Our Curriculum

Endeavour. Self-belief. Honesty. Excellence. Global.

At the heart of the curriculum will be the mantra ‘subject comes first’. Teachers must and will teach deep subject content. Our leaders and teachers will carefully choose and sequence the topics, concepts, vocabulary and body of knowledge that students must learn in the process of becoming confident subject specialists.

Here at Clapham, the intent of our curriculum is to:

• provide rich and varied contexts for students to acquire, develop and apply a broad range of knowledge, understanding and skills, to encourage a desire for lifelong learning
• encourage the best possible progress for all by selecting and sequencing subject content in a way that enables our students to master the vocabulary and knowledge of their subjects from day one
• enable all students to develop their creativity and talents to the full, including celebrating and being successful in learning a modern foreign language
• ensure that the curriculum is used as a progression model
• personalise our curriculum ensuring it is flexible and appropriate, preparing students for their futures as workers and citizens
• promote students' self-esteem, mental and emotional well-being
• enable students to understand and model fundamental British values in their everyday lives.

In order to keep focused on the ‘bigger picture’, everyone will ensure:

• Depth before breadth
• Knowledge and vocabulary come first, enabling skills to develop
• Personal development supports academic development
• Literacy and numeracy knowledge and skills are vital to personal and academic success.

Please do read our curriculum policy which is on our website. This will give you more detailed information about the curriculum and the range of subjects that our students will study.

You will see that we value and celebrate the importance of our students being able to study modern foreign languages. This will happen both during formal lessons but also in our extra-curricular provision, including visits and trips.

Our students must have maximum opportunities to make their mark in the world and will hugely benefit from learning and speaking a modern foreign language. The British Council (2017) in their ‘Languages for the future’ report stated that Spanish, Mandarin, French, Arabic and German top the list of languages that will be more important to Britain post-Brexit. We will ensure that our students a literate not only in English but in languages that will fully prepare them for their future careers. This is also why ‘global’ is one of our core values.

For more information on the content of our curriculum, please click here.

Enrichment:

The academy will place importance on our students being able to learn and enjoy new challenges. Our after-academy programme will be flexible – there will be new opportunities each term, including different sports that students can choose from. There will also be long-term clubs such as chess club, journalism club and debating that students can choose from.  The enrichment calendar for each term will be published on the academy website.