Curriculum Overview

As part of United Learning our curriculum is based on these key principles:

• Entitlement: All students have the right to learn what is in the United Learning curriculum and our curriculum at The Hyndburn Academy offers a breadth of learning to all.
• Coherence: Taking the National Curriculum as its starting point, our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that powerful knowledge builds term by term and year by year. We make meaningful connections within subjects and between subjects.
• Mastery: We ensure that foundational knowledge, skills, and concepts are secure before moving on. Students revisit prior learning and apply their understanding in new contexts. 
• Adaptability: The core content – the ‘what’ – of the curriculum is stable, but we bring to life our own local context, and teachers adapt lessons – the ‘how’ – to meet the needs of their classes and our students.
• Representation: All students see themselves in our curriculum, and our curriculum takes all students beyond their immediate experience.
• Education with Character: Our curriculum - which includes the taught subject timetable as well as spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development, our co-curricular provision, and the ethos and ‘hidden curriculum’ of the school – is intended to spark curiosity and to nourish both the head and the heart.

Our intention from a strategic level is to provide a curriculum which:

• Creates an aspirational culture within the school and prepares students for further education,
• Provides opportunities and experiences for all students, regardless of current ability or prior learning, to achieve success and levels of mastery,
• Raises standards of attainment and progress each year.

We are committed to developing the potential of all our learners, irrespective of background or disadvantage and we provide opportunities for all students, including those with SEND to experience mastery.

The intended impact of our curriculum is to produce students that have developed long term learning that is consolidated and prepares them fully for their next steps. We want to produce lifelong learners that have the skills to be adaptable and prepared for careers that exist both now and in the future.

As part of our commitment to being compliant and considered for all our students, we ensure that our curriculum advances the equality of opportunity protected by the 9 characteristics of the Equality Act (2010). We aim to celebrate the best in everyone and for our curriculum to represent the diversity of the communities that we serve, and, in doing so, who we are as a nation. Our framework for excellence includes our commitment to the development of powerful knowledge including the concepts and ideas that form the bedrock of their understanding of the world. Our subjects are driven by the pursuit of truth; exposing students to concepts, skills, ideas, people and places that they may otherwise not encounter. A commitment to honesty and accuracy ensures our curriculum serves our students for the rest of their lives. By exposing students to this knowledge, we are supporting them as individuals, and society as a whole, to grow and flourish.

Our aim is to provide an excellent education for all our students; an education that brings out the best in all of them and prepares them for success in life.  Our curriculum is designed to provide children with the core knowledge they need for success in education and later life, to maximise their cognitive development, to develop the whole person and the talents of the individual and to allow all children to become active and economically self-sufficient citizens. By teaching our curriculum well we develop students’ cultural capital: “the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.” (DFE National Curriculum, 2014).

Our curriculum is designed to be diverse, inclusive, stimulating, and taught in a safe environment which enhances the learning potential of all students to develop their knowledge, skills, and understanding. Our curriculum prepares students for the next phases of their education, training and employment opportunities. We aim to raise the aspirations and expectations of all of our students, including those with SEND, as part of our commitment to ensuring that we comply with the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations (2014). 

Key Stage 3 introduces students to a broad, balanced curriculum. Students study a wide range of core and common curriculum subjects. Through our 3-year Key Stage 3, the curriculum is designed to introduce, develop and prepare students for mastery in a wide range of subjects. Students have the opportunity to experience the time and space needed to build a secure understanding over time. We believe this fully prepares students to flourish when studying their individual options at Key Stage 4. Key Stage 3 students participate in a daily reading and literacy intervention session of DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) as part of their morning registration. This early intervention program supports students to fully develop the required reading skills to fully access the whole curriculum.

At The Hyndburn Academy, all students follow a common curriculum within Key Stage 3. This supports students to develop their breadth of skills and knowledge. Supported by United Learning, we have tailored the curriculum package recommended to the requirements of our students and to fully reflect the students that we teach here at The Hyndburn Academy.

How many lessons will my child be taught?

