As part of United Learning our curriculum is based on these key principles:
- Entitlement: All students have the right to learn what is in the United Learning curriculum and our curriculum at Central Academy offers a breadth of learning to all.
- Coherence: Taking the National Curriculum as its starting point, our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that powerful knowledge builds term by term and year by year. We make meaningful connections within subjects and between subjects.
- Mastery: We ensure that foundational knowledge, skills, and concepts are secure before moving on. Students revisit prior learning and apply their understanding in new contexts.
- Adaptability: The core content – the ‘what’ – of the curriculum is stable, but we bring to life our own local context, and teachers adapt lessons – the ‘how’ – to meet the needs of their classes and our students.
- Representation: All students see themselves in our curriculum, and our curriculum takes all students beyond their immediate experience.
- Education with Character: Our curriculum - which includes the taught subject timetable as well as spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development, our co-curricular provision, and the ethos and ‘hidden curriculum’ of the school – is intended to spark curiosity and to nourish both the head and the heart.
At Central Academy we have an aspirational curriculum which is broad, balanced and dynamic. Our aim is to ignite within our students the self-belief to meet their potential. We want students to learn and to enjoy learning. We want students to think and to ask questions. Most importantly, we want students to achieve and feel proud of their success.
At Central Academy we follow a thirty-period two-week timetable, with 3 x 100-minute lessons each day. This enables us to have a balanced amount of curriculum time for English and Mathematics and maintain a wide range of subjects. In addition, there is a 35-minute tutor period between lesson two and three each day.
We pay particular attention to the core skills of English, Mathematics, and ICT; however, we are keen to ensure that students develop the essential skills and qualifications they need to reach their full potential. This means accelerating the more able students and giving extra support to those who need it. Our curriculum meets all the requirements of the National Curriculum and other statutory subjects. We ensure that students are aware of links between different key stages so they can take their knowledge and experience with them from one stage to another.
In Key Stage 3 all students follow the same wide range of subjects, before beginning their GCSE and Vocational courses in Year 10.