Following those periods when we were locked down nationally, we are very pleased to have been able to return to a full broad and challenging curriculum, in all subjects. Teachers, however, continue to address remaining gaps in learning; and seek to capitalise on skills learners honed during periods of remote learning, such as those related to using IT, independent study, and electronic assignments.

In practical subjects, such as those in the Arts, PE, and Design & Technology, which required creative solutions during periods of remote learning, we have re-introduced the full range of practical learning opportunities offered prior to the pandemic.

Assessment Tools

Assessment tools, such as those quizzes, polls, and electronic assignment submission featured in Microsoft Teams - which enabled teaching staff to monitor the progress of all their students when working remotely for extended periods of time - have subsequently been embedded into our normal ways of working, where it has been purposeful and appropriate to do so.

Low stakes assessment-for-learning tasks enabled staff in all subjects to promptly identify students' knowledge-gaps upon their return to learning in the physical classroom, and these continue to be integral to how we implement the curriculum.

Diagnostic tools - such as those for cognitive ability and reading ages, and web-based Lexia Reading Programme - continue to be utilised to ensure target setting is accurate and the gaps in core skills are addressed quickly across the school.

Key Stage Three

Curriculum Catch-up and Recovery in KS3 is focused largely on the core skills which underpin the whole curriculum, such as reading, writing, and mathematics. Our aim is to ensure we identify students who are less confident in these areas, so that we can put in place the right support early on.

We continue to evolve the KGGS Reading Project, launched during the summer term of 2020. This brings together the work of the English Faculty, School Librarian, the SENDCo, and our Literacy Support Lead (an additional Part Time Teacher of English) to ensure students in Years 7, 8 & 9 can access the resources, reading mentoring, and literacy-focused activities which enable them to raise their reading ages, and read and write with confidence in all their subjects.

As part of this project, we have invited well-known authors into school to promote wider reading and further engage readers of all abilities with the processes of reading and writing.

Additional capacity for teaching we have created in Mathematics has enabled us to utilise the skills of our SEND team to offer our KS3 mathematicians additional support in their lessons - to give them the confidence they need to learn well in maths lessons, and in all lessons where mathematical skills are needed.

Key Stage Four & Key Stage Five

In KS4 we have utilised the National Tutoring Programme and GCSE POD to support not only those learners for whom we receive the Pupil Premium, but also any other students who needed individualised subject-specific support.

We have embraced the government's school-Led Tutoring offer and utilised this fully to offer well over a thousand hours of tutoring across many subjects to learners in Year 11 initially, but also in Years 7 to 10.

In addition to this, staff have offered many out-of-lesson subject specific support and revision sessions for students in KS4 & KS5 - at lunchtimes, afterschool, and in the school holidays.