Curriculum Intent

At Shrewsbury Academy, we strive to engender an infectious, lifelong, enthusiasm for learning and personal growth. We seek to nurture young people with a strong sense of self-worth and belonging so that they can develop into confident and successful adults, in an ever-changing world. Our curriculum encompasses high quality, adaptive teaching, with high aspiration and ambition, where global citizens are grown for the future, so they can flourish in a world full of opportunities.

We want to engage students and staff by offering a range of opportunities and experiences that lead to the highest standards of achievement and mastery of key skills.

We expect our students and staff to:

• Appreciate the value of powerful knowledge.

• Develop qualities of independence, adaptability and creativity.

• Approach situations with positivity and a solution-based mindset.

• Be inspired to learn and to continue learning.

• Understand and demonstrate emotional intelligence and collaborate effectively.

• Be respectful, determined, dedicated and disciplined in the drive to achieve excellence.

• Be socially, morally, spiritually and culturally aware.

• Work collaboratively and celebrate learning together, through strong communication, thinking skills and self-regulation.

• Have access to expected entitlement, through universal offer.

We love what we do.

Our Vision and values are central to our curriculum and our pledge is that all students will have the opportunity to access a broad range of skills and experiences during their time here at Shrewsbury Academy. Our subject specialists have carefully structured the curriculum to take students on a journey through Year 7 to Year 11, preparing them for further education or employment and to become valuable and positive members of a global community.

Shrewsbury Academy cultivates close relationships with our feeder schools, so that the knowledge students bring from their primary learning is used to garner developed interest in learning at a secondary level. We foster a collaborative approach so that knowledge and understanding is developed and embedded over time, enabling students’ working memory and subject knowledge to evolve, using substantive and disciplinary knowledge. Students study a broad and balanced curriculum that meets the needs of all groups of learners, allowing them to feel challenged and where they can strive for excellence. We believe that students should access a full range of academic, creative and expressive subjects.

Our suite of subjects for study at GCSE is broad, with a strong academic core in the EBacc subjects. Each subject has a clear rationale for its curriculum plan, and a coherent and detailed sequence of work, with integrated assessment points, that build towards final examinations.We have also developed a Curriculum that encompasses elements of Personal Development,

PSHE and Careers which is supported by accredited resources that have been interwoven into our delivery, focusing on aspects such as spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development and British values.

Over the last two years, we have re-structured the options programme so that it continues to deliver high academic ambition, while enabling opportunities to choose modern, foreign languages, as well more traditional academic GCSE subjects. Alongside this, we also offer a creative suite of subjects that include I-media, Photography, Art, Textiles, Dance and Drama.

Curriculum Implementation

We place an emphasis on the mastery of knowledge. By using strategies such as inter-leaving, spacing and metacognition, we ensure key concepts and skills are embedded into students’ long- term memory, to be recalled and applied fluently when required. These aspects are beginning to be evidenced in rapidly improving outcomes in attainment and progress for our students. All departments at Shrewsbury Academy use TLAC strategies, checking for understanding, rigour, ratio, and a climate of learning, in their subject areas to promote positive outcomes for students.

We also provide curriculum support for some students, such as those with specific SEND needs or issues around inclusion. This can include extended work-based learning and small group literacy, numeracy groups and study support with our SEND team. In addition to address SEMH or improve transition from primary school, students can access a nurture pathway that includes forest school, and other supportive measures designed to improve wellbeing and drive a feeling of belonging and success within our school community.

Regular feedback, using a range of techniques, is timely and formative and is valued as a vehicle for developing positive relationships and ambition in learning, alongside identifying misconceptions and informing the teacher of next steps for students. Regular assessments identify when learning is secure, and inform when teaching can move on, thereby connecting prior, present and future learning, preparing our students for a future in which they can thrive.