Curriculum

Aim For Excellence 

At the George Eliot Academy we are committed to providing a curriculum for the pupils that creates a love of learning, empowers all pupils and enriches their lives and cultural capital. We Aim for Excellence and have high expectations of all our pupils. Our STAR values underpin all the work we do in school. 

Self-Discipline - Supporting our pupils to learn how to control and manage themselves. Pupils who conduct themselves as ‘good citizens’ and are able to articulate and regulate their feelings. 

Tenacity - Encouraging our pupils to be resilient and determined. To be persistent to succeed and never give up.

Ambition - Promoting pupils to set goals and have high aspirations for themselves so that they make excellent achievements in all they do. 

Responsibility - Fostering an environment where we behave responsibly, we show care, respect and kindness to all. 

 

Curriculum Intent 

At the Midland Academies Trust we believe that our pupils are entitled to an inheritance of a deep knowledge of the best that has been thought, said and done. 

We believe that our academies should give pupils the knowledge and confidence they need to take part in the important conversations that guide the direction of our country and society. We believe this knowledge, valuable in itself, will empower our pupils to live rich, meaningful lives wherever they find themselves as adults. 

Our firm belief in the transformative power of knowledge means we have put a great deal of care and thought into what our pupils learn. Our Knowledge Curriculum supports the development of long term memory and learning. This means that knowledge is deliberately visited and re-visited across a module, across a term and a year, and then across 5 years, shifting from short to long-term memory. 

 

Core Principles 

  1. Ensuring pupils experience a curriculum that gives them the best opportunities for:

    1. Progression to the next stage of their learning, to include Further Education and apprenticeship routes post 16/post 18; 
    2. Successful contribution to the economic life of their region and nation; 
    3. Development as active citizens involved in their communities, 

  2. Ensuring a rigorous academic curriculum that is challenging, enriching and accessible. 

  1. Ensuring a challenging vocational curriculum in partnership with NWSLC, local employers and other partners which is responsive to the economic needs of our region and nation. 

  1. Ensuring continuity and progression through intelligent assessment which informs learning programmes. 

  1. Ensuring the promotion of the core values of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance, with particular regard to the Equalities Act 2010. 

  1. Ensuring pupils are fully prepared to achieve their maximum potential in national examinations. 

  1. Ensuring pupils develop and apply work relevant skills through intra-Trust, national and international competitions, working in partnership with NWSLC and other organisations. 

  1. Ensuring that high standards of literacy, numeracy and learning behaviour are promoted throughout the curriculum in all areas. 

  1. Ensuring collaboration across the Trust in order that: 

    1. Specialist staffing is available to all pupils; 
    2. All pupils are able to access a full range of options at KS4; appropriate alternative provision is available as required. 

Our curriculum is ambitious and designed to give all learners, particularly the most disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or high needs, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. 

Our curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment. 

Pupils study a full range of subjects for as long as possible, ‘specialising’ only at the start of Year 10. 

 

Targets 

We use FFT20 benchmarks to set targets for all pupils in Years 10 and 11 based on how pupils with similar prior attainment performed in schools nationally last year. 

 

Assessments 

Our teachers and leaders use assessment well, for example to help learners embed and use knowledge fluently or to check understanding and inform teaching. We understand the limitations of assessment and do not use it in a way that creates unnecessary burdens for staff or learners. 

  • Assessments must provide meaningful information 

  • Assessments must be standardised within a subject across all trust schools 

  • Assessments must sample from across the entire sample domain 

  • Assessments must test what is most important 

  • Questions must elicit the most useful information about what pupils know 

 

Quality Assurance 

The George Eliot Academy has systematic and well-developed procedures to ensure quality assurance of curriculum delivery. The senior leadership team and all Directors of Learning are actively involved in the monitoring and evaluation of the quality of teaching and learning (MEQTL) through: 

  • Culture walks 

  • Work Scrutinies 

  • Pupil Voice 

  • Parent voice 

  • Staff voice 

  • Curriculum reviews 

  • External Deep Dives and School Improvement work 

  • Learning Conversations and LASER meetings 

  • Staff working as exam markers for the exam boards 

 

  1. Curriculum Hours 2022 2023Download
  2. Curriculum Overview 22-23Download
  3. Curriculum Principles and Features at The George Eliot School 2023Download
  4. Curriculum Structure at the GEA 2023Download
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