The fundamentals of our curriculum provide students with a grounding in knowledge. We will not assume that students cannot access complex material and we build up from the work done in the primary phase and down from what is required in higher education and employment.

The intention of the STWA curriculum is to:

• Inspire imagination and develop interests/specialisms/key skills. 
• Provide appropriate challenge through access to complex material and concepts. 
• Meet the needs and aspirations of all learners irrespective of starting point, learning needs, background and disposition
• Facilitate positive progression routes through the student’s educational journey into sustainable further/higher education, training and employment.
• Provide relevance to context and community to enable social and economic mobility. 
• Prepare children and young people to be successful learners for life, responsible citizens and confident individuals. 
• Secure breadth of opportunity for all.

We believe that all our students should be able to access our curriculum, however, we also understand that some students require more support than others. 

Teachers and leaders will ensure that the needs of all students are met, including:

• High prior attaining students
• Low prior attaining students
• Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds
• Pupils with SEND
• Pupils with English as an additional language (EAL)

SEND provision will be provided as set out in our SEND policy. Further information can be found in our statement of equality and objectives, and in our SEND policy and information report.

Our curriculum has three components which provide a holistic learning experience: is predicated on skills, aptitude and potential to achieve in a modern foreign language.

Our seven-year curriculum offer is sufficiently broad and balanced to ensure all young people have access to a common core and are able to specialise to follow their interests, develop their skills and provide equal access to positive progression routes.

Each subject department has a written curriculum manifesto, a statement of principles as a promise to ensure the learning experience contributes to the Academy’s unique context and community aspiration. Each curriculum experience must address social disadvantage by connecting to each of the three curriculum components, have a clear end-point it is building towards, be coherently planned and sequenced and promote high academic ambition.

The subject curricula strive to make authentic connections with one another, for example, the study of Shakespeare in English can be contextualised through the study of Tudor England in History and the interpretation of graphs in Maths reinforces the skills and learning with those in Science. The development of Oracy structures led by English helps support structured talk and writing in other subjects or as part of the hidden curriculum.

All students, irrespective of prior attainment, disadvantage and SEND needs have equal access to the curriculum. Those in Year 7 and 8 with low English and reading scores from their previous phase in learning have an extra lesson of literacy to develop their literacy skills. Access to the full Ebacc is predicated on skills, aptitude and potential to achieve in a modern foreign language.

Our curriculum offer:

• ​​Is knowledge based; broadening and deepening skills and understanding between Primary and Higher Education
• ​Provides an appropriate yet proportional provision of learning time for first wave Maths and English
• Provides a high performing and relevant accredited qualification in the 'Core for All' offer
• Provides opportunities at appropriate points of accreditation throughout the seven years
• Includes a commitment to access a mix of Applied and Academic qualifications ​
• Provides access to Single/Triple Sciences and Trilogy to facilitate post 16 and 18 progression​
• Has a core provision of ‘Life Skills’ to prepare for life in modern Britain
• Includes a commitment to the Ebacc through guided choice​
• Provides richly resourced learning experiences​
• 26 hour per week (6/5 lesson per day) core offer for all ​
• Grouping arrangements that provide equal opportunity and flexibility; not a ceiling on potential​
• Interleaved provision sustaining relevance and connectivity across the subjects​
• Teaching methodologies buit on Barak Rosenshein’s Principles of Instruction that develop long term memory and reduce cognitive load​

Our Curriculum Structure

It extends over a 30 period week of three 100 minute lessons per day from Year 7 to 13.  Year 11 have an additional fifty minute lesson per day to support them in their GCSE preparations.  

Curriculum Impact

The STWA curriculum is designed to foster students' passion for learning to produce amongst others, young linguists, geographers, historians and scientists. To achieve this, we place great emphasis on the balance between the professional development and opportunities for collaboration between curriculum leaders and teachers and clear evaluation and accountability. The curriculum is quality assured through quantitative and qualitative measures such as:

• Academy examination performance - attainment and progress
• Student participation in super curricular and subject enrichment
• Attendance and behaviour data
• Take up and retention at GCSE and Post 16
• Destination data including Post 18 progression
• Student Voice
• Quality and quantity of work in books
• Attendance to Achieve
• Raising Attainment and Progress meetings
• Learning cycle and trial examination data
• Years 7-10 NGRT (reading test) data
• KS3 No More Marking writing data
• Year 7 No More Marking maths data

If you would like to find out more about a subject please contact the subject using the email address provided on our 'Contact Us' page.