The Meridian Curriculum
Vision
‘To become embedded as a Centre of Excellence for our community where students are encouraged to present the best version of themselves. Students are challenged, they learn and achieve within a culture of resilience, ambition and respect. We are an inclusive school and aim to provide students with a personalised provision to enhance learning so that all students thrive.’
Curriculum Intent
Our programme for education at Meridian High School is a knowledge-based curriculum which incorporates essential skills applicable to the subject, empowering students to develop an understanding and appreciation of the subjects they study. Our curriculum is therefore carefully designed by our subject specialists within the school and with the support of our Multi Academy Trust to challenge our students, and to support our students to meet and exceed their target grades so all students have the opportunity for a better future.
The intentions of our curriculum are as follows:
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We inspire students to think deeply, recall with confidence, and apply their knowledge, empowering them to produce work of the highest standard.
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We guide students on thoughtfully sequenced learning journeys that build knowledge over time, deepen conceptual understanding, and nurture a lifelong love of learning.
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We are committed to helping every student achieve their personal best through ambitious, carefully tailored educational pathways. We foster determination and purpose by helping students connect their learning to their future goals and aspirations.
We are proud to offer a broad and rich curriculum designed specifically with our students’ needs at the heart of it. Our compulsory core curriculum is EBACC centric and all KS3 students, with the exception of some students who received a personalised provision, study English Language, English Literature, Maths, Science, Spanish, History, Geography, World Views, PSHE, Art, Drama, Business studies, Health & Nutrition, and PE.
We understand the need to develop our student's understanding of the world in which they live and fully support the cultural appreciation offered by an extensive EBACC programme.
At Key Stage 4, all students follow a core curriculum that ensures a strong academic grounding in: English, Maths, Science, Spanish, History or Geography, PSHE and Religious Education.
To personalise their learning, students select option subjects at the end of Year 9 through a supportive interview process involving staff, parents and carers. These guided conversations ensure each learner follows the most appropriate pathway for their strengths, interests, and future aspirations.
We offer three distinct pathways:
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Academic Pathway:
Triple Science, History or Geography, plus one from Citizenship, Health and Social Care, BTEC Sport, Business, or Art. -
Vocational Pathway:
History or Geography, plus one from Health and Social Care, BTEC Sport, Business, or Art. -
Alternative Pathway:
History or Geography, AQA Unit Award Scheme, Functional Skills Maths, and Step Up qualifications.
Through our carefully structured curriculum, every student is supported to achieve their personal best, with a clear route to further study, employment or training.
Curriculum Implementation
Our curriculum is brought to life through a set of core teaching and learning fundamentals designed to ensure every student thrives in the classroom. These include:
Modelling and Scaffolding
We show students what success looks like by explicitly modelling processes and thinking. Scaffolding breaks learning into manageable steps, enabling all learners to build confidence and independence over time.
Literacy and Oracy
Strong literacy and oracy skills underpin academic success across every subject. We prioritise vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and oracy to help students articulate their understanding and engage critically with ideas.
Questioning and Checking for Understanding
Effective questioning is central to our teaching practice. It allows teachers to check understanding, challenge students and adjust teaching to ensure all students are supported.
Addressing Misconceptions
We actively seek out and address misunderstandings to secure deep and lasting learning. By tackling misconceptions early, we help students strengthen their knowledge and provide clea foundations on which to build.
Challenge for All
We believe in the potential of every student. Lessons are designed to enable all students to be ambitious thinking and challenge learners at every level, fostering resilience, ambition and a love of learning.
We work alongside Trust Leaders and our colleagues in our Outstanding Schools to ensure the Meridian Curriculum is broad, rich and carefully designed to support our students so that they are well placed to be successful in the future.
EBACC
We understand the need to develop our student's understanding of the world in which they live and fully support the cultural appreciation offered by an extensive EBACC programme. Our curriculum model means that all students (with some exceptions) study Spanish from Year 7 – Year 11. Historical and projected EBACC figures can be seen in the table below:
|
Year |
2018/19 |
2019/20 |
2020/21 |
2021/22 |
2022/23 |
2023/24 |
2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Percentage |
17% |
20% |
17% |
22% |
59% |
67% |
79% |
Subject Allocation
The subjects on offer have been carefully selected taking into account:
- The national curriculum requirements
- The local context of our students and our high ambitions for them
The table below shows the hours spent on each subject in a typical week.
| Curriuclum information | Hours | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject/Year group | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| English | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Maths | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Science | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| History | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Geography | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Spanish | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| PSHE | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Worldviews/Religious studies | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Business Studies | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Health and Nutrition | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Health and Social Care | 2 | 2 | |||
| PE/ BTEC Sport | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Drama | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Art | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Triple Science | 2 | ||||
| Citizenship | 2 | 2 | |||
| AQA Unit Award Scheme | 2 | ||||
| Functional Skills Maths | 2 | 2 | |||
| Step Up English | 2 | 2 | |||
| Forest School/Landbased Studies | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Personalised provision
At Meridian High School, our ambition is to ensure all students are fully supported and receive a personalised experience whilst they are with us. This means seeing the individuals, meeting their needs and enhancing their learning in the way best suited to them in order for them to achieve.
TEAMS Approach
When students arrive in Year 7, all students sit CAT4 tests and NGRT tests as our strategic baseline assessment. CAT4 testing indicates a student’s verbal, non-verbal, spatial and quantitative scores where the national average is a score of 100 whilst NGRT assesses a student’s ability to read at speed and read to understand (comprehension) against a standardised age score.
Students with a reading age below their chronological age will have support based on their need. Students will have access to our phonics programme (Fresh Start Phonics through Read, Write Inc). Students will also participate in a tutor time reading programme CUSP. Students will also have access to Lexia and Dyslexia Gold. We also screen students for speech and language and where there is a need students will have access to SALT sessions. Any student who has additional support in place will have a student passport on how best to meet their need in lessons which is also shared with parents every term. Students who access interventions will be placed in an A or M class where they will have an assigned Learning Support Assistant that works with the class and in their interventions.
Pinnacle and Summit Offer
At Meridian High School, we believe that every student deserves an education that inspires, empowers, and enables them to thrive. Our alternative curriculum is a reflection of this belief: thoughtfully designed, deeply personalised, and firmly rooted in our commitment to inclusion and equity.
We recognise that some learners face unique challenges that require more tailored support. That’s why our alternative curriculum offers a nurturing and flexible environment that responds to individual needs — whether they relate to literacy and language development, neurological differences or social, emotional and mental health (SEMH).
Through a blend of high-quality teaching, therapeutic strategies, and targeted intervention, we equip our students with the skills, confidence, and resilience they need to succeed — both within school and beyond it. Our provision is not a step back, but a carefully constructed pathway forward: one that is meaningful, appropriate and ambitious.
At MHS, we stand by the belief that inclusion is not about fitting students into a system, it is about shaping a system that fits all students. Through our alternative curriculum, we make that vision a reality and allow all students the opportunity to be successful.
