Curriculum Overview

A well designed, broad and balanced curriculum will enable every student to reach their full potential. We have carefully tailored our curriculum to ensure this for all our students.

In designing our curriculum, our overriding intent is to:

• Raise academic attainment
• Enable every student to reach their potential through high quality teaching and learning
• Provide extra curricula activities that stimulate and encourage students to learn outside the classroom
• Embody our maxim to ‘Aspire, Believe, Achieve’

Curriculum Intent

Our vision is for all students to leave King's Academy Prospect well prepared for future success in all aspects of their lives. Our school is committed to developing a learning community which is safe, purposeful, challenging and fosters mutual respect between all members. High quality teaching enables pupils to enjoy their learning, achieve their potential and develop as individuals.

Our curriculum aims to:

• Provide a broad and balanced education for all students
• Enable students to develop knowledge, understand concepts and acquire skills, and be able to choose and apply these in relevant situations
• Support students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
• Support students’ physical and psychological development and responsibility for their own physical and mental wellbeing
• Promote positive attitudes and enjoyment towards learning and wider school experiences
• Ensure equal access to learning, with high expectations for every pupil and appropriate levels of challenge and support
• Provide subject choices that support students’ learning and progression, and enable them to work towards achieving their goals
• Develop students’ independent learning skills and resilience, to equip them for further/higher education and employment

Key Stage Three

The curriculum is developed in Key Stage 3 to help students achieve their potential. It has been designed to ensure that all students have the necessary skills to access the curriculum throughout their education.  Reading, literacy and numeracy tests will identify where students may require additional support and will then be placed in groups to ensure that the most effective curriculum can be delivered.

For students who require extra support, well-established programmes of study will be delivered through continual assessment and delivered in smaller class groups. Students will also study the core subjects of Religious Education, Physical Education and Information and Communication Technology. Students will also be able to study a range of different design and technology disciplines.

Students who can demonstrate that they have good literacy and numeracy skills will be able to study a curriculum including the Arts, a Modern Foreign Language, Technology, Humanities and ICT as well as the core subjects of English, Mathematics, Physical Education and Religious Education.

Key Stage Four

All students will begin their GCSE or equivalent courses in core and optional subjects at the beginning of Year 10. This will allow students to build on their interests and areas of the curriculum that they excel in. Students will be able study both academic as well as vocational courses. All students will continue to study English, Mathematics, and Science at GCSE or equivalent level. Information, creative technology, and Physical Education will also be studied.

During year 11 students will begin their controlled assessments for the courses they have studied throughout year 10. Controlled assessments can contribute a significant element towards a student’s final grade. These assessments are extended pieces of work that demonstrate understanding of key elements of the curriculum that will have been taught in Year 10.

All students during their final year of GCSEs will focus on the examinations skills required to complete their courses. Students will be given support and guidance to perform to the best of their examination element.

Key Stage Five

Students who have achieved in Key Stage 4 will be given the opportunity to study for A levels and level 3 vocational courses. King's Academy Prospect offers a wide range of courses that can lead to a wide variety of careers and university courses. Teaching and learning within Key Stage 5 is designed to promote self-study and independent learning whilst still providing a supporting framework that will help each learner achieve.

Curriculum Structure

• The curriculum is planned in a coherent manner ensuring it meets legal requirements, including those of the National Curriculum, and embraces cross-curricular themes (including careers education and guidance, citizenship, economic and industrial understanding, environmental, health and sex education) and cross-curricular skills, in particular those of literacy, numeracy and ICT.
• The development of students’ personal and social skills and their spiritual and cultural development are addressed specifically through the citizenship programme and school assemblies, as well as permeating the whole curriculum, both formal and hidden.
• The importance of developing ICT, literacy and numeracy is recognised by the allocation of discrete lesson time at KS3 and a continuing emphasis on the further development of these skills across the whole curriculum.
• In years 7, 8 and 9 students study a common curriculum comprising timetabled lessons in Art, Citizenship, DT, English, French or German, Geography, History, ICT, Maths, Music, PE, RE and Science. L2L lessons support students in reflecting on their learning and developing strategies to make that learning more effective.

 

The curriculum is suitably broad and balanced across key stages 3 and 4. Subject choices for key stage 4 have been broadened to build more effectively on pupils’ starting points and preferences. The curriculum is enriched by a range of extracurricular provision, and pupils particularly enjoy educational trips and the wide range of sports available.

^{Ofsted Report, May 2019}

If you would like to discuss any aspect of our curriculum further, please contact Ms Sarah Stevens, Assistant Headteacher: Teaching, Learning and Curriculum.

Ms Sarah Stevens
Assistant Headteacher
Teaching, Learning and Curriculum

 

Learning Journeys

A visual guide to the students' learning journeys in each subject we provide.