Our approach to learning

In order to achieve the Academy Vision Key Curriculum Principles include:

• A Curriculum for ALL (No one left behind)
• Knowledge-rich (sequence clearly articulated)
• Ambitious (with a focus on Teaching to the Top)
• Emphasis on long term memory and recall

In our school we pride ourselves on a curriculum that is accessible to all. This means at Key Stage 3 students have access to a broad and balanced curriculum that develop their resilience, communication and creativity, alongside their knowledge and understanding of key subjects such as English, maths and science. The curriculum at WWEA meets the requirements of the national curriculum offer. Students are not defined by their key stage 2 score, they make informed choices (following conversations around careers and drawing on their own subject strengths) to select courses that they would like to study at Key Stage 4 and key stage 5.

At west Walsall E-ACT Academy we ensure all students follow a knowledge-rich curriculum. We believe ‘knowledge is power’. Each subject is content rich, Topics are carefully selected for students to study across Key Stage 3 & Key Stage 4 and into key stage 5. knowledge is sequential and students are regularly encouraged to draw on their previous knowledge and schema to ‘make learning stick’. We have constructed knowledge organisers that sit directly alongside the curriculum and content and encourage students to refer to key knowledge through the lesson. Opportunities are planned during ‘prep time’ to continue to develop the ability to recall key information across a range of subjects and low stakes quizzes check/inform student progress. Topic overviews are referred to frequently so students have a clear understanding of how and why curriculum decision have been made and how this links/impacts explicitly on their learning experience.

Our curriculum is deliberately ambitious for all students with a focus on teaching to the top. The expectation is that teachers pitch their lessons to challenge students but ensure it is accessible to all through carefully constructed scaffolding, explicit modelling and further opportunities to deepen thinking. We do not have a glass ceiling. we do not believe only some students can achieve. we believe every student can and we plan to support all students in the classroom to make this happen.

The academy has a clear focus on developing students’ ability to recall and retrieve key learning. We therefore have an expectation that staff will draw on a number of strategies to promote opportunities to use their existing knowledge, these include:

• DO NOW activities – with a focus on retrieval and spaced retrieval.
• Exit Tickets – used regularly to check student understanding from the lesson and support planning.
• Knowledge organisers used in lessons, during prep time and as routine homework to develop long term memory and recall.
• Low-stakes quizzing through home learning tasks.
• Formative assessment for learning is frequent and identifies misconceptions and gaps in knowledge in order to plan for reteach lessons.
• Summative assessment of learning is cumulative and requires students to draw on knowledge they have learnt previously in the year or during their course.

We comply with our duties in the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 by making the curriculum accessible for those with disabilities or special educational needs.  We do this by providing auxiliary aids to students as part of our reasonable adjustment duty.

KS3 Curriculum Offer

KS4 Curriculum Offer / Options

KS5 Curriculum Opportunities

Communication Faculty:

As a faculty we strive to inspire and challenge our pupils to communicate confidently, fluently and analytically with a passion for spoken and written language to enable them to be inspirational global citizens.

Science Faculty:

The Science faculty at WWEA strives to inspire every pupil and enable them to gain a deep understanding of scientific knowledge and enquiry processes. Our challenging curriculum promotes a love for Science and provides pupils with a wide range of experiences both within and outside the classroom. Staff within the faculty endeavour to provide an enjoyable and stimulating environment to ensure the best outcomes for all pupils.

Humanities Faculty:

The Humanities faculty at WWEA cultivates and engages students to learn, understand and appreciate our cultural and spiritual diversity. Students are encouraged to explore the past and the many ways we can view our dynamic world. Humanities teachers will develop the students’ knowledge and an array of transferrable skills to achieve academic success, self-discovery and inner wellbeing to becoming well rounded, confident and productive global citizens.

Maths & IT Faculty:

As a faculty, we aim to provide all students with a rewarding and enjoyable experience of mathematics/computing. Educating our students to become confident, numerate, computer literate individuals who are able to deal with all aspects of mathematics/computing in their adult life. This will be accomplished through our commitment to excellent teaching, a well-designed curriculum with an interesting variety of lessons to motivate and engage all students. Teachers have high expectations of all students so that they will recognise and achieve their full potential. We hope students will develop patience, resilience and inspire confidence when solving problems. We will develop their curiosity by drawing upon their inductive and deductive reasoning skills and use language, symbols and notation of mathematics until they are deeply embedded and transferable not only across computing but other subjects like science and technology.

Vocational Faculty:

The vocational faculty strives to prepare all students to develop the skills and attitude to enable the next steps towards their aspirational careers.

Creative Faculty:

Whether you dream of taking your skills all the way to a career in our areas or elsewhere, this Faculty works to inspire and nurture the young people in our community to become more confident communicators and problem solvers, instilling a healthy culture of creativity and developing positive habits of performance.