Academic Curriculum
Encouraging adventurous, innovative and confident learners
At Berkhamsted Girls we encourage our girls to be adventurous, innovative and confident in their academic studies, empowering them to aim high with integrity – both academically and personally.
We do this by combining exceptionally high-quality teaching and state-of-the-art facilities with a personalised education encompassing a deep understanding of the girls and their individual needs.
The nurturing and aspirational environment that we cultivate at Berkhamsted Girls aims to inspire pupils to follow their passions and whet their appetite for learning.
“Pupils’ achievements are excellent, both academic and otherwise, due to the school ensuring that there are opportunities for pupils of all abilities to participate, and for the most able to excel.”
—ISI Report
Our aim is to nurture our pupils into becoming outstanding young people by creating a life-balance between academic work and extra-curricular activities. Our close links with schools in our community and further afield enables Berkhamsted pupils to develop an awareness and understanding of the wider world.
A metacognitive approach
At Berkhamsted, we use the latest research in cognitive science, behavioural psychology and neuroscience to inform our teaching and to ensure that our pupils are best supported in their learning. We have also been influenced by the work of Professor Guy Claxton and his learning powered approach. Metacognition encourages pupils to think about their own learning and teaches them specific strategies for planning, monitoring and evaluating how they learn. The Education Endowment Foundation (a leading educational research body) has found it to be the most successful intervention schools can make to improve pupil progress.
The academic research is clear that the brain is like a muscle inasmuch as its intelligence grows with exercise: in short, learning is learnable. Berkhamsted girls don’t just learn the content they need for exams, they learn how to best learn this content and have the chance to develop key learning skills which will serve them both in Higher Education and in the workplace. Furthermore, the language we use when talking about learning is significant, and at Berkhamsted we have a rich but common vocabulary for talking about what learners do, thus allowing pupils to make links between different topics and indeed the things they learn, within and beyond the classroom.
The labour market is becoming more dynamic and most of today’s teenagers will have 10-15 different jobs by the time they are 40. People are also living longer and are likely to be working for a longer period of their lives. Our approach encourages teachers to place as much emphasis on how we learn, as what we learn. Establishing the concept of learnable intelligence, and helping pupils to understand how they learn, will stimulate independent learning, which in turn will allow pupils to develop their resilience and flexibility when confronted with difficulty. This is something that will serve them well as they move through the school and beyond, to Higher Education and the workplace.
At Berkhamsted Girls, teachers help pupils to understand the importance of these dispositions and how they can aid learning. As pupils move through the School, we start to make links between these dispositions and cognitive science. In the classroom teachers explain why pupils are completing work in a particular way and the cognitive science research is explained to them. We encourage pupils to reflect on their strengths and develop targets and interventions to develop them further. Pupils are encouraged to reflect on how they work to determine which strategies work best of them. In learning how to learn our pupils also gain confidence, regulating their thinking and emotions around learning.
Our metacognitive approach to learning is also evident in our reporting systems. School reports are addressed to the pupils themselves and focus on learning skills rather than on content. Once reports have been read our pupils write their own reflections and set their own targets for improvement. Likewise, at our Learning Consultations pupils lead by reflecting on their relative strengths and weaknesses and suggesting what the way forward should look like for them.
GCSE Choices
At Berkhamsted Girls the curriculum provides a broad and balanced education. From September 2021 Berkhamsted made some innovative changes to the Key Stage 4 Curriculum. As part of these changes, pupils now take three core GCSE subjects (English Literature, English Language and Maths) and alongside this have the option to choose six further subjects (one of which must be a Science). In order to keep breadth in their academic portfolio, pupils are encouraged to choose at least one language, one humanity subject and one creative subject as part of their option choices.
For some pupils there is, in addition, the opportunity to join an Ad Science group that undertakes all three Sciences but only uses two GCSE option choices. Furthermore, the most able Mathematicians are invited to take Ad Maths GCSE. These additional options mean that some pupils will take up to 11 GCSE option choices.
Alongside their GCSE subjects, pupils take part in the Learning Pathway Programme – an in-house curriculum designed to allow pupils to develop key skills in preparation for A level study and beyond. Some pupils will also be invited to complete an HPQ project (equivalent of ½ a GCSE).
Further details of the pathways and the subject choices can be found in the GCSE Information Booklet.
We fully support and encourage every pupil throughout the exam process, making sure that the girls’ wellbeing is a priority.
The girls are taught how to be resilient – to prepare for their exams mentally as well as academically. Our staff are always on hand to discuss any worries or concerns your daughter may have.
We are proud that our pupils achieve excellent exam results with the School’s full support and encouragement.
One of the Schools’ values is to ‘aim high’ and this approach promotes a growth mindset. We seek to equip pupils with the ability to understand their own capacity for success if they work hard. In this way, our girls are motivated to take an extra step academically, challenging themselves to exceed their own expectations.
Pupils at Berkhamsted Girls are also taught to see that hard work together with a positive mindset can achieve exceptional results both inside and outside the classroom, whether on the sports pitch, the stage or in co-curricular subjects. This well-rounded approach to education sets our pupils apart in an Oxbridge interview.
During the GCSE years, we encourage our pupils to continue to take part in a wide range of extra-curricular activities as these additional achievements and commitments not only provide an all-round education, but they also help to minimise GCSE exam stress and promote good mental health.
Learning Pathways
Watch the video below to find out what our current Sixth Formers have said about the Learning Pathway programme and how they feel it will benefit the pupils entering Year 10.
Pupils show pronounced and highly effective study skills, appropriate to their age. Strong research skills are evident in many examples of project work, and older pupils, in particular, show excellent ability to assimilate and analyse a wide range of sources.
Digital Device Provision
Our core mission is to prepare young people for the world in which they will live, study and work. Educational research shows that putting pupils at the heart of their own learning helps develop strong metacognition, and digital tools enhance enquiry, collaboration, organisation and self-direction. Pupils value the opportunity to develop these skills, and will benefit in their future lives from a strong blend of digital and analogue literacies.
At Berkhamsted, we believe that digital devices have an important part to play in creating engaging lessons in the classroom. We also aim for pupils’ learning beyond the physical classroom to be as rich and intellectually stimulating as possible; capitalising on the interactivity and immediacy of our suite of tools. Pupil devices allow for a seamless learning experience between School and home, and the best possible resilience against disruption to education.
Watch the video to see the pupils experiencing the change to learning Microsoft devices have provided in the classroom.
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Ambitious go-getters who are always looking for ways to make themselves stand out from the crowd, and want to get the absolute utmost from the education and opportunities available to them.
Strong research skills are evident in many examples of project work, and older pupils, in particular, show excellent ability to assimilate and analyse a wide range of sources.
