We believe that knowledge has the power to transform and enrich lives. It helps us to make sense of the world, to appreciate human creativity and achievement and to become educated citizens who contribute to society. We therefore believe that every one of our students, regardless of background, is entitled to encounter the best that has been thought, said and done through a broad and balanced curriculum.
At the St Leonards Academy;
Curriculum content is carefully selected by subject experts. Over the past year we have been reviewing our curriculum to ensure that what we teach is much more than simply the knowledge that is needed to pass an exam or cover the content of the national curriculum. From Shakespeare to sound waves, from Pythagoras to pop art, our subject experts have carefully selected the best and most important knowledge from their discipline to inspire and challenge our students.
The curriculum is sequenced to maximise understanding. Almost as important as the content of the curriculum is the order that it is taught in. At TSLA each subject curriculum is sequenced in order to maximise our students’ skills and understanding. Our mathematics department, for example, employ a ‘spiral curriculum’ model where key concepts and methods such as algebra are regularly revisited, each occasion giving our students the opportunity to practice, consolidate and build on previous learning.
The curriculum is taught to be remembered. Cognitive science suggests that when we encounter new information, our minds organise it and process it in relation to what is already known. This is why it is crucial that our students not only encounter powerful knowledge, but remember it. The curriculum at TSLA is designed to be remembered in detail, embedding learning in our students’ long term memories so that they can build on it later. Our history department, for example, use knowledge organisers, frequent quizzes (on a range of previous topics) and intermittent ‘pause’ lessons (where learning is revisited and strengthened) to ensure our students can recall what they have learned.
