Knowledge. Ambition. Opportunity for every pupil. At MASL, the curriculum is the central driver of pupils’ learning, achievement and future life chances. It is rooted in a clear moral purpose: to ensure that all pupils, regardless of background or starting point, are entitled to an ambitious, knowledge-rich education that prepares them for future learning, qualifications and life beyond school. Serving a community with diverse talents, needs and experiences, our curriculum is intentionally designed to raise aspirations, widen opportunity and ensure that context does not limit ambition. Strong foundations in communication and language, reading, writing and mathematics are prioritised as essential enablers of success across all subjects, the workplace and adult life. The curriculum is built around strong, clearly defined subject disciplines. In every subject, leaders have identified the essential knowledge that pupils need to know and remember. This knowledge is carefully sequenced so that learning builds cumulatively over time, enabling pupils to secure, retain and apply what they have learned. Key transition points are deliberately planned so that pupils are well prepared for the next stage of education. At KS3 – all students study English, Maths, Science, Languages, History, Geography, Design Technology, Food, Art , Photography, RE, Personal Development, PE, Music , Computing and Drama Aspire Days are in place to give students memorable learning experiences At KS4 – all students study a core of English, English Lit, Maths, Double science and PE. They then have options in Drama, Music, Performing Arts, Triple Science, Geography, History, French, Spanish, Art, Photography, Textiles. Food, Design Technology, PE, Computing, Sociology and Health and Social Care.Curriculum offer
Our Curriculum is underpinned by the following 5 principles:
The curriculum is ambitious, broad and balanced, meeting statutory requirements and ensures every pupil is entitled to rich, subject-specific knowledge and enrichment experiences that prepares them for future learning, qualifications and life beyond school, regardless of starting point or background.
The curriculum is coherently planned and carefully sequenced, including at key transition points, so that pupils develop essential knowledge in the most effective way. This enables pupils to develop secure understanding, retain learning over time and prepares pupils for future study.
All pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils, those with SEND and others with known barriers to learning, experience inclusive, high-quality teaching that is designed to remove barriers while maintaining high expectations. Teaching is adapted thoughtfully so that all pupils can access, engage with and thriven within the full ambitious curriculum.
The curriculum prioritises strong foundations in communication and language, reading, writing and mathematics, recognising these as essential to pupils’ ability to access, understand and succeed across all subjects.
Assessment is purposeful and used to check understanding, identify misconceptions and inform responsive teaching. Feedback and adaptation ensure pupils are supported to keep up with the curriculum as it is taught, so learning is secured, strengthened and built upon over time
Core Curriculum
KS3
Our aim is that every student possible at the St Leonards Academy studies the full national curriculum including a modern foreign language (MFL) and a range of arts subjects, only specialising when students make their GCSE Options choices in Year 10.
Our key stage 3 curriculum offer is therefore broad and balanced with a dedicated 50% of allocated teaching time to the core subjects of English, maths and science and ensuring that each student can study 2 hours of MFL a week so that they graduate key stage 3 GCSE-ready and prepared for the rigorous study of our key stage 4 curriculum offer.
| Curriculum Area | Subject(s) | Allocated Teaching Time |
|---|---|---|
| English | English | 4 Hours Per Week |
| Mathematics | Mathematics | 4 Hours Per Week |
| Science | Biology Chemistry Physics | 3 Hours Per Week |
| Humanities | Geography | 2 Hours Per Week |
| Humanities | History | 2 Hours Per Week |
| Modern Foreign Languages | French Spanish | 2 Hours Per Week |
| Arts & Design Technology | Art | 1 Hour Per Week |
| Arts & Design Technology | Drama | 1 Hour Per Week |
| Arts & Design Technology | DT, Food and Textiles | 1 Hour Per Week |
| Arts & Design Technology | Music | 0.5 Hours Per Week |
| Physical Education | Physical Education | 2.5 Hours Per Week |
| Personal Development | Religion and Philosophy | 1 Hour Per Week |
| Personal Development | Personal Development | 1 Hour Per Week |
KS4
At key stage 4, students can specialist in three GCSE option subjects which include a range of academic, vocational and professional qualifications so that all students can study an ambitious curriculum connected to their goals and aims for the future. Like key stage 3, a significant portion of the curriculum is dedicated to the core subjects of English, maths and the sciences to recognise that these subjects are the foundations of all learning and the gateway subjects to many higher education courses, apprenticeships and careers.
| Curriculum Area | Subject(s) | Allocated Teaching Time |
|---|---|---|
| English | GCSE English Language GCSE English Literature | 4.5 Hours Per Week |
| Mathematics | GCSE Mathematics | 4.5 Hours Per Week |
| Combined Science | GCSE Combined Science | 4.5 Hours Per Week |
| Option Subject 1: Ebacc | GCSE Geography OR GCSE History OR GCSE French OR GCSE Spanish | 3 Hours Per Week |
| Option Subjects 2 & 3 | A second Ebacc subject OR GCSE Art GCSE Computer Science GCSE Design & Technology GCSE Drama GCSE Food Preparation & Nutrition GCSE Music GCSE Photography GCSE Physical Education GCSE Religious Studies GCSE Sociology GCSE Triple Science Tech Award Dance Tech Award Digital ICT OCR Sports Science | 3 Hours Per Week |
| Physical Education | Physical Education (Non-Examined) | 1 Hour Per Week |
| Personal Development | Personal Development (Non-Examined) | 1.5 Hours Per Week |
Clubs Curriculum
Alongside academic studies, our cultural curriculum includes a wide variety of clubs and enrichment activities before, during and after school as can be seen at the below link.
Cultural Curriculum
Cultural capital is defined as the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours and skills that a student can draw upon; it is one of the key ingredients a student will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work. At the St Leonards Academy we recognise that our students deserve to be given rich and varied opportunities to develop their cultural capital and we do this through our core curriculum, extra-curricular activities, trips, visits and careers activities. We recognise that there are six key areas of development that are interrelated and contribute to building a student’s cultural capital:
1. Personal Development: Students at the St Leonards Academy study a unique personal development curriculum that includes taught units on character education, safety, sex and relationships education, careers and healthy living. Outside of the classroom all students are given opportunities for careers advice and guidance (both in groups and one to one), encounters with business owners and employers, encounters with members of the local community such as the school nurse, local police officers and the fire brigade and learning about important concepts such as metacognition during their weekly assemblies.
2. Social Development: At the academy there are lots of opportunities for student to work together outside of the classroom and we have an extensive range of enrichment clubs, including student parliament, Duke of Edinburgh, pride club, chess club, coding club, culture club performing arts clubs etc. Issues around mental health are taught and discussed in tutor time and assemblies and there are mental health support groups that students can be signposted to if necessary. Every tutor group elects a tutor captain to represent them at the student parliament and each student is a member of one of our 5 ‘teams’ (Tweddle, Moore, Farah, Agbeze and Hoy) and can collect ‘team points’ for their team through exceptional effort or behaviour.
3. Physical Development: All students at ks3 have weekly lessons of physical education and food preparation and nutrition. The St Leonards Academy is well known locally for the broad range of extra curricular clubs we run. There are sports clubs running everyday after school, including futsal, table tennis, climbing, basketball, rugby and trampolining. In addition, the St Leonards Academy sports teams participate in a wide range of local competitions and tournaments, including football, basketball and netball leagues as well as rugby, rounders, cricket, table-tennis, gymnastics, dance and athletics competitions.
4. Spiritual Development: Students in years 7-9 have an hour a week of Religion and philosophy lessons and the curriculum covers a range of worldviews and faiths including Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. The subject is available as an option at KS4 and all students learn about religious festivals and practices during their weekly assemblies.
5. Moral Development: Several units of the religion and philosophy curriculum explicitly teach ethics and morality, while the personal development curriculum explores issues raised by human rights, sustainability, consent and living together in a community. Outside of the taught curriculum, the tutor time ‘theme of the week’ discussion gives students the opportunity to discuss things such as British values, democracy, mental health and current affairs while our character curriculum supports students to become better people through the development of five virtues.
6. Cultural Development: Heads of Faculty collaborate to design a programme of enrichment that combines cultural capital experiences, sports participation and rewards for our students. Examples include our cross-curricular enrichment opportunities such as English and history’s trips to the battlefields in France to support the study of WW1 history and WW1 poetry/ Journey’s End; science, technology, engineering and maths workshops organised by the maths and science faculty; and cultural experiences abroad to support students in their study of modern foreign language and geography. In addition, we run annual reward experiences for students with outstanding character values and attendance, and students who have made significant efforts to make progress. Examples include: reading intervention reward trips to Waterstones for our ks3 students and attendance reward cinema experiences.