KS4 Curriculum Information – The Leigh Academy

At The Leigh Academy, we recognise the importance of providing students with a balanced education, one that is both academically rigorous to ensure the best outcomes for all our students but also provides our young people with all the tools required to become forward thinking and empathetic citizens in today’s ever changing world.

Intent

The Leigh Academy aims to ensure that all students gain a wide and extensive knowledge base which combined with co curricular opportunities build students cultural capital. We have a curriculum that is broad and balanced ‘Opening Minds to Success’ through delivery of the ‘Healthy Minds’ programme ensuring that the IB learning profiles are fully embedded through the Key Stages. Students become resilient learners and are well prepared and successful in the next stage of their education or career pathway. Our curriculum is structured in to the 3 Key Stages to achieve these aims in the following way:

Key Stage 3 (Year 7, 8 and 9): The Middle Years Programme (MYP)
Key Stage 4 (Year 10 and 11): GCSE and equivalent qualifications
Key Stage 5 (Year 12 and 13): The IBCP, A-Levels and BTEC qualifications

Key Stage 4

Key Stage 4 at The Leigh Academy is a 2-year programme of study in line with DFE expectations. When making their choices, pupils are guided to follow one of our Baccalaureate pathways. At Key Stage 4, all pupils study a core curriculum comprising the following subjects;

English
Mathematics
Science
Physical Education
Computing (delivered through the tutor time programme)
Religious Education (delivered through the tutor time programme)

There are two Baccalaureate pathways at The Leigh which consist of the following:

The EBacc Pathway – The English Baccalaureate groups together a range of qualifications identified by the Government as a measure of a pupil’s performance. In addition to the core curriculum of English, maths and science, pupils choosing to follow this pathway are required to study a foreign language and either history, geography or computer science.
The LeighBacc Pathway – The LeighBacc enables pupils to study a combination of traditional GCSE subjects alongside vocational subjects. This pathway is unique to The Leigh Academy and is tailored for those pupils who would enjoy some of the EBacc subjects but not study them all. For example, a LeighBacc Pathway pupil may choose to study a foreign language but not wish to study either history or geography.

GCSE EBacc Options booklet GCSE LeighBacc Options booklet GCSE Options Evening presentation

Key Stage 4 curriculum 2022-23

Click on the links below to view the Curriculum details for each Key Stage 4 subject:

Implementation

The implementation of the curriculum content will focus around ensuring that all students are active learners being taught by staff with strong subject knowledge. The focus this year will be on ensuring that knowledge retrieval is at the heart of all lessons and that there is interleaving evident in all schemes of work. It is essential that greater emphasis and importance is given to disciplined literacy with learning areas and staff taking responsibility for developing the reading, writing and oracy of learners. Assessment must be carefully crafted in order to ensure students are well challenged on their prior learning and that they fill any gaps in their prior knowledge. Effective and immediate feedback through conferencing is an important factor in ensuring students improve their work, learn from every experience and are reflective in their learning. Feedback should be motivating, manageable and meaningful. Greater focus needs to be given to ensure more students achieve higher grades in KS4 vocational courses in particular.

Impact

The curriculum will make a positive impact on the outcomes of every child. We will know that this is true as we are delivering a high standard of education, quality assured through qualitative and quantitative measures. Leaders at all levels review learning, talk with our students and provide feedback to move practice forward. The impact of the school’s curriculum is measured through several means: