Intent

The curriculum at Woodroffe is broad, balanced and ambitious for our students. Besides promoting equality of access and experience, we are committed to ensuring all students excel whilst they are with us. The curriculum, in response to the characteristics of our intake, enables students to build knowledge, develop skills and apply their learning across many different contexts, all supported by a robust and consistent approach to assessment.

Students study high quality, nationally recognised qualifications that ensure they are prepared for the next steps in their lives, whether that is further study at college or university, apprenticeships or work. However, our offer seeks to not only provide excellent academic opportunities but to develop the whole child. Therefore, through the curriculum, students will develop as reflective and resilient learners, develop their social awareness, be fully engaged with the world around them and be ever ready for the changes they may face in their lives.

Implementation

We work hard to ensure students can follow routes which will secure their success because we know the importance of subjects as individual disciplines and their varying demands. All follow a core of subjects and opportunities are never arbitrarily narrowed. In Key Stage 3 this means following a broad curriculum over their three years which builds the strong academic foundations needed so all can succeed when moving on to examination courses (both academic and vocational) in Key Stage 4. Within these Key Stages, strategies are in place to ensure that we secure the progress of all, irrespective of starting point; students from disadvantaged backgrounds are given the support that means their progress matches the progress made by their peers.

Our curriculum is delivered by professionals with well-developed subject/disciplinary expertise. They use their deep pedagogical knowledge to ensure lessons are challenging, relevant and engaging and build in students the same passion for learning that they possess. Staff are committed to supporting students to develop the basics – reading, writing, oracy and numeracy. They always demand high standards and relentlessly promote the value of enquiry, challenge and application in lessons.

Our curriculum is reviewed regularly so that it is responsive to student need and provides the right progression model with which to build knowledge and understanding. Assessment is used intelligently; it informs our curriculum design and teaching in order to support student progression. Therefore, methods of recall and retrieval of core knowledge are woven through the curriculum and revisited regularly with formative dialogue promoted to allow students to take their next steps. The curriculum and the teaching of it builds student fluency, so they are more knowledgeable, flexible and accurate when using and applying their learning in lessons and beyond.

Curriculum leadership is distributed; all professionals work collaboratively to share practice and secure improvement.

Impact

Therefore, our curriculum develops the whole child.

Students immerse themselves in the curriculum; they are culturally enriched by the range of knowledge and skills both within and beyond the formal curriculum they develop. As a result of these rich experiences, they consistently secure excellent outcomes across all Key Stages.

Ultimately our students will leave us as resilient, lifelong learners able to cope with changing contexts and well prepared to move into further education, employment or training. The impact and influence of Woodroffe students can be tracked far and wide, extending beyond the locality and providing a positive influence across a range of disciplines.