One teacher becomes several
Oak takes Years 5 and 6, Maple Years 7 and 8. This is where the change happens. A pupil moves from one teacher who knows them in every subject to several teachers who each know them in one. We do it gradually, and every class keeps a teacher who holds the whole picture of that child.
That teacher is the person a parent talks to first, and the person who notices when a pupil is fine in three subjects and struggling in a fourth. In a school this size that is not a formal system — it is simply how a small staff team works.
Subjects
Pupils are taught English, mathematics, science, history, geography, Biblical Studies, modern foreign languages, art and craft, music, computing, physical education and PSHE. From Year 7 they also take design and technology, and food preparation and nutrition.
World religions
From Year 7 pupils study the major world religions. We teach them as their adherents would recognise them. A pupil should be able to explain what a Muslim or a Hindu believes, and why they find it convincing, before offering any view of their own.
Preparing for GCSE
Middle School is where the habits are built: revising properly, writing at length, working when nobody is checking. Pupils who arrive in Birch without those habits find GCSE much harder than they need to.
Pastoral care
Eleven to thirteen is a hard age anywhere. In a school this size a pupil having a difficult term is noticed by several adults who know them, and a difficult term does not become a reputation.
