Curriculum Overview

At Dene Academy, we believe that every child is unique and aim for all pupils to achieve their full potential and maximise their talents. We provide high quality teaching and learning within a knowledge rich curriculum, which supports children’s individual needs.

Our curriculum is:

• Ambitious for all students
• Coherently planned and knowledge rich
• Broad, deep and relevant

Our aim is that all children should leave the school as highly qualified, self-reliant young adults. We are deeply dedicated to ensuring that our children have a rich and successful experience and we believe in equipping them with the skills, knowledge and confidence for the future.

Intent

Our intent is to ensure that all students make outstanding progress with their curriculum. We aim to remove any barriers that may affect their learning. The curriculum is a progression model that ensures students incrementally gain deep knowledge and skills that are fundamental to each subject.

Through the curriculum, there is strong emphasis on developing:

• Happiness, resilience, lifelong learning and achieving personal excellence
• Confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives
• Responsible, respectful citizens who make positive contributions to society and demonstrate integrity
• An understanding of ‘British Values’ and the implications for life in modern day Britain
• Students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural learning
• Aspirations and an understanding, through the careers programme, of the opportunities available to students once they leave school

Implementation

School implementation is underpinned by the following principles:

• Our curriculum meets and exceeds the demands of the National Curriculum. Students will study a broad, rich and deep curriculum maintaining the opportunity to study a breadth of subjects at both Key Stage 3 and 4
• High quality lessons are delivered by skilled practitioners with excellent subject knowledge, logically sequenced to ensure a deep understanding of subject matter addressing any misconceptions
• Knowledge is scaffolded with new learning building on the strong foundations of previous knowledge. This is achieved through careful curriculum planning
• Assessment practice is purposeful.  Assessment is skilfully planned to enable pupils to recall and retrieve previous learning. This is so that knowledge and skills can be gained, retained and committed to long-term memory
• The development of ‘Communications’ is the remit of all subjects
• Emphasis is placed on personal development, wellbeing, rewards and a dedicated enrichment program, with student leadership as a core foundation to develop cultural capital
• The ‘British values’ of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect of those with different faiths and beliefs are taught explicitly and then lived and experienced through the life of the school
• Social, Moral, Spiritual, and Cultural (SMSC), Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) Personal, Social, Health and Economic and (PSHE) are embedded into pastoral and curriculum programmes

The teaching of all subjects within the curriculum is fully compliant with our duties under the Equality Act 2010 and Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 as exemplified in the Dene Equality and Diversity statement and objectives, the Academy SEND Policy and reported through the SEND Information Report.

The curriculum structure is shown below

The curriculum is structured around a two-year Key Stage 4, this is a deliberate action to enable students to access a wider curriculum at greater depth.

We would love to talk to you more about our curriculum.  If you have, any further questions or queries then do not hesitate to contact Miss Feetham using enquiries@deneacademy.org.uk