Curriculum
Intent
The curriculum offer Kirk Hallam Academy intends to:
- Produce excellent Scholars who have a choice and ownership over the next stage of their career
- Ensure that all of our Scholars acquire knowledge and understanding of the world
- Develop Scholars who take PRIDE in themselves and their school
- Promote reading at every opportunity
Our curriculum is built to ensure excellence for everyone, every lesson, every day. We are unambiguously ambitious for all of our Scholars and have a built a knowledge rich curriculum that will enable all of them to own their futures. Our curriculum, aligned with effective and consistent routines, a clear method of teaching, effective resources and a strong culture mean that our community strives together for Excellence: No Excuses.
Kirk Hallam Academy’s improvement strategy is based upon our three Pillars of Excellence. These are based upon improving Culture, Academics and Reading. The creation of a new Curriculum is a key driver and the foundation upon which these pillars are built.
Construction and Implementation
Our curriculum was developed through a process of unpicking the learning required for Scholars to achieve strong results at the end of Year 11 and then working backwards to ensure that each sequence in learning allows Scholars to make Excellent progress.
The process for the construction of the curriculum is outlined below:
- Achievement Cycle Overview
National Curriculum documents and GCSE specifications used to create broad topics for teaching within each Achievement Cycle. Topics need to be clearly sequenced to allow for achievement. - Medium Term Planning
For each year group, subjects decide upon what specific things need teaching alongside pre-requisite knowledge/topics, core vocabulary and specific skills students should demonstrate. - Knowledge Organisers
The core knowledge for each learning cycle for each year group is to be created and shown on one sheet of paper. On the reverse, key vocabularly with etymology and linked words is to be created. - AC Assessments
75 marks worth of questions are to be planned which will test the students' understanding of core knowledge AND application within extended questions. These will be a mix of Foundation and Higher questions with some crossover. - Key Outcomes (week by week/section by section)
List the key outcomes that need to be covered with a clear understanding of sequencing. These can be shown weekly and/or sectionally depending upon the topic. These will be broken down for the affirmative checking sheet. - Knowledge Checking
Key concepts that need to be recalled each week in a set time within a lesson or homework-linked to key knowledge within the topic or to help recall of prior learning.
This model of constructions allows us to sequence learning on a macro scale and then zoom into key micro sequences, within a week, a set of lessons or even within a lesson. Developing this structure also closely aligns internal assessment to teaching to ensure that Scholars clearly understand what they will be assessed on and ensuring that they are only assessed upon what they have been taught. Our model is Data-Driven in that regular assessments are used to pick out what Scholars need to re-cover and teaching is adaptive to this.
The Academic year is split into 4 Achievement Cycles (AC) with 8 teaching weeks, assessments in all subjects and then a re-teach week (see below). Schemes of Learning are sequenced so that Scholars make progress across each AC which is then measured in effective assessments. Regular feedback opportunities, Checking for Understanding and low-stakes testing allow teachers to adapt lessons and resources to ensure all Scholars make progress. Where underperformance is identified, effective interventions ensure that learning gaps and misconceptions are fixed as soon as they become apparent. Each specific element of the Curriculum has a number allowing us to zoom in on specific knowledge, focus revision for Scholars and enable data to be used more effectively for teaching
The Academic Year (Assessment Overview)
Date | Week | Event | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
24/08/2020 | 1 | Staff INSET | Culture |
31/08/2020 | 2 | Staff and Student INSET | Academics |
07/09/2020 | 3 | Teaching Week 1 | Student INSET Mon–Tues |
14/09/2020 | 4 | Teaching Week 2 | |
21/09/2020 | 5 | Teaching Week 3 | |
28/09/2020 | 6 | Teaching Week 4 | |
05/10/2020 | 7 | Teaching Week 5 | |
12/10/2020 | 8 | Teaching Week 6 | |
19/10/2020 | 9 | Teaching Week 7 | |
26/10/2020 | — | HALF TERM | |
02/11/2020 | 10 | Teaching Week 8 + Assessment | |
09/11/2020 | 11 | Re-teach week |
Date | Week | Event | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
16/11/2020 | 12 | Teaching Week 1 | |
23/11/2020 | 13 | Teaching Week 2 | |
30/11/2020 | 14 | Teaching Week 3 | |
07/12/2020 | 15 | Teaching Week 4 | |
14/12/2020 | 16 | Achievement Days | Only Mon–Tues |
21/12/2020 | — | CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY | |
28/12/2020 | — | CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY | |
04/01/2021 | 17 | Teaching Week 5 | |
11/01/2021 | 18 | Teaching Week 6 | |
18/01/2021 | 19 | Teaching Week 7 | |
25/01/2021 | 20 | Teaching Week 8 | |
01/02/2021 | 21 | Teaching Week 9 | |
08/02/2021 | 22 | Teaching Week 10 | |
15/02/2021 | — | HALF TERM |
Date | Week | Event | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
22/02/2021 | 23 | Teaching Week 1 | |
01/03/2021 | 24 | Teaching Week 2 | |
08/03/2021 | 25 | Teaching Week 3 | |
15/03/2021 | 26 | Teaching Week 4 | |
22/03/2021 | 27 | Teaching Week 5 | |
29/03/2021 | — | EASTER HOLIDAY | |
05/04/2021 | — | EASTER HOLIDAY | |
12/04/2021 | 28 | Teaching Week 6 | |
19/04/2021 | 29 | Teaching Week 7 | |
26/04/2021 | 30 | Teaching Week 8 + Assessment | |
03/05/2021 | 31 | Re-teach Week |
Date | Week | Event | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
10/05/2021 | 32 | Teaching Week 1 | |
17/05/2021 | 33 | Teaching Week 2 | |
24/05/2021 | 34 | Teaching Week 3 | |
31/05/2021 | — | HALF TERM | |
07/06/2021 | 35 | Teaching Week 4 | |
14/06/2021 | 36 | Teaching Week 5 | |
21/06/2021 | 37 | Teaching Week 6 | |
28/06/2021 | 38 | Teaching Week 7 | |
05/07/2021 | 39 | Teaching Week 8 + Assessment | |
12/07/2021 | 40 | Re-teach Week | Sports Day |
19/07/2021 | 41 | Achievement Days | Only Mon–Tues |
Knowledge Organisers, Assessment and Re-teach
Knowledge Organisers (KOs) are created for every subject at the start of each Assessment Cycle and distributed to Scholars. These are used for Retrieval practice every lesson through the Do Now and form a key part of the weekly teaching and assessment process.
All KOs also contain the key vocabulary needed for the AC as well as the etymology for each word and examples of its use. This ties in to the whole school reading strategy, one of our key improvement pillars.
Learning and knowledge retention within each Achievement Cycle is assessed through a 50 mark test with a mix of 35 knowledge based Multiple Choice Questions and 15 marks of application based questions. Through these the understanding of each Scholar can be identified and re-teaching then is focussed on gap filling as required.
Each test is rigorous and each question is designed to assess Scholar’s understanding of a specific concept as identified in the Curriculum planning documents. For example, each Multiple Choice Question contains 4 options, a correct, a misdirect and 2 wrong answers. The misdirects are designs to pick out key misconceptions which are a key part of our planning and instructional process.
After each test, a question by question analysis is produced for all Scholars. This is used by teachers, Curriculum areas, SLT and Scholars to pinpoint areas of weakness, replan the AC and ensure gaps are filled before Scholars reach terminal assessments.
Structure and Organisation in Years 7–11
Lessons at Kirk Hallam Academy last for an hour and have a clear structure as outlined below:
- Four-minute Do Now based upon knowledge retrieval
- Direct Instruction using Dual Coding where appropriate
- Guided Instruction
- Independent Practise
- Four-minute minute Exit Ticket which is taken in, assessed and used to forward plan
Kirk Hallam Academy operates an extended school day (as below) with a later start on a Monday and an early finish on a Friday. On Fridays, all staff had a dedicated PD session, Data Driven Action Planning and department based knowledge enhancement sessions.
Monday | Tuesday–Thursday | Friday | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Years 7–9 | Years 10–11 | Years 7–9 | Years 10–11 | Years 7–9 | Years 10–11 |
— | — | 8.30–9.00am (Tutor) | — | — | |
9.00–10.00am (Tutor–Folder Support Y7–10, P1 Y11) | 9.00–10.00am (P1) | 8.30–9.30am (P1) | |||
10.00–11.00am (P2) | 10.00–11.00am (P2) | 9.30–10.30am (P2) | |||
11.00–11.15am (Break) | 11.00–11.15am (Break) | 10.30–10.45am (Break) | |||
11.15am–12.15pm (P3) | 11.15am–12.15pm (P3) | 10.45–11.45am (P3) | |||
12.15–12.50pm (Lunch) | 12.15–1.15pm (P4) | 12.15–12.50pm (Lunch) | 12.15–1.15pm (P4) | 11.45am–12.20pm (Lunch) | 11.45am–12.45pm (P4) |
12.50–1.50pm (P4) | 1.15–1.50pm (Lunch) | 12.50–1.50pm (P4) | 1.15–1.50pm (Lunch) | 12.20–1.20pm (P4) | 12.45–1.20pm (Lunch) |
1.50–2.50pm (P5) | 1.50–2.50pm (P5) | 1.20–1.50pm (Tutor – Paycheck) | |||
2.50–3.50pm (P6 – Culture) | 2.50–3.50pm (P6 – Culture) | — | — |
The school day is split into distinct sessions with set sessions for Reading (Tuesday–Thursday 8.30–9.00am), Core lessons and the extended Culture slot (Monday–Thursday 2.50–3.50pm). Kirk Hallam also begins the week with a Folder Support and revision session and ends the week with a Paycheck session where Scholars can review their week and set targets moving forward.
Lesson Allocation
Kirk Hallam operates a three-year Key Stage 3, with Scholars opting for a wide variety of subjects to study further at Key Stage 4. The school operates a weekly timetable and the allocation for each subject is outlined below. Some of these sessions take place in Core learning time and others as part of the Culture session.
Key Stage 3 (ICT operates with Technology)
Subject | English | Maths | Science | Humanities | Languages | Art | PA | PE | Technology | Music |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Periods | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Year 10 (Core)
Subject | English | Maths | Science | PE |
---|---|---|---|---|
Periods | 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
Year 10 (Options)
Three hours per week of the following subjects in three option blocks. French, Computer Science, Business Studies, History, Geography, iMedia, Philosophy, Music, Animal Care, Technology, Sport (GCSE and OCR National), Food Technology, Psychology, Sociology, Art, Health and Social Care and Child Development.
Year 11 (Core)
Subject | English | Maths | Science |
---|---|---|---|
Periods | 5 | 5 | 5 |
Year 11 (Options)
Three hours per week of the following subjects in three option blocks. German, Computer Science, Business Studies, History, Geography, Textiles, Philosophy, Music, Animal Care, Technology, Sport (OCR National), Food Technology, Dance, Art, Health and Social Care and Child Development.
Latest News
- Food Bank Donations
Thank-you (Whole School - 15/12/2020) - Year 6 Open Evening - Virtual Event
Tuesday 29th September 2020, 18:00 (Whole School - 16/09/2020) - Update letter
Message from Mr Belshaw about our first 2 days (Whole School - 07/09/2020) - English Creative Writing Competition
Have you ever wanted to see your creative writing published? (English - 03/06/2020) - Introducing the new Head of School
A message from the new Head looking to the future for Kirk Hallam Academy (Whole School - 23/05/2020)