To achieve these aims our curriculum provides a rich balance of knowledge, skills and cultural capital to reflect the needs of students and the local community.  While academic study is at the core of our curriculum, it is enhanced and deepened by our exciting range of extra-curricular, enrichment and extension opportunities, which include a comprehensive range of sporting activities as well as clubs such as Cartoon Club, Technology Club, F1 Club, Brilliant Club and trips such as Auschwitz/India – Y12/Y13, Y9 Black Country Museum, Y8 Newark Civil War Centre. This extended curriculum provision allows all students to nurture their talents and interests and offers the opportunity to experience success and develop their self-confidence.

To assist students to ASPIERE, BELIEVE and SUCCEED we know that we have to work on developing their skills and attitudes. When they enter the school students often are unable to shape and express their views and opinions orally or in written form. The curriculum provides students the opportunity to develop these skills through a strong focus on speaking and listening in language lessons, through making presentations to the whole class, participating in assemblies, taking part in class discussion and in debating competitions. Opportunities for students to develop their literacy and writing exists in the majority of subjects, with every student expected to complete a piece of extended writing in most units of work.

To SUCCEED our students, have to become more resilient. The curriculum gives them opportunties to develop this attribute. Some subjects use classroom approaches such as the Learning Pit, others help students understand that overcoming obstacles is important in achieving a goal, for exam, in science students recognise that experiments don’t always work and that sometimes a process of trial and error needs to be followed; in PE students analyse why a technique hasn’t worked and incorporate a revised technique in practice, and in English students understand the need to review and redraft pieces of writing to improve the quality.

We also recognise that students face a significant test at the end of KS4. They are required to be able to access a huge amount of information and to have the resilience and stamina to sit around 20 exams. To ensure students are able to recall the subject content needed we work on developing their retrieval skills in lessons by first helping them move superficial learning to a deeper level and then by having opportunities to recall and use prior learning through starter activities, assessment tasks and through a dedicated ‘lesson 20’ approach. In helping students move learning to a deeper level teachers use their awareness of Bloom’s Taxonomy so that students are asked not just to recall facts but to analyse, evaluate and synthesise information. This approach develops as students’ progress through the school and a valuable skill set for later study and employment.

Serving a former coal mining community we recognise the need to develop the employability skills of our students. We want them to have access to the best opportunities locally, regionally and Nationally. We want students to ASPIRE to worthwhile careers and we do this by delivering a high quality careers education programme that features calendared engagement with employers and higher education providers. The school has a good relationship with Nottingham Trent University and their staff regularly visit the school to work with groups of students. In addition, there is a programme of university visits for students.

Equality of opportunity for all students is integral to our curriculum purpose. Those with lower prior attainment or special educational needs will receive bespoke, additional support through one to one tuition, small group intervention and through quality first teaching in mainstream classrooms. At KS4 our curriculum pathways will allow some students the opportunity to be supported to focus on a lower number of important qualifications that will a smoother post 16 transition into education, employment or training.

The KS4 curriculum has a strong academic core. Students are, where appropriate, encouraged to study subjects within the English Baccalaureate as we believe this provides a strong basis for future career choice and success. In addition, the statutory core features of Physical Education and Morals and Ethics are covered during purposeful timetabled lessons.

The pathway approach offers students the opportunity to study additional option subjects. The option subjects available include:

• Geography, History, French, Business Studies, Computing, Construction, Health & Social Care, Sport, Art, Photography, Drama, Dance, Music, PE, Psychology, Media Studies, Astronomy, Food & Nutrition, Engineering and Design & Technology.

Level 2 courses are offered as either GCSE or BTEC qualifications.

Bespoke pathways are available for some students for whom the main curriculum is not suitable or accessible. For a small number of students the Link Centre offers a core curriculum plus bespoke programmes so that students can better manage their behaviour whilst still progressing in their learning

The Academy is aware that the needs of students change and continually adapts the curriculum to reflect interests and aspirations. The introduction of Spanish as a second language option and the addition of astronomy to the science curriculum are examples of this.