At Chessbrook the curriculum lies at the heart of all we do. It has been designed to ensure access for all students and to provide them with the tools to successfully move onto the next phase of their educational journey, both socially and academically. The curriculum allows for students to be exposed to a range of academic and vocational subjects that engage and challenge, a programme of outside speakers and external educational and team building activities. It has been created to ensure that there are opportunities for the students’ personal development to be reinforced throughout every aspect of their daily learning.

The day at Chessbrook starts with the students being greeted at the door to ensure that they are set and ready for a day of learning. Students then go up to breakfast, which allows for positive interactions and conversations with their peers and staff. Students and staff attend a daily ‘Circle Time’, which is an opportunity for them to experience a wider curriculum including; daily news, current affairs, literacy, numeracy and outside speakers.

The classroom based curriculum at Chessbrook consists of 17 periods of the ‘core curriculum’ and 13 periods of academic/vocational options. So that all of our students are able to access post 16 education, training and employment opportunities, the core curriculum consists of; GCSE English, maths, science and a Level 2 (2 qualifications are available for more able students) personal development qualification. The core curriculum is supplemented with option subject choices which consist of GCSE and vocational subjects (please see our Curriculum Brochure above for further details of the subjects available).

We acknowledge the fact that all of our students are individuals who learn in different ways. To compliment the centre based curriculum Chessbrook also have a wide range of alternative provisions which provide students access to a different way of learning. To this end all students receive a bespoke timetable that is created to maximise their learning opportunities and engagement.