Curriculum

We strive to engender an infectious, lifelong, enthusiasm for learning to create a community with ambition, a sense of self-worth, belief and personal growth. We seek to create young people who can be confident and successful in an ever-changing world.  

We want to engage students and staff by offering a range of opportunities and experiences that lead to the highest standards of achievement and mastery of key skills. 

We expect our students and staff to: 

  • Appreciate the value and power of knowledge. 
  • Develop qualities of independence, adaptability and creativity. 
  • Approach situations with positivity and a solution-based mindset. 
  • Be inspired to learn and to continue learning. 
  • Understand and demonstrate emotional intelligence and collaborate effectively. 
  • Be respectful, determined, dedicated and disciplined in the drive to achieve excellence. 
  • Be socially, morally, spiritually and culturally aware. 

We love what we do.  

Our subject specialists have carefully structured the curriculum to take students on a journey through Year 7 to Year 11, preparing them for further education or employment and to become valuable and positive members of a global community,  

Shrewsbury Academy works closely with our feeder schools and cultivates a relationship where the knowledge that students bring from their primary learning is used to garner developed interest in learning at a secondary level. We foster a collaborative approach so that knowledge and understanding is built upon to enable their working memory to grow. 

Students study a broad and balanced curriculum that meets the needs of all groups of learners, allowing them to feel challenged and to excel. We believe that students should access a full range of academic, creative and expressive subjects, which is evidenced in the models below. 

Each subject has a clear rationale for its curriculum plan, and a coherent and detailed sequence of work, with integrated assessment points, building towards the final examinations. Our suite of subjects for study at GCSE is broad, with a strong academic core in the EBacc subjects.  The overview of our entire curriculum mapping is available here, showing each subject’s journey at Shrewsbury Academy: 

Art

Key Stage 3 and 4 Overview

Key Stage 3 and 4 Overview – Ceramics

Year 7 Scheme of Learning Overview

Year 7 Overview

Year 7 Project Overview

Year 8 Scheme of Learning Overview

Year 8 Overview

Year 8 Project Overview

Year 9 Scheme of Learning Overview

Year 9 Overview

Year 9 Project Overview

Year 10 Scheme of Learning Year Overview

Year 10 Overview

Year 10 Project Overview

Year 11 Scheme of Learning Overview

Year 11 Overview

Year 11 Project Overview

Business

Year 10 Overview

Year 11 Overview

Child Development

Year 10 Overview

Design and Technology – Food

Year 7-11 Overview

Performing Arts

Year 7 Overview

Year 8 Overview

Year 9 Overview

English

Key Stage 3 Overview

Key Stage 4 Overview

Geography

Key Stage 3 Overview

Key Stage 3 Unit Breakdown

Key Stage 4 Overview

History

Key Stage 3 Overview

Key Stage 4 Overview

IT

Key Stage 3 Overview

Year 10 Overview

Year 11 Overview

Maths

Year 7 Overview

Year 8 Overview

Year 9 Overview

Year 10 and Year 11 Overview (Foundation)

Year 10 and Year 11 Overview (Higher)

Modern Foreign Languages

Key Stage 3 and 4 Overview – Spanish

Key Stage 3 and 4 Overview – French

Music

Key Stage 3 Overview

Physical Education

Key Stage 3 Overview

Key Stage 3 and 4 Overview

Key Stage 4 Overview – Cambridge Nationals Sports Studies

Science

Year 7 Overview

Year 8 Overview

Year 9-11 Overview (Triple Science)

Textiles

Year 7 Overview

Year 8 Overview

Year 9 Overview

Year 10 Overview

Year 11 Overview

Year 7 Learning Journey

Year 8 Learning Journey

Year 9 Learning Journey

GCSE Learning Journey

Photography

Year 10 Overview

Year 11 Overview

PHSE

Key Stage 3 Overview

Key Stage 4 Overview 

Religious Studies

Key Stage 3 Overview

Key stage 4 Overview

Nurture

Autumn Term Overview

Nurture Group Handbook

Careers

Careers Overview

For ease of access, you can also explore our Faculty and subject specific curriculum overview documents through clicking the links below: 

 

We have also developed a Curriculum that encompasses elements of Personal Development, PSHE and Careers and is supported by accredited resources that have been interwoven into our delivery, focusing on aspects such as British Values.  

We are bold in our decisions about curriculum design. For example, the last two years has seen the re-structure of the options programme to offer greater opportunities to take Languages and pupils entered for more traditional academic GCSE subjects. Alongside the high academic ambition for our students, we also offer a creative suite of subjects such as I-media, Photography, Art, Textiles, Dance and Drama.  

We also provide curriculum support for some students, such as those with specific SEND needs or issues around inclusion.  This can include extended work-based learning and small group literacy, numeracy and study support with our SEND team. No students are disadvantaged by having a prescriptive pathway.  In addition to address SEMH or improve transition from primary school, students can access a nurture pathway encompassing forest school and other supportive measures designed to improve wellbeing and drive a feeling of belonging and success. 

We also place an emphasis on the mastery of knowledge. Using strategies such as inter-leaving, spacing and metacognition, we ensure key concepts and skills are embedded into students’ long-term memory, to be recalled and applied fluently when required. These aspects are beginning to be evidenced in rapidly improving outcomes in attainment and progress for our students. 

Feedback, utilising a range of techniques, is regular and formative and is valued as a vehicle for developing positive relationships and ambition in learning, alongside identifying misconceptions and informing the teacher of next steps for students. Regular assessments identify when learning is secure, and inform when teaching can move on, thereby connecting prior, present and future learning. 

Key Stage 3 

Years 7-9 

Our Key Stage 3 curriculum currently focuses upon enhancing knowledge founded at key stage 2, and allows pupils to embed core knowledge into long term memory and provides the bedrock for key stage four. Building upon existing student knowledge, whilst exposing students to a greater range of learning experiences is fundamental to this period of the curriculum. Students’ academic curriculum will also be enhanced and enriched through exposure to PSHE, Careers, trips and visits. Extracurricular opportunities exist in sports, expressive arts performances and fantastic showcase events and productions.  

 

Subject  Number of hours per week.  
English  4 
Mathematics  4 
Science   3 
Languages   2 
Humanities (& R.E.)   4 
Technology  2 
Drama   1 
Music  1 
Art  1 
ICT  1 
Physical Education  2 
Total   25 

 

 

Key Stage 4 

Years 10 & 11 

Key stage 4 is designed to ensure that students are fully prepared to be accomplished and successful learners. We have a large contingent of our students focussed on traditional Ebacc subjects but also have pathways to support more creative students. Through opting for subjects that interest them, they can adapt their own curriculum to their own interests more, or study subjects that will ignite opportunities for them in further education or employment. Students are again offered additional enhancing experiences through their studies such as in competitive sports and fixtures, personal fitness, creative performances and the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. 

The allocation of teaching hours to the various subjects is detailed below: 

  Subject  Number of hours per week.  
Core Subjects  English   4 
Mathematics  4 
Combined science  4 
Humanities   4 
Physical Education  2 
Option Subject Choices  Business Studies   

 

 

Time studied may vary between 3-4 hours per week through key stage 4. Most students will study two of these options totalling 7 hours per week. 

Child Development  
Design Technology 
Food Technology 
Spanish 
Sports Studies  
Textiles 
Art 
Child development  
I-media 
Photography 
Religious Education 
  Total   25  

For more information on the school our curriculum or the course offering, support and guidance, and progression, please contact to arrange a visit, please call reception on 01743 276700 

Contact Us

For more information on the school curriculum, please contact Cat McCausland

01743 276700 cat.mccausland@shr.mmat.co.uk