Curriculum Intent
Our curriculum is what makes Wardle Academy unique; it is the means through which our vision is achieved. To ensure our curriculum achieves the vision, we have a clear curriculum intent;
Academic excellence
Students have an entitlement to a broad range of ambitious, powerful knowledge and skills to support real success
Students know and remember more over time, in progressively challenging depth
Students develop a wide ranging vocabulary and have an entitlement to read a wide range of challenging texts
Personal development
Students are fully prepared for transitions throughout their learning.
Students have an entitlement to extend their learning beyond the academy day
Students’ learning is underpinned by the Wardle Way.
This is focussed on explicitly during ASPIRE Days and a form time programme which consists of 30 minutes every morning.
Academic Excellence:
The Key Stage Three curriculum is designed in line with the aims of ‘The National Curriculum’. This ensures students study a broad and balanced curriculum that builds on students’ learning that takes place in Key Stage Two. The curriculum is designed to be knowledge rich, but not merely a list of facts. It focuses specifically on Substantive Knowledge and Procedural Knowledge. It supports students to remember the core knowledge required to progress to the next stage of their learning, make connections between knowledge and develop a vital depth of understanding. Students are then taught how to apply their powerful knowledge through a range of challenging skills.
Students also experience a range of Arts subjects to provide a rounded education that supports the knowledge delivered, and also enhances their personal development.
The Key Stage Four curriculum promotes a high level of academic study across a range of subjects to build on the substantive and procedural knowledge students learned in Key Stage Three.
The core curriculum (see below) at Key Stage 4 is supplemented with a range of other optional subjects designed to promote the arts and vocational learning to ensure a rounded, holistic education. Vocational learning helps to prepare students for both future study and the workplace, promoting our ethos of academic excellence and personal development. Students also develop vital study skills that will prepare students for university setting, such as working to deadlines and completing assignments to an academic standard.
In both Key Stage 3 and 4, the curriculum is planned to be diverse, introducing students to a range of role models, topics and themes from a variety of cultures, religions, values and viewpoints to give students a rounded view of the society and the wider world. This supports students in broadening their horizons and learning about their local community, national community and the world around them.
