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Spires Academy

Curriculum Statement

Driven by a determination to create welcoming schools for the local community, where every person thrives, makes excellent progress and succeeds.

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Curriculum

For further information regarding the curriculum at Spires Academy please contact Mr H Ovenden, Vice Principal, hovenden@spires.e21c.co.uk

Curriculum Statement

At Spires Academy we deliver a curriculum that ensures all our learners have the opportunity and ability to go on and lead extraordinary lives.

 Our whole school intent has been created using the E21C Curriculum Principles.  These principles have been distilled into four words that summarise concisely exactly what we are trying to achieve here at Spires Academy. These principles are securely grounded in research, and are as follows:

CURRICULUM PRINCIPLES

  • INCLUSIVE

Every child is supported to access a full curriculum

  • FOCUSED

Powerful knowledge us explicitly highlighted through Knowledge Organisers

  • SEQUENCED

Five year plans are carefully spiralled using spaced learning

  • COHERENT

Schemata (Big Ideas) are used to link new content to previous learning

BIG IDEAS

Our Big Ideas fit into our curriculum principle coherent, ensuring our curriculums are built on coherent schema running across the 5 years.  Schemas (sometimes referred to as mental models, scripts, or frames) are structures that organise knowledge in the mind. When learning, the mind connects new information with pre-existing knowledge, skills, and concepts thereby developing existing schemas.  

Our curriculums, develop and refine learners’ prior conceptions as opposed to teaching something entirely new. Approaches that compare, organise, and map concepts try to make schemas clear and visible and are thought to support learners to organise and extend their ideas. The flexible nature of schemas does mean that specific teaching and learning strategies foster a more desirable order to a learner’s pre-existing and developing knowledge.

Our approach to working with schemas focuses on pupils organising and elaborating on their ideas to develop more complex mental structures.  We do this through the development of our subject specific Big Ideas that run through the 5 year curriculum.  The relevant Big Idea is referenced at the start of each lesson through the curriculum slide, to orientate the learners within the curriculum.

In all of our 5 year curriculum plans you can see the Big Ideas outlined, mapped and developed over time.

OUR VALUES

We have three core values that underpin everything we do, including our curriculum. These are Respect, Resilience and Responsibility.

Respect:               We show respect and expect it in return

Responsibility:    We take responsibility for our learning and our actions

Resilience:           We use our resilience when faced with challenges

INTENT

INCLUSIVE

  • Curriculum and assessment systems are designed to be effective for all learners
  • High quality support in place for all learners to access a full, broad and balanced curriculum
  • Diversity is celebrated and all non-inclusive, discriminatory and inequitable practices are challenged

FOCUSED

  • Some knowledge is of greater importance and use
  • The most important knowledge for each unit has been carefully considered
  • This most important content is intentionally shared repeatedly with pupils
  • Assessments are created to track students’ progress through this powerful knowledge
  • Responsive teaching results in teachers identifying and repairing gaps in this powerful knowledge

SEQUENCED

  • Curriculum content is mapped to ensure that pupils meet new content when they are ready for it
  • Curriculum plans ensure that linked content is revisited at regular intervals
  • This provides opportunities to check prior learning
  • Students remember more content because of this spaced practice

COHERENT

  • Big Ideas are used to create threads throughout the curriculum (schema)
  • Big Ideas organise knowledge in the minds of students
  • New information is connected to prior learning more easily
  • Pupils can better understand why they are learning new content

KEY STAGE 3

MIXED ABILITY GROUPING

As an inclusive school, KS3 are taught in mixed ability groups. Research shows that by teaching students in mixed ability groups, all students will have the ability and opportunity to succeed, irrespective of their ability or background.

BROAD and BALANCED

All our students are entitled to a broad curriculum over 3 years of Key Stage 3. Students study English, Maths, Science, MFL (French), History, Geography, IT, Music, Drama, Art, DT, Food, PE and Ethics and Philosophy.

OPTIONS PROCESS

In Year 9, students choose their GCSE options before commencing a 2 year programme of study in Year 10.  Not only does this give students the opportunity to study subjects they have enjoyed and excelled in through their broad and balanced KS3 curriculum, but it also crucially gives them more time to develop the depth and knowledge needed to succeed in challenging GCSE qualifications.

KEY STAGE 4

In Years 10 and 11, our students commence their GCSE or vocational courses.  Students study 9 GCSEs in total.  All students study the statutory requirements of GCSE English Literature, GCSE English Language, GCSE Maths and GCSE Science.  Students are then able to select 4 subjects from our broad offer.  It is expected that a high proportion of our students will study the full EBacc qualification of English, Maths, Science, Geography or History and MFL which is open to all.

Core Subject EBacc Options

English Language

English Literature

Maths

Double Award Science or

Triple Science

History

Geography

French

Music

Drama

Art

Photography

Food Technology

Design Technology

Citizenship

RS

Business

Computer Science

Sports Science

Health and Social Care

Child Development

 PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

We recognise that our students need to learn skills and access information to enable them to become confident individuals who lead safe and healthy lives. As such we have in place a clear programme of personal development, which develops students’ skills and knowledge around the following topics:

  • Living in the wider world
  • Relationships and sex education
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Careers and ambition

In years seven, eight and nine students have timetabled personal development lessons once a week. In years ten and eleven students have one drop down personal development day per term.

Form time plays a key role in the personal development of our students and there is a clear rota of activities for years seven to ten. These activities are outlined below and aim to help create students who are well rounded, literate, and articulate.

 

YEAR GROUP MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY
Year 7

Class Reader

(Oliver Twist)

Assembly

Class Reader

(Oliver Twist)

Year 8

Oracy Focus: The Day (discuss news and current affairs)

Class Reader

(Lord of the Flies)

Assembly
Year 9

Class Reader (Noughts and Crosses)

Oracy Focus: The Day

(discuss news and current affairs

Class Reader

(Noughts and Crosses)

Year 10

Personal Development

(careers)

 

Class Reader

(Jane Eyre)

Oracy Focus: The Day

(discuss news and current affairs)

 

YEAR GROUP THURSDAY FRIDAY
Year 7

Oracy Focus: The Day

(discuss news and current affairs)

Personal Development 

(careers)

Year 8

Class Reader

(Lord of the Flies)

Personal Development 

(careers)

Year 9 Assembly

Personal Development

(careers)

Year 10

Class Reader

(Jane Eyre)

Assembly

Year 7 Curriculum Booklet 

Year 8 Curriculum Booklet 

 Year 9 Curriculum Booklet 

Year 10 Core Curriculum Booklet

Year 11 Core Curriculum Booklet 

Year 11 Term 1 Business 

Year 11 Term 1 Citizenship

Year 11 Term 1 Drama

Year 11 Term 1 DT 

Year 11 Term 1 English 

Year 11 Term 1 Food 

Year 11 Term 1 French 

Year 11 Term 1 Geography 

Year 11 Term 1 Health and Social Care 

Year 11 Term 1 History 

Year 11 Term 1 IT 

Year 11 Term 1 Maths 

Year 11 Term 1 Music 

Year 11 Term 1 Science 

Year 11 Term 1 Sports Science

 Year 7 Curriculum Booklet Term 2

 Year 8 Curriculum Booklet Term 2

 Year 9 Curriculum Booklet Term 2 

Year 10 Curriculum Booklet Term 2 

Year 11 Curriculum Booklet Term 2

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