Intent, Implementation & Impact
If you would like more information about the curriculum at Lancaster Academy please contact Mr. Beaumont, Vice Principal - tbeaumont@lancaster.leicester.sch.uk, or the faculty leader of the relevant subject - 0116 2703176.
Lancaster Academy's Curriculum on a Page
Our well sequenced curriculum has several bespoke pathways planned to meet the needs of all our learners leading to a very settled and purposeful learning environment. We have a clear rationale for implementing a three-year KS4, which is regularly reviewed. An Ebacc pathway supports access to A levels and onto the Russell group of universities/higher apprenticeships, a pure GCSE route supports access to higher education, a ‘mix and match’ GCSE/vocational pathway to access higher and further education and a vocational route to support access into further education and apprenticeships. Our Education and Employment pathway (EE) is a tailored entry/level 1 pathway suitable for new arrivals, students with little English and some SEND students.
Please open the pdf to view our 'Curriculum on a Page':
Intent
We are proud of our unique context and diversity and the richness this brings to our curriculum offer. We want our students to learn a broad selection of subjects in depth in order to make them READY for the future. Our curriculum is well planned and progressive and seeks to build on the prior knowledge of students. It makes links and develops students understanding in all areas of their learning whilst addressing the knowledge gaps they may join us with, given the wide range of different starting points our students have from our feeder schools or elsewhere. It is our intent that students will build their knowledge, skills and understanding through the study of a knowledge rich curriculum. Our curriculum has our students and their needs at the heart of it, so that all students leave Lancaster with the knowledge, skills and confidence to thrive in a challenging and ever-changing world. We understand that a curriculum deep in cross curricular links is the best way to make learning ‘stick’ for students and to support them in transferring all that they learn into long-term memory. It is because of this that our middle leaders worked closely together at the design stage to map out the links that there are across subjects and work to review and update these regularly.
Implementation
The curriculum provided at Lancaster is designed to be enjoyable, challenging and to ensure good progress is made by all students. With this in mind, we operate a five year curriculum split into a two year KS3 programme of study and a three year KS4 programme of study, thus devoting more time to the new, more demanding, reformed GCSEs.
In KS3 (years 7 & 8), students study all the core subjects of English, maths, science, computing, RE, PE and PSD. In addition, they study geography, history, expressive arts (art, music, drama) a modern foreign language and design technology.
KS4 (years 9-11), we regularly update our curriculum to make sure that we are offering courses that are appropriate to our students’ needs whilst making sure that they aspire to achieve great things and are able to progress to further education and training when they leave Lancaster. All students take GCSEs in English, English Literature, maths and RE. The majority of students take GCSE combined science but some students choose to specialise in the separate sciences of physics, chemistry and biology. Many other subjects are offered as GCSE or equivalent options for students to choose, including work-related vocational option choices. Some students require a highly personalised curriculum pathway to make sure that they are successful and we invest a lot of staff time on these pathways delivered via our ‘Transition Hub’ to guarantee success for all.
For our learners with little or no English, we provide an Education and Employment (EE) curriculum with a deliberate literacy focus designed to allow students to master the English language sufficiently to successfully transfer to mainstream classes or to become qualified in entry / level 1 qualifications giving a progression route Post 16.
Students with additional learning needs are catered for by our ‘Learning Support Team’ of teachers, TAs and tutors.
Enrichment is built in through our regular READY for the Future days, tutor activities, PSD and extra-curricular activities on three nights a week, to ensure key learning experiences are met.
Impact
The impact of our curriculum is measured through the external examination results of all of our students, many of whose results do not feature in performance table information. We believe that it is important to look at how the curriculum has had an impact on everyone we teach, regardless of their starting point. One of the most marked impacts of our curriculum is that it delivers appropriate bespoke pathways (including EE) planned specifically to meet the needs of all our learners leading to a very settled and purposeful learning environment.
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