ACADEMIC
Curriculum
The Giles Academy curriculum is under constant review. We make changes to what students learn across school and within subjects based on their feedback, progress and aspirations.
We are immensely proud of the outcomes our students achieve through our curriculum, including their exceptional GCSE results in the core, EBacc subjects, in the technical and vocational areas and in becoming independent, hardworking and caring young people.
We believe that, without exception, our students have individual talents and abilities and are committed to providing a curriculum which is broad, rich and balanced in order to meet the needs of all.
We value every curriculum subject area and students are encouraged to pursue a range of subjects reflecting their own interests and aspirations. This range is appropriate to age and ability ensuring students have the opportunity to learn and make the best progress possible, with the ‘Curriculum Journey’ in each subject underpinned by the National Curriculum and puts high challenge, enjoyment and breadth of experience at the heart of learning.
Our curriculum firmly underpins the Trust’s vision for a high performing non-selective school located within a selective area of education which aspires to be ‘Outstanding’ and the current curriculum is the next step on our journey towards this curriculum intent / vision:
- Key Stage 3 aims to provide a secure foundation and subsequent extension of prior knowledge, skills and understanding before broadening out into an ambitious and varied curriculum in Key Stage 4.
- At Key Stage 4 we are unique within the local area for offering a specialised mix of academic, technical and vocational subjects.
Curriculum Support and Intervention
In determining the Trust’s vision for an outstanding curriculum we identified five strands of the curriculum: These five strands of the curriculum reflect our belief the curriculum is far more than just a student’s experiences within lessons, but is far more holistic, reflecting the entire sum of their experiences within their school life.
Underpinning these curriculum strands is CURRICULUM INTERVENTION, which is a crucial part in our ambition for all students at Giles Academy to Aspire, Challenge and Achieve; in doing so to be resilient, lifelong learners, responsible citizens and prepared for the future. Students’ growth in these areas is developed across all aspects of their school experience: the formal curriculum, that matches and exceeds the ambition of the national curriculum, the wider curriculum and the ‘hidden curriculum’.
This means that our curriculum in every subject and beyond is planned to ensure students leave with exceptional outcomes, both in their examinations and in their personal development. We ask every child to strive for personal excellence as well as leaving with the right qualifications to prepare them for the next stage.
The Trust’s overall vision based on these five strands of curriculum is summarised in the diagram shown below.
Aspire, Challenge and ACHIEVE
At Giles Academy we encourage students to aspire, embrace challenge and retain the knowledge, understanding and skills to ‘Achieve’, in doing so to be resilient, lifelong learners, responsible citizens and prepared for the future. Reflecting this, our curriculum can be summarised by:
ACADEMIC: A curriculum that has a broad range of subjects, is challenging, accessible and inclusive for all, balanced with a range of enrichment and extra-curricular opportunities. A key aspect is the systematic approach to the teaching and promotion of literacy and numeracy across the curriculum to ensure that students have essential life skills, are literate & numerate, as well as being digitally literate, financially literate.
CHOICE: Our students’ abilities are diverse and they have many talents. It is extremely important that we enable them to have wide-ranging positive learning experiences and maximise future opportunities.
HIGH STANDARDS: Ambitious programmes of study ensure that our students achieve their potential in national examinations and for all students to aspire to the best future education, employment or training for their individual pathway and have an understanding of how to get there, including exploring and researching the jobs and industries they are interested in and developing the skills and qualities that are required to progress to their next stages.
INTELLIGENT ASSESSMENT: Assessment is used not solely for summative judgement but to also inform teaching and ensure continuity and progression between Key Stages, with forensic marking by teachers to supports students learning and key curriculum intervention.
EQUIPPED: A coherent programme of personal, health, social, careers and economic education that ensures students are exposed to the experiences and opportunities they need to succeed and lead a healthy lifestyle in the wider community.
VALUES: Promotion of high quality behaviour, both outside of lessons and behaviour for learning, with students valuing equality and diversity, demonstrating the mutual respect and understanding of those with different cultures, faiths and beliefs thus mirroring the fundamental British values of democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law, tolerance, mutual respect and high standards of behaviour (paying particular regard to the Equalities Act, 2010).
ESTEEM: Belief in and building of students’ wellbeing to develop confident, resilient and independent learners who can be proud of their achievements. Learners who are organised and independent, take pride in their work and develop their cultural capital and appreciation of culture and society beyond their own experience and learners who value how to maintain healthy relationships with others, have an understanding of how to look after their mental and physical health and wellbeing.
Promoting the Ebacc Qualifications
We are very proud of the fact that students can follow an English Baccalaureate (EBacc) curriculum (Maths, English, Science, Humanities and Languages) to GCSE. We have redesigned our curriculum model in Year 9 over the last three years to further promote the Ebacc subjects and to encourage higher participation across these subjects at Key Stage 4 while being committed to maintaining choice for learners.
Alongside promoting the Ebacc we place equally high value on the contribution that creative, vocational and technical learning areas also makes to every child’s development and our approach is for every student to follow their own pathway, based on strong careers advice and high aspiration for all learners. Less than 1% of our students go on to be not in education, employment or training (NEET).
You can read more about how the curriculum is organised in each school year on the Curriculum Implementation pages. For a more detailed overview of the knowledge and skills taught in each discipline, please see the individual subject pages.
Beyond the Classroom
We aim to open the door to a wide range of experiences. All subjects provide additional learning contexts including; annual school productions, art events, careers fairs and high-performing sports teams in the majority of disciplines. You can find out about these on these on the subject pages and website home page.
For any more information about our Curriculum, please contact Mr Tom Martin, Deputy Chief Executive Officer by emailing tmartin@gilesacademy.co.uk
What is my child studying? (Curriculum Intent and Student Road Maps)
The Curriculum Intent documents below outline each subject’s aims for their discipline. These are carefully structured to embed key skills and vertical progression across each Key Stage as illustrated by the Curriculum Map, located within the Curriculum Intent document, and the student friendly Learning Journeys. Subject Curriculum Intent plans are evaluated and updated on an annual basis.
Click the Curriculum Intent of Student Road Map buttons for further information.