In year 9 students have a curriculum that includes an increased period of learning devoted to religious education each week. This allows students to develop their understanding of the key topics and concepts covered in Religious Education in preparation for students studying this as a GCSE course in year 10.

How many lessons will my child be taught?

Entering key stage 4, students are provided with pathways that support and guide their individual abilities. The options process permits students to make their own personal choices. Students use this process to tailor their personal suite of subjects to develop the suite of skills, knowledge and understanding they require for their future learning needs and career of choice.

The options process, ‘Guided Choices’ takes place in the Spring Term. 

In Key Stage 4 students at The Hyndburn Academy follow a curriculum consisting of a number of core subjects complimented by a suite of options from which students tailor their personal curriculum.

How many lessons will my child be taught?

Students are targeted for intervention as part of our extra-curricular package. Students attend directed intervention either in the morning or after school during period 4. These targeted sessions support students to extend and master their learning.

The intervention timetable is regularly updated and circulated to students and their parents/carers. Students and their parents/carers are notified of the intervention sessions that they are required to attend and the duration for which these sessions will last.

At The Hyndburn Academy we recognise that the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of students plays a significant part in their ability to learn and achieve. Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Education (SMSC) is delivered in all curriculum areas and in every aspect of Academy life.

SMSC Education is broadly split into four areas: 

Spiritual: exploring beliefs and experiences; respecting values; discovering oneself and the surrounding world; using imagination and creativity; reflection.

Moral: recognising right and wrong; understanding consequences; investigating moral and ethical issues; offering reasoned views. 

Social: using social skills in different contexts; working well with others; resolving conflicts; understanding how communities work.

Cultural: appreciating cultural influences; participating in cultural opportunities; understanding, accepting, respecting and celebrating diversity. 

The Hyndburn Academy promotes SMSC development of our students through a variety of ways including:

•  the provision of a broadly balanced and rich curriculum. Within this, teachers strive to promote opportunities whereby students are encouraged to engage with the wider world, and consider and question their place within it,
• the delivery of a Personal Development Days six times a year.
• a varied assembly and weekly thought for the Week programme through which teachers and visitors discuss topics that help students reflect upon themes that are important in the wider world today,
• an extensive extra-curricular programme that includes sporting, academic, musical and cultural opportunities.

Entering key stage 4, students are provided with pathways that support and guide their individual abilities.

The options process permits students to make their own personal choices. Students use this process to tailor their personal suite of subjects to develop the suite of skills, knowledge and understanding they require for their future learning needs and career of choice.

The options process takes place in the Spring Term. 

EBacc Pathway

The EBacc pathway directs students towards selecting more academic courses in option blocks A and B. Students following this pathway are provided the opportunity to select Geography and History in option block A and  Spanish in block B.  In option blocks C, the students on this pathway are offered the same options as those students on the open pathway to provide them a good breadth of choice.

Open Pathway

In the Open pathway students can fully access the EBacc options of History, Geography and Modern Foreign Languages, whilst also having access to the more vocational courses. These students have full access to the options in blocks B and C to give them a good breadth of choice and enable them to tailor their choices to their skills and aspirations.

Guided Pathway

A small, selected group of students are provided with the Guided Pathway. This pathway ensures that students access courses that we believe will support them to make good progress and achieve success. They are presented with a curriculum that is fully accessible. Students on this route do not study a full suite of options, instead they are guided to access courses more suitable to their ability range. In this pathway students are provided with Travel and Tourism in option block A and Health and Social Care in option block B. In option block C students can access the full range of courses in block C. 

At The Hyndburn Academy we provide options that are tailored to suit the needs and requirements of our students; a curriculum that provides them with the best options moving forwards into the next stages of their education and careers. We will continue to review the effectiveness of our curriculum and tailor our options package to the benefit of our students. As we continue to evaluate our curriculum offer, it is our intention to continue to grow our suite and introduce further options to provide as broad and balanced a curriculum as possible.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss any aspect of The Hyndburn Academy curriculum, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Delve, Assistant Head Teacher. 

United Learning Pupil Facing Curriculum

Seneca Learning

Sparx Maths

Bedrock Learning