Curriculum
Explore the many courses on offer below. Each subject link will take you to their own dedicated information page with further information.
For information about the La Retraite 6 curriculum, please follow the appropriate links:
A Level and Cambridge Technicals
T Levels
Subject Information
Curriculum-Gallery (ID 1040)
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Creative Arts
Creative Arts
Studying Creative Arts supports students to understand and embrace the visual world in which we live by learning through making.
We encourage students to broaden both their practical skills and contextual analysis through a rigorous programme of study. Teaching is predominately practical underpinned by discourse making the courses accessible to a range of learning styles, as well as supportive of the students’ ability to make meaningful artefacts.
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Business
Business
At La Retraite, we aim to provide a Business Studies curriculum that supports the school Catholic ethos and allows each student to develop as a whole person with a sense of identity.
The vision for our department is to develop students’ understanding of how the local/national/global economy works through analysing economic issues, problems and institutions that affect everyday life.
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Computer Science & IT
Computer Science & IT
All of our students are given a Chromebook by the school to use in their lessons and for their home learning. These are provided at no cost to parents and students are expected to bring them to school every day to use in class to enrich their learning experience. They are also expected to use them at home to help complete their home learning.
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Drama
Drama
In line with School Development initiatives, the Drama department upholds and promotes the Catholic ethos in both its curricular and extra-curricular provision, fostering mutual respect and empathy at its core.
Regardless of their prior experiences and any social disadvantage, the Drama curriculum at La Retraite aims to foster a range of skills and knowledge. It will equip students to make progress and achieve in the subject as a unique discipline, through a range of activities, themes and skills.
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Economics
Economics
The intent of the Economics curriculum at La Retraite is to develop students’ understanding of how the national and international economy works through analysing economic issues, problems and institutions that affect everyday life. According to the JCQ, the uptake of Economics for females at A-Level has risen over the last 10 years, however the gender ratio still appears to be constant with only 40% of females taking the subject.
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English
English
Our curriculum seeks to produce independently minded, articulate, and well-informed students who are ready for the challenges of the modern world. Building on the foundations of timeless classics, we seek to find answers to the questions of today in the poetry, drama, and prose of the past, as well as celebrating the diversity of our multicultural school.
By engaging with the universal truths found in writers such as Shakespeare, Brontë and Keats, we endeavour to widen and deepen their cultural capital and connect it to the texts and topics of today. Through raising their skills in reading, writing and oracy we seek to empower them with the means of communicating the answers they have discovered with a confident, clear and personal voice.
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Geography
Geography
Throughout a 7-year curriculum, we intend to develop Geographers that “Think like a Geographer”, “Speak like a Geographer” and “Write like a Geographer”. The Key Stage 3 curriculum is primarily shaped around the ‘Progress in Geography’ textbook, and our curriculum intent shares many of its core aims. The big topics studied at Key Stage 3 lay the foundations for those who choose to undertake GCSE and A-level Geography.
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Health and Social Care
Health and Social Care
The curriculum intent for Health and Social Care Department at La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls’ School aims to enable pupils to build their skills and knowledge in an engaging and enjoyable environment. Our Level 1, 2 and 3 courses provide learners with essential knowledge, transferable skills and tools to improve their learning in other subjects with the aim of enhancing their employability when they leave education, continuing to both their personal development and future economic well-being.
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History
History
We believe that the study of History should inspire students’ curiosity to know more about the past, and teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, investigate arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. We know that history helps students to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.
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Mathematics
Mathematics
An ambitious and supportive scheme of work: We have collaboratively developed a scheme of work that promotes problem solving, resilience and ensure full curriculum coverage. Its implementation is monitored through half-termly learning walks, termly faculty development observations, book scrutiny and sharing best practice in our department meetings.
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Media Studies
Media Studies
The Media Studies curriculum is personalised to La Retraite students. The vision that we have for our students in Media based on the curriculum is that they will leave the course having accumulated a range of skills in pre, post, and production in both the film and advertisement industries. We want the students to be able to successfully use these skills in the next steps of their education.
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Modern Foreign Languages
Modern Foreign Languages
At La Retraite we want our students to learn about Modern Foreign Languages so that we can help them to expand their curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. We believe that the study of MFL should enable students to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and understand and respond to their speakers both in speech and writing. We know that MFL helps pupils to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. We contribute to the cultural capital of the students by raising awareness about other cultures and points if view in French and Spanish speaking countries. Most of our students are speakers of other languages which gives us a unique starting point in MFL.
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Music
Music
The aim of the music department is to allow students of all abilities and backgrounds the opportunity to develop their musical understanding of a broad range of styles, traditions and genres. This means being able to identify what music can be expressive of and knowing how this expression is created by a composer, arranger or performer.
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Physical Education
Physical Education
At La Retraite, we take pride in our high quality education in line with the national curriculum to inspire pupils and to have access and to enhance their own and others’ health, wellbeing and physical activity participation in a variety of contexts.
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PSHE
PSHE
Our mission as a Catholic School is to provide the highest possible quality of education for all our students, delivered within the context of Gospel values and the teachings of the Church, within our Christian community.
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Religious Studies
Religious Studies
At La Retraite Religious education plays an important and central role on the curriculum. This reflects the core Catholic ethos of the school. Our curriculum shows our desire for our students to explore Christianity and the key questions of the Catholic faith in depth and also so instil a sense of tolerance and open-mindedness for other faiths and beliefs to become a valuable member of the multi-cultural society in which we live.
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Science
Science
We offer a science curriculum that inspires curiosity, excitement and understanding about the world around them through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics whilst supporting the Fundamental British Values.
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Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of how society is organized, and how we experience life. It has been taught in British universities since the very beginning of the twentieth century, first the London School of Economics, and soon after at Liverpool University. These and other pioneering departments did ground breaking research in major social issues, such as poverty and crime.