Curriculum Overview
Curriculum Rationale
At Phoenix, our tagline of aspire, believe, succeed are at the heart of everything that we do. Phoenix is a learning environment at the heart of its community, where we set high expectations to ensure that every pupil excels across all aspects of school life. Our spirit for ‘excellence in everything we do’ is rooted in a desire to bring out the very best in all students and prepare them for success in life.
We want our students to leave with knowledge and skills which will not only create excellent life opportunities but will also prepare them for life beyond school.
Curriculum Aims and Principles
At Phoenix, students will experience:
- A broad, balanced and effectively sequenced curriculum, with a strong focus on core knowledge.
- An ambitious curriculum that is suitable for all learners, that allows them to know and remember more.
- A curriculum which focuses on developing the whole person, preparing them to flourish in a changing world.
- A curriculum which improves the reading, communication and Numeracy skills of all learners.
A broad, balanced and effectively sequenced curriculum, with a strong focus on core knowledge.
Our Key Stage 3 curriculum spans across 3 years, allowing the curriculum to meet National Curriculum requirements. Students learn essential knowledge built around a 'learning journey' which is effectively sequenced to ensure they have a deep understanding across a range of subjects. As students move into Year 10, they become more specialised in their learning through our option selection process.
An ambitious curriculum that is suitable for all learners, that allows them to know and remember more.
Our school is inclusive and ambitious for all, designed to give all learners, particularly the most disadvantaged, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. We have the same academic ambitions for all learners. There are many opportunities built into lessons to recall and retrieve previous learning so that knowledge is fully embedded. Our response to the EBacc curriculum has been through a sustained growth within these subject areas and this growth is planned to be accelerated in 2023 / 2024.
A curriculum which focuses on developing the whole person, preparing them to flourish in a changing world.
Alongside our academic intentions, at Phoenix, we strive to develop students as well-rounded future citizens who will make a positive contribution to society. With our students’ needs in mind, we have sought to create a curriculum which allows for students to develop the personal qualities and attributes, alongside the academic knowledge and skills needed for them to thrive in a changing world. To enhance this, we pride ourselves on our SMSC (social, moral, spiritual and cultural) enrichment days. SMSC is embedded in the school in order to develop the student as a whole, to ensure they are fully prepared for life in modern Britain. Students are also encouraged to take part in a range of sporting, CCF, Duke of Edinburgh, extra- curricular and charitable activities.
A curriculum which improves the reading, communication and Numeracy skills of all learners.
The development of students’ reading and communication skills are an integral part of our school’s curriculum, as we understand how vital these are for our students to be able to thrive in their life beyond Phoenix. We have created opportunities to read for pleasure in our tutor reading programme, in order to foster a love of reading within our young people. Subjects incorporate opportunities to develop students’ reading skills in lessons and vocabulary instruction is used to enhance students’ ability to articulate their ideas confidently and aid their understanding of texts. We ensure students have opportunities in all subjects to discuss, challenge and build on other points of view in lessons, especially in our ‘Oracy Friday’ retrieval activities, as we are committed to ensuring our students are confident in expressing their views. Numeracy skills are also embedded across the curriculum. Students who are working below the expected standard in reading and Numeracy receive interventions to help them improve. The school aims that all students are able to read in line with age related expectations and are numerate, enabling them to flourish and access the next stage of their education, employment or training.
Curriculum Plan 2023 / 2024
In Year 7, students are separated into three bands of approximately 115 students per band. Within these bands, students are placed in groups based upon expected outcomes. On entry to Year 7, some students are identified as students who have yet to show mastery and fluency in Literacy and Numeracy. Where this is the case, students may be placed into the Flying Start Provision (FSP) groups. Creative subjects are mixed ability, whilst in Physical Education, groups are based upon gender.
All students receive two hours per week of core Physical Education. Personal, Social and Health Education, and Citizenship, are delivered through a series of School Enrichment Days in which all the legally required content is delivered.
A unit of Sex Education forms part of this programme and concentrates upon personal relationships rather than physical processes.
The right of parents / carers to withdraw students from these lessons extends to all students. However, as the school takes care to prepare this programme sensitively as part of an on-going life skills package, we very much hope that this right will not be exercised.
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Key Stage 4
The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) regulates qualifications, examinations and assessments in England. Students and parents / carers can find out more about the Phoenix curriculum and qualifications by visiting the GOV.UK Secondary Curriculum, Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 (GCSEs) website and / or the appropriate examination board website. Links have been provided below:
All students will follow a core curriculum leading to qualifications in English, Mathematics and Science. For those students who need extra support, additional lessons in English and Mathematics, along with support for those for whom English is not a first language, are available as part of our extended day offer. We also offer the opportunity for studying Punjabi, Polish and other home languages after school to GCSE standard.
All students will also study Physical Education, along with PSHE, Citizenship, Enterprise Education and Religious Education, which are delivered through our School Enrichment Days.
Following an intensive programme of information, advice and guidance, students will be asked to choose four subjects to follow in Years 10 and 11 from a wide range of GCSE and vocational qualifications; all of which appear on the government’s list of accredited qualifications. In addition to their core offer, it is expected that all students, where directed, will study a language and at least one other of the English Baccalaureate subjects – History, Geography, Separate Science or Computer Science. Some students will be directed to take up vocational placements, or be placed on an alternative curriculum provision programme, following consultation with parents / carers.
A list of all subjects offered are listed below alongside the allocated time for each subject:
Academic Year 2023 / 2024
Academic Year 2024 / 2025
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Year 11
Key Stage 5
The Post 16 offer from Phoenix provides an opportunity to study a wide range of Level 3 subjects, both academic and vocational. The further study of Level 2 English and Mathematics is expected for all students not achieving a GCSE grade 4 at the end of Key Stage 4.
