Our vision for our curriculum centres on delivering an authentic education that is engaging and deepens understanding, and results in high levels of achievement as well as preparing students for an ever changing world.
The aim of our curriculum is to ensure that all students are inspired with a passion for learning and achieve high levels of academic success, in a broad range of subjects, whilst at the same time equipping them with the knowledge and power skills required to play an active and successful role in today’s highly competitive and ever-changing world.
The values that underpin the curriculum delivered at Wykham Park Academy are to provide an authentic and immersive education for the world today, with core knowledge as the critical foundation, so that all students can build upon their understanding and excel as they move throughout their time with us. To this end, the curriculum allows for the development of the knowledge, skills and qualifications required for progression to the next stage of the journey – be that choosing options subjects, equipping students for the rigour of Sixth Form study, or the transition into higher education.
Additionally, all Wykham Park Academy students learn in a challenging, engaging and supportive environment through a well-thought-out curriculum, which encourages creativity, celebrates diversity and utilises the knowledge, skills and cultural experiences of the local community.
At Wykham Park Academy, all staff consider curriculum at three levels. The first is the intended curriculum – what we intend students to learn. Subject specialists at Wykham Park set out this detail meticulously, drawing on academic knowledge, the national curriculum and experience of what is necessary to flourish in their discipline. The second level is the implemented curriculum; this includes the effective delivery of the curriculum in classrooms, and the tools or resources teachers use to deliver the curriculum.
An example of these excellent resources are the booklets used in English to support students with the quality of their reading and writing, and the Sparx online tool used in Maths. Finally, we emphasise the importance of the impact of the curriculum, where our highly skilled teachers assess students knowledge and skills effectively. They gather information on how well students have learnt the curriculum, and then adapt their curriculum accordingly to challenge students, support them and ensure they make progress.
Wykham Park Academy has considered the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are required to achieve academic excellence in each subject. Deep learning must be a goal of the curriculum, with students able to retain and transfer learning.
For this to occur adequate time on topics must be mapped out to achieve genuine accumulation of learning. We plan for mastery over time, providing repetition and revision for deeper understanding, so knowledge is retained and not forgotten. Our students need an explanation of why they are covering this topic now, how it connects with what they have done before and how it connects with what will come later.
The curriculum at Wykham Park Academy is grounded in the strongest evidence about how students learn and retain knowledge in the long term – focusing in particular on research from cognitive science. Cognitive science suggests that students ought to learn the concepts that come up repeatedly – the unifying ideas of each discipline.
We are confident that this approach offers a truly ambitious, broad and balanced curriculum to all students. We believe that this will inspire students to go on and excel in their chosen field, providing the widest range of opportunities for their future.