Curriculum Overview

As a minimum, every subject fulfils the requirement of the National Curriculum and underpinning our curriculum is our core principle, “Future Focus”. At every stage, from Year 7 to Year 13, our curriculum is planned and sequenced to build upon the knowledge and skills that students have secured, and to lead them towards the next steps in their development and education so that they can be happy, confident and successful in their future employment, and will contribute positively to the communities they live and work in. We achieve this through our four key curriculum aims: Prepare, Empower, Support, and Challenge. 

At the heart of our curriculum is the idea of relationships: relationships between different groups of people and individuals, relationships between concepts, relationships between language, numbers, events and processes.

Learning from the Past to Contribute to a Bright Future

Whilst consistently striving for a better future, we also benefit from learning about the past. Each subject curriculum has been planned to introduce students to the best that has been thought and said by the diverse writers, artists, mathematicians, scientists, designers, humanitarians, dreamers and thinkers who have shaped and changed our understanding of the world. By learning about influential and pioneering people who have advanced human knowledge and understanding across the curriculum, we aim to encourage students at Uplands Academy to be ambitious for excellence in all that they do.

As our school is located in a relatively small, rural community, we are particularly conscious of our responsibility to develop students’ worldview and their appreciation of the contributions of a wide range of people from around the world. There is, therefore, a strong thread of diversity, empathy and celebration of diverse cultures throughout the curriculum.

We have high expectations and ambitions for all of our learners, including those with special needs, and we aim to provide a suitable range of academic, technical and vocational options to meet the needs of every student. Our Key Stage 3 curriculum is taught for the full three years, meaning that every child at Uplands maintains the broadest possible curriculum for the longest possible time. During Year 9, students are provided with bespoke support and guidance to help them choose the subjects which are most appropriate for them in Key Stage 4. Through the Options process, we ensure that students maintain a broad and balanced curriculum whilst also supporting them in making personalised choices and ensuring that, where appropriate, students are encouraged to consider the EBACC as a way of preparing them for their future. 

Alongside our determination for students to achieve academic success as recognised in their qualifications, we expect our students to consistently demonstrate good manners, to be accepting of others, to be respectful and kind. Within each subject curriculum, we have identified where students will develop the personal attributes and skills that may not appear explicitly in examinations, but which we know to be desirable in participating positively in society including empathy, tolerance, communication, collaboration, leadership, resilience and critical thinking. 
 
Additionally, we have considered how each curriculum area contributes to students' understanding of British Values and how we can support them in exploring spiritual, moral, social and cultural aspects of humanity as they develop a sense of their own unique identity.  
 
Our Personal Development Curriculum has been carefully sequenced to enrich the subject curriculum by providing opportunities for students to learn about current events, mental health and wellbeing, classical and contemporary works of literature, dance and theatre, careers and national and international awareness events. The Personal Development Curriculum has been developed to introduce students to role models representing the protected characteristics in order to encourage them to celebrate diversity and develop empathy and compassion.

At the foundation of our curriculum are the fundamental skills that enable us to communicate effectively: reading, writing, oracy, and numeracy. We believe that reading fluently, writing accurately, speaking confidently and developing an understanding of number are fundamental human rights, and the key to happiness, confidence, and success. Students are encouraged to express their ideas using Standard English and all teachers contribute by modelling literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum.  

As teachers, we strive to ensure that all our students, regardless of their starting points, continually make progress, gain more knowledge, improve their skills and in turn, become more confident and successful by teaching high-quality lesson which have a clear purpose and strategies in place to engage and motivate our students.  
 
Through carefully assessing students' knowledge and skills, we identify any gaps they may have and plan future learning with the intention of ensuring students' gain the knowledge and understanding they need to progress further.  
 
By collaborating as a team of professionals, we support each other in creating consistency for our students. This helps students to feel secure, happy and confident. 

Using current educational research as our starting point, our curriculum has been carefully constructed by each department to ensure the knowledge and skills that students need for their future success are introduced, revisited, assessed, embedded and extended through clear explanations, skilful task-setting, targeted questioning and regular feedback.
 
All of our students are enabled, through the curriculum, to develop a rich understanding of British cultural heritage and the influences of other cultures to our core body of knowledge, as well as the fundamental British values which are embedded across the curriculum and explored regularly in Personal Development Time.

The curriculum documents on the website are regularly evaluated and improved by subject leaders. They provide an overview of what each child is learning at each stage of their education, including examples of the knowledge and skills they will acquire, as well as the essential vocabulary they will learn and the personal skills and attributes they will be encouraged to develop.

Please contact the relevant Head of Subject if you have any questions about the subject curriculum.

If you have any general questions regarding the curriculum, please contact the Deputy Headteacher, Mrs Richards, lrichards@uplands-academy.org