Curriculum Overview

The power of our inclusive curriculum rests in our determination that all children enjoy a wide range of subjects and experiences. For young people attending our alternative provision we provide an accessible and enjoyable educational experience that ensures academic success, develops life-long skills, and offers rich experience. Our Outwood education supports every child and young person to grow as well-rounded and responsible citizens who can fulfil their potential and ability to play a positive role in society.

Across our curriculum each year is designed to build to the next. Curricula planning focuses core and subject content knowledge and skills to aid students’ knowledge recall, build their subject fluency and deepen their understanding. Expert curricula planning across all subjects as well as wider curricula aspects such as Relationship, Sex and Health Education, Fundamental British Values etc ensures we clearly define what children learn across each year and throughout their time at our academy. Our knowledge rich curriculum supports our students to access their next steps in education at every level as we believe the longer one continues in education and/or training the greater the reward in health, happiness and social mobility.

Our ambitious curriculum matches the demands of the National Curriculum at each stage so that our students can meet and exceed age related national expectations. Across our curriculum we clearly map our expectation of the rich knowledge and understanding that is required in each subject. Our teachers effectively adapt schemes of learning to meet the needs of students in their classes. Across the wide range of subjects offered we robustly plan our progressive delivery to best secure our students learning and academic achievement.

We know that a great school is only sustainable within a happy and healthy community and that we must all work together to tackle the causes of under-acheivement and disadvantage. We work hard to ensure that our drive for improvement and the curriculum we offer is rooted in our community and our aim to be an inclusive alternative provision in the heart of our communities where all children are cared for and where standards are raised and lives transformed.

The high-quality education experience we provide is empowered by our ambitious, knowledge rich curriculum that enables all children and young people to achieve well. We aim through our curriculum to narrow gaps in achievement for all student groups, enable access and prepare our children and young people well for their future steps. Our curriculum aims to support our students’ learning to flourish by:

1. Fostering an inclusive culture of responsibility, respect and safety with an ethos of praise, pride and purpose.
2. Providing excellent teaching across a broad and balanced range of subjects to engage our learners.
3. Promoting mental wellbeing encouraging positive relationships and acceptance.
4. Encouraging healthy lifestyle choices, self-regulation and personal accountability.
5. Appreciating diversity and difference and valuing tolerance, democracy, liberty and law.
6. Recognising issues that affect our world and acknowledging actions that can be taken.
7. Supporting students' ambitions, and interests to open future study and career pathways.

The work of our academy Trust was recognised by the Minister of State (Education):

Similarly, we can look at the work of leading multi-academy trusts such as Outwood Grange Academies Trust, which time after time radically improves schools that have had a long history of entrenched failure. That MAT provides long neglected communities in this country with the transformational education that they need.

We foster a welcoming culture of safety, responsibility and respect teaching students these values to secure a positive climate where all members of our school community feel safe, comfortable, and accepted. We believe our students are more able to do well and achieve their full potential when they experience this positive supportive climate. Within this climate all relationships are founded in mutual acceptance and inclusion. This is modelled by all so that our culture of respect becomes the norm and our ethos of praise, pride and purpose allows students' learning to flourish. These values are built into our wider curriculum delivery.

Across each phase, our curriculum is designed to be broad and ambitious reflecting national curriculum and qualification expectations. Our provision enables students to hone their literacy and numeracy skills; deepen their subject study and support their personal growth across their schooling. Our well sequenced schemes of work clearly identify what students should know and be able to do by the end of each unit, term, year and stage in preparation for their next steps. Assessment is used to address gaps in students’ knowledge and understanding to best secure key concepts, core knowledge and skills to move students’ learning forward.

Our curriculum design ensures it best meets the needs of our students and supports the social and economic priorities of our locality. We build local interest into subject topics and promote relevant focuses and issues that reflect our aims.

Outwood believes sustainability is now an essential natural part of 21st century education. Our Trust strives to act in an ethical, transparent and responsible way and we provide local and Trust wide events to highlight issues and engage our students in considering and responding to our shared future practice.