by the pupils. Every attempt is made to accommodate all preferences. In most years, over 99% of subject choices are accommodated.
