KS5 Curriculum Information - Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy

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At Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy, we recognise the importance of providing students with a balanced education, one that is both academically rigorous to ensure the best outcomes for all our students but also provides our young people with all the tools required to become forward thinking and empathetic citizens in today’s ever changing world.

Key Stage 5 Curriculum

Post-16 is a thriving aspect of the life of Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy, led by a dedicated team of staff, all sharing the same determination to open doors for the young adults in our care. We believe that our role is to help our pupils to become the best versions of themselves that they can be and, in so doing, to ensure that they are ready to enter further education, an apprenticeship or employment. Key Stage 5 at Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy is a two-year programme. Applicants to Post-16 are given guidance meetings to help them choose the pathway upon which they will pursue Level 3 courses. We provide a choice of 35 courses of study on four distinct pathways:

Academic Pathway – a combination of A levels and/or IB Diploma courses
Vocational Pathway – a combination of vocational qualifications, such as BTECs
Mixed Academic and Vocational Pathway – a combination of A levels, IB Diploma courses and vocational qualifications
International Baccalaureate Career-related Programme (IBCP) Pathway – a suite of two IB Diploma courses, one vocational course and a Core Programme of Personal and Professional Skills, Language Development, Service Learning and Reflective Project

Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy aims to ensure that all students gain a wide and extensive knowledge base which combined with co curricular opportunities build students cultural capital. We have a curriculum that is broad and balanced ‘Opening Minds to Success’ through delivery of the ‘Healthy Minds’ programme ensuring that the IB learning profiles are fully embedded through the Key Stages. Students become resilient learners and are well prepared and successful in the next stage of their education or career pathway. Our curriculum is structured in to the 3 Key Stages to achieve these aims in the following way:

Key Stage 3 (Year 7, 8 and 9): The Middle Years Programme (MYP)
Key Stage 4 (Year 10 and 11): GCSE and equivalent qualifications
Key Stage 5 (Year 12 and 13): The IBCP, A-Levels, T-Levels and BTEC qualifications

The implementation of the curriculum content will focus around ensuring that all students are active learners being taught by staff with strong subject knowledge. The focus this year will be on ensuring that knowledge retrieval is at the heart of all lessons and that there is interleaving evident in all schemes of work. It is essential that greater emphasis and importance is given to disciplined literacy with learning areas and staff taking responsibility for developing the reading, writing and oracy of learners. Assessment must be carefully crafted in order to ensure students are well challenged on their prior learning and that they fill any gaps in their prior knowledge. Effective and immediate feedback through conferencing is an important factor in ensuring students improve their work, learn from every experience and are reflective in their learning. Feedback should be motivating, manageable and meaningful. Greater focus needs to be given to ensure more students achieve higher grades in KS4 vocational courses in particular.

The curriculum will make a positive impact on the outcomes of every child. We will know that this is true as we are delivering a high standard of education, quality assured through qualitative and quantitative measures. Leaders at all levels review learning, talk with our students and provide feedback to move practice forward. The impact of the school’s curriculum is measured through several means: