Curriculum Intent and Policy

Curriculum Intent

Our aim is to provide an excellent education for all our students; our vision for ‘best lesson, best day, best year, best future’ is rooted in a desire to bring out the best in all students during their time at Walthamstow Academy, and prepare them for success in life. We have a powerful, intellectual and rigorous curriculum which is designed to provide the core knowledge, skills and cultural capital that will become the foundation of pupils’ experience and success in life. We aim to maximise their talents and cognitive development, to develop the whole person so that our students become well-informed, curious, independent citizens.

We teach children how to think, how to evaluate and criticise, how to be active and curious recipients of information; but each of these skills are taught within the context of the rich knowledge each subject provides. By instilling our students with the best of what’s been thought, said and done in each subject, we hope that our curriculum enables children to appreciate and participate in the full richness of the human experience.

Our curriculum goes beyond what is taught in classrooms. We develop the whole child through our broad and rich PSHE programme, extra-curricular provision and our Work Related Learning provision.

Our curriculum is founded on the following key principles

Knowledge – our curriculum is designed for Walthamstow Academy students; it specifies the knowledge that should be taught, provides resources to assist with this and exemplifies successful learning. Our teachers bring this knowledge to life for our students through their passion, pedagogy and practice.

Mastery – all students should achieve a full understanding of the curriculum in each year, and teaching should not move on until this is achieved. We build, scaffold, extend, interleave and spiral our curriculum to ensure that topics are built on, reinforced and revisited over time, resulting in a clear pathway from Year 7 through to Year 11 and beyond to Year 13. We use rigorous examinations, formative in-class assessment and whole class feedback to promote the progress of our students and therefore find the moment when teaching can move on.

Stability – we make occasional adjustments in the light of feedback and experience, but we aim for stability over time, so that teachers can develop expertise, and we constantly build assessments and teaching materials to support our curriculum.

Entitlement, Equality and Inclusion – all students have the right to follow the Walthamstow Academy curriculum; we have a duty to ensure all students learn the whole of it. Our students have equal opportunities to succeed and are clearly represented in and see themselves in the curriculum. The knowledge students are taught champions equality and diversity, and this enriches each student and the whole community.

Education with Character – our whole curriculum experience sparks curiosity and independent thinking and develops character. This is evident in lessons, in PSHE, in our clubs and extra-curricular life. Students reflect on their character and on their education in their Character Journal each week.

For more information, please refer to our Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, and Assessment policy, available here.

If you have any questions about our curriculum or would like to find out more, please contact Andrea Byrne, Vice Principal at Andrea.Byrne@walthamstow-academy.org