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8
If you love
learning,
you will be
learned
ACADEMIC
Curriculum
Details of each stage of the curriculum are given to parents
as their sons progress up the School. Booklets describing
the curriculum at each level of the School may be
accessed from the school website and are also available
on request from the Curriculum Director. Choices of
subjects have to be made from time to time in a boy’s
school career, and at these points the parents can exert a
major influence; however, we are obliged to make it clear
that the composition of a boy’s timetable, and the
arrangements made for teaching him (e.g. by setting) must
ultimately be at the School’s discretion.
Curriculum arrangements are made by the
Curriculum
Director
to whom enquiries about the curriculum and
subject choices should be addressed. The School is
always willing to consider special timetabling or curricular
arrangements for individual pupils.
Books and Materials
Textbooks and stationery are at present issued, generally
speaking, without any separate charge. Books remain the
property of the School and a charge is made for any lost,
damaged, or defaced. A small number of necessary items
(a dictionary, mathematical instruments, etc.) are normally
bought by boys. We recommend Heinemann’s School
Dictionary or the Pocket Oxford Dictionary. A small charge
is made for materials used in Art and Design and
Technology GCSE and A level course work. There are also
charges made to boys in the Fifth Year who choose to take
advantage of the careers profiling and interviews that are
run through Cambridge Occupational Analysts.
Homework
Homework properly done is the corner-stone of most
+
subjects. As a rough guide, boys in the first two years
should do about one hour each evening (Mon to Fri),
rising to two hours each evening by the fifth year (also
Mon to Fri). Homework time-tables are published for
years 1 to 5, and parents of dayboys are asked to
ensure that their sons comply with these programmes,
and that they carry out the assignments recorded in
their prep diaries. Parents may raise questions about
their son’s prep at any time, with his Tutor or with the
subject teacher concerned.
Reports, Assessments and Academic Monitoring
A boy’s progress is monitored, and reports are made to
parents, by a variety of means both formal and informal.
Subject teachers and tutors consult regularly, and tutors
are primarily responsible for bringing to the attention of
parents any special problems that may arise during the
course of a term.
Reports and Parents’ Evenings:
The pattern of these reports varies by year group but in
essence there will be two "full" reports of a more
detailed nature during the year with shorter reports or
just grade sheets in the other three reporting sessions.
All reports have comments from Tutor and Housemaster
and for two sessions (Summer Term in 5th and U6th
years) reports comprise just Tutor and Housemaster
comments. Most reports carry grades for Effort and
Achievement over the relevant period of reporting. The
grading system is explained on each report and Effort
and Achievement grades are converted into two overall
percentages that can be monitored from report to
report. As a rough rule of thumb, percentages of around
65% indicate that all is mostly well, in the region of 80%
and above that things are going very well indeed and in
the region of 50% and below that there may be some
causes for concern.