Our curriculum

At the heart of all three is The Abbey Learner Profile. Together, these elements represent the outstanding value of an Abbey education. Our commitment is to providing an experience that brings our students benefit every single day for the rest of their lives.

Find out more about our approach and ethos below, and visit the Junior School, Senior School and Sixth Form to find out how our world-leading curriculum works in practice.

Abbey Learning

This is our core curriculum: the everyday learning that leads to outcomes far above national benchmarks at our Junior School, and to GCSE and A Level results that put The Abbey in the top rank of schools in the country.

We follow a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum at the Junior School. It exceeds the requirements of the UK National Curriculum and draws upon best teaching practice around the world. It puts students at the heart of their learning as explorers and adventurers, not just excelling in skills and in what they know, but understanding how to use their knowledge and lead their own journeys with a focus on a genuine love of learning.

At the Senior School we continue this approach. Our Lower School curriculum (Year 7-9) is unique. It includes a language carousel in Year 7, with students exploring French, Spanish, German and Mandarin, accelerated courses for dedicated linguists and classicists, and cognitive psychology for every student in Year 9. There’s a festival of learning every year bringing all this together. This leads to GCSE courses in Upper School (Years 10 and 11), for which students are brilliantly prepared.

In the Sixth Form, again, we teach a unique curriculum. It is based on A Levels, which are the gold standard in the UK and one of the world’s most respected qualifications for those who look further afield. However, we allow students who want more choice and range to study far more than three A Levels. It is one of the best and most flexible offers anywhere in the country.

Abbey Extension

Every single day at The Abbey, students go far beyond curricular study to develop the interests and passions required for the world’s best universities, for meaningful careers, and for enriched lives.

Every time our teachers explore a subject in more depth, let a student discussion run, take on a challenging topic for the sheer fun of what it can teach us, they are taking an Abbey Extension angle.

In Abbey Extension, students might learn:

• how the Ancient Greeks measured the circumference of the world
• how the music of one country shaped the writing of another
• why women are more likely to be injured in car crashes and what it tells us about society
• what chaos theory has to do with the weather next week
• where quantum entanglement could lead us

Most of all our students learn to ask hard questions, distrust easy answers and think for themselves.

At the Senior School all this activity is part of our Scholars’ Programme, led by our academic scholars but open to all. It leads to our most prestigious Sixth Form award: the Scholars’ Award. This is a substantial project in any form, with winners securing substantial research grants supporting independent work during higher education.

Abbey Opportunity

Alongside Abbey Extension, our opportunity programme is what makes The Abbey the school we are. This is our remarkable co-curricular activity. Our commitment is to ensure that every student has the chance to develop their passions as far as they can take them, and also find new interests and new activities at every stage of their school career.

There are six main strands of the Opportunity programme:

• Art
• Drama
• Music
• Sport
• Outdoor learning
• Clubs

Across these six strands, the level of activity is extraordinary. We run multiple annual art exhibitions, spectacular productions including musicals and dance shows, a packed programme of music concerts from rock nights to full orchestral performances, we send teams to major national tournaments (and win!), we run one of the largest Duke of Edinburgh programmes anywhere, and every week, dozens and dozens of clubs take place across our Junior and Senior Schools.

Visit our Student Showcase to see Abbey students in action and our Junior, Senior and Sixth Form pages to get a sense of the sheer scale of all of this activity.