Our Curriculum

Curriculum Intent

Our curriculum builds resilient learners with the knowledge, understanding and skills to be responsible and effective members of the community locally and globally. Learners are encouraged to ‘Dream Big’, celebrate diversity, cultural heritage and the different languages spoken in our Academy. It aims to develop learner’s cultural capital to successfully expose them to a wide variety of social contexts and encourages a love for culture, this further enhances and shows appreciation to the multicultural nature of the Academy. The overarching aim being to equip our learners with the knowledge and skills needed to enter the workplace and be active citizens. Local market Intelligence analysis enables us to make informed decisions in respect to the subjects we offer. This active approach provides an environment where any barriers to learning are actively removed in relation to combat issues raised by the local context of the Academy and particularly in relation to our disadvantaged learners and learners with additional needs.”

As a small school it is important we have a well-constructed curriculum, tailored to meet the needs of our learners and address social disadvantage on many levels. Our curriculum offer is adapted to meet individual needs where appropriate whilst retaining its breadth and therefore offers a range of pathways, which we believe broaden rather than narrow the offer at different points during the five-year journey. The key aims for our curriculum are as follows:

An Ambitious Curriculum:

that is knowledge rich, delivered by subject specialists that introduces pupils to ideas and concepts beyond the walls of the classroom.
Is sequenced to ensure that pupils are maximising their potential to build upon their knowledge and skills over time.
Is broad and balanced that enables learners to study a strong academic core of subjects and high academic and technical/vocational offer.
provides deep, sustained and valuable learning for all pupils, including those with SEND

Promotes Achievement for All by:

providing deep, sustained and valuable learning for all pupils, including those with SEND
developing memory recall to equip learners with factual knowledge required to engage with composite activities. Gives equal entitlement through a challenging and ambitious curriculum for all learners regardless of background of staring points.
providing opportunities to develop levels of literacy, oracy and numeracy across all curricular areas building their awareness of the world around them, with wide ranging experiences across a range of contexts. This is will be essential to overcome social disadvantage and remove the barriers our pupils face.
providing a range of academic, technical and vocational courses which challenge, engage and motivate pupils
ensuring that all pupils have the opportunity to make good progress irrespective of their background or starting points

Encourages Personal Development through:

promoting opportunities across the curriculum for the development of good student health and well-being.
promoting Character and Leadership skills
ensuring ‘Respect for all’ groups of people in society and across the world
developing understanding of the Rule of Law, Democracy and Tolerance.
creating Responsible citizens who have an awareness of social and global issues and are able to make a positive contribution to society.
ensuring that learners build their cultural capital and experiences for a greater understanding of the world, which will prepare them for life in multi-cultural Britain.

Every Lesson Expectations

Our every lesson expectations approach to learning are not just a checklist of things a teacher must do. They are the basis of all learning at Pegasus Academy. Our principles are founded on the belief that every learner, regardless of background or educational need, should experience high academic challenge. These include clear sequencing and modelling to help learners understand difficult concepts, ongoing opportunities for the checking of learning over time, high level questioning and giving learners the tools and time to practice and embed new learning.

The Key Stage 3 Curriculum (Years 7 - 9)

In years 7 to 9 all learners have access to an engaging, broad and balanced curriculum covering all subjects of the national curriculum and with a strong focus on numeracy and reading comprehension which are the foundations for highly effective learning in future years. This curriculum is tailored to meet the needs of all with some learners receiving additional support through phonics intervention, Lexia program support reading, writing and speaking. Tutor time is planned effectively to further enhance opportunities to develop learners reading for please, numeracy and personal development.

The curriculum has a high focus on the science of learning through our Every Lesson Expectations offering opportunities for development of reading comprehension strategies, retrieval, high quality feedback and collaborative learning approaches where appropriate.

The impact of collaborative approaches on learning is consistently positive. Learners sit in mixed-ability groups of four and work together to solve problems and work out answers. Effective Collaborative Learning requires much more than just sitting pupils together and asking them to work in a group; the lesson is carefully structured by the teacher, with well-designed tasks that lead to the greatest learning gains.

One of the many advantages of a broad and balanced curriculum for Years 7, 8 and 9 is that our learners benefit from an extra year before selecting the option subjects that they will study at GCSE. Learners are also supported with first-class careers advice and guidance in order to help them make their option choices.

Year 9 is a vitally important pivotal year in which the Character Education Programme is introduced. This programme has been designed to develop learners’ communication skills and thus prepare them for studying at GCSE level and their future careers.

Subject	Number of Hours at KS3 per week	Curriculum Team Leader
English	4	Mrs C Corns
Mathematics	4	Mr W Duckworth
Science	3	Mrs R Rathbone
History	2	Mr M Sissons
Geography	2	Mrs S Taylor
French	2	Mrs S Harding
Performing Arts	1	Mr T Simpson
Music	1	Mr T Simpson
Art Design and Technology	2	Mr S Sharp (ASL)
Computing	1	Mr S Sharp (ASL)
Religious Studies	1	Mr M Sissons
Physical Education	2	MS S Hammett
Personal Development*	1	Mrs D Glazzard

*Personal Development is taught on a rolling programme of lessons throughout the course of the academic year.

The Key Stage 4 Curriculum (Years 10 & 11)

Key Stage 4 begins at the start of Year 10 and we offer a wide range of subjects at GCSE/BTEC or Cambridge National levels which allows learners to access technical qualifications alongside the more traditional GCSE’s.

Learners study English Language, English Literature and Mathematics. We also offer both GCSE Combined Science and Separate Sciences. Most of our learners choose either History or Geography and then a further two option choices from a wide variety of courses on offer. The vast majority of learners complete Key Stage 4 with 8 GCSEs or equivalent qualifications. Talented linguists are encouraged to choose French alongside their other courses

Extra Sessions in Year 11

During any learner's time at Secondary School, Year 11 is undoubtedly the most difficult and most stressful year, as it is when they must put everything they have learned so far into practice in their GCSE Exams.

We run lots of revision sessions throughout the year which are delivered by our dedicated subject specialist teachers. These sessions are part of the Dudley Academies Trust ‘Upgrade Mission’ and include extra lessons 3 days a week (Period 6), as well as optional revision sessions on weekends and during the school holidays.

We are proud of our curriculum offer which, when combined with high quality teaching and learning, enables all of our learners to flourish.

Subject	Number of Hours at KS3 per week
English	5
Mathematics	5
Science	5
Option A History or Geography	3
Option B	3
Option C	3
Physical Education	1
Personal Development*	1

For more information about any part of the curriculum, please contact us.