Academic overview

The curriculum at Beeston is designed to enable every child to reach his or her potential and prepare him or her for life after Beeston. Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences drives our curriculum planning and values: the personal and social, the creative and physical, the moral and spiritual and the logical and linguistic.

The traditional academic disciplines, including Latin, are complemented by music and drama, art, computing, design and technology and FSA-approved Forest School. Together with a very full games and activities programme, this broad and varied curriculum supports our holistic approach to education.

First class teaching from dedicated, motivated and well-qualified staff combined with small class sizes enable us to aim high for each child whilst allowing them to develop at the correct pace. Each department is run by a subject-specialist head and departments are well resourced. We have purpose-built Design Technology and Art centre and well- equipped IT and computing. The classes are small, set where appropriate, reflecting the requirements of the scholarship and /or entrance exams at 13, with children aided where necessary by a remarkably well-resourced Learning Support department.

Did you know?

Our Old Beestonians regularly attribute their successes at language GCSE and A level to the thoroughness of their French teaching while at Beeston.

What makes our school’s curriculum different is the diversity of its delivery. From Google Classroom to the Beach Classroom, there is flexibility to allow for personality and the many different ways children learn effectively, within a structured background. The outcomes from this approach are superb and children go on to a very wide range of senior schools, often with scholarships or awards. These schools require pupils who are purposefully engaged, resourceful, independent but able to work in teams.

The range of teaching and learning strategies we use, both indoors and outdoors, mean pupils learn to think for themselves, to solve problems, to see that failure and getting it wrong are just as important as getting it right. Through the confidence the children develop from ‘having a go’ comes the achievements they celebrate as they leave us for their next schools.