At Ebbsfleet Academy our core purpose is to inspire our students to believe, achieve and succeed. We celebrate the effort and determination our students show towards their learning. Our curriculum is the vehicle for this success and it is rooted in these key principles;
being rich in powerful knowledge
being academically demanding
creating students who are literate, numerate and digitally literate developing students’ cultural capital
developing global awareness beyond the individual and their immediate community
providing careers guidance in line with the Gatsby benchmarks and ensure all students have a successful onward destination
At the academy, we are committed to improving the life chances and aspirations of pupils and aim to developing global citizens. Our main curriculum, pastoral programme and co-curriculum support the IB learner profile so that all members of the school community learn to respect themselves, others and the world around them. We aim to develop individuals who have an awareness beyond their immediate community, who understand and learn about other cultures and are culturally sensitive to the needs of others. It is our intention that students are resilient to change and challenge, with a strong set of skills developed through the IB learner profile to maximise their independence.
The Key Stage 3 curriculum is broad and balanced, following the International Baccalaureate Middle Years’ Programme (MYP) and this is studied in Years 7, 8 and 9. This ensures students acquire a deep understanding across eight key subject disciplines. To ensure knowledge is fully embedded, lessons are constructed to ensure students are guided and supported, with opportunities skillfully provided to secure the need to recall and retrieve prior learning.
By the end of KS3 students will be prepared to transition to KS4 with an understanding of any threshold knowledge necessary to access the GCSE specification. The MYP learner profile continues to be a core element of our curriculum for Key Stage 4, with courses carefully planned to ensure teachers can provide subject specific guidance and modelling, with curriculum time carefully planned to ensure students are fully prepared for external examinations at the end of the course.
Our Key Stage 5 curriculum is specifically tailored each year to meet the needs of our students. A key feature of our sixth form curriculum is the regular, rigorous independent learning, through which students spend as much time learning outside of the classroom as inside it. In addition to three Level 3 qualifications, all students study an Extended Project Qualification or Core Maths to support their learning.
We successfully offer:
Key Stage 3 – The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) for Years 7, 8 and 9. The Key Stage 3 curriculum is planned to cover the National Curriculum.
Key Stage 4 – GCSEs, BTECs and other Level 2 vocational qualifications in Years 10 and 11.
Key Stage 5 – A Levels and Applied General Programmes
The curriculum is reviewed and developed to ensure accessibility for all, enabling all students to maximise their progress. Our intention is to ensure pupils make outstanding progress and that the curriculum removes any potential barriers to learning. In line with National guidance, the academy staff engage with Quality First Teaching to support students with special educational needs. The SEND team collaborates closely with teaching staff and leaders to ensure all students have access to a robust curriculum that goes beyond the National Curriculum.
The development of language and literacy skills are paramount and underpin our curriculum. Our aim is to build confidence in communication skills to support student progress in school and prepare them for working life. Our literacy programme includes bespoke time and focus for teaching reading throughout the curriculum. Pupils who have a reading age below their chronological age are supported through interventions to close this gap as quickly as possible. Pupils below expected progress from Primary school are provided with interventions to quickly catch-up through incisive intervention. Our digital strategy ensures students that digital literacy is embedded into each curriculum area and supported via our pastoral programme. Our students are taught to utilise digital access responsibility to enhance their skills ready for the world of work.
To support the core curriculum, our Personal Development programme is fully integrated into academy life. Life Skills (PSHE and RSE) and SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Education) are taught in the tutor time programme, and embedded into our core curriculum subjects. Each pupil develops their character as a whole to ensure they are fully prepared to be outstanding global citizens. Our co-curricular offer enhances the student experience, supporting all aspects of development and contextualises the learning for our students.
Ebbsfleet Academy intends to provide all students with secure foundations for progression into further education and apprenticeships. Full coverage of the Gatsby benchmarks starts from Year 7, with all students receiving regular updates on relevant careers information. High aspirations are instilled in our students to ensure that all students achieve their potential and move forward successfully into their intended career pathway.
The impact of our curriculum can be measured through the following:
Internal and external assessment outcomes throughout all key stages.
Students who join the academy at lower starting points show improvement in literacy and numeracy throughout key stage 3.
Students are able to communicate their learning clearly and effectively.
Students’ work shows pride and progress.
Students are successful at pursuing their preferred destinations.
Students develop a sense of global awareness and environmental responsibility and will be actively engaged in the local community as well as establishing and embedding the knowledge and skills to be effective in an ever-changing world.
Through engaging with the IB Learner profile, students develop confidence, independence and skills for life.
Achieving the Gatsby benchmarks.
Curriculum and Assessment
Key Stage 3
The MYP is not a curriculum; we still follow the content of the National Curriculum that we tailor to the needs of our students. The MYP helps us to plan and deliver the curriculum through concepts that are shared across subjects.
The MYP divides subjects into 8 groups. Each group has equal importance which ensures a broad and balanced curriculum for all students.
Language and Literature
English Language and English Literature
Mathematics
Mathematics
Sciences
Physics, Biology and Chemistry
Language Acquisition
Spanish and French
Individuals and Societies
History, Geography and RE
Design
Food, Textiles, Design Technology and Computing
Arts
Art, Music and Drama
Physical and Health Education
PE
Achievement Levels
Each criterion has eight achievement levels. These are added together to give an achievement level out of a total of 32.
Parents/carers will receive a report that shows their child’s progress for each subject group at published times during the course of the academic year. MYP reports will be sent home at the end of Modules 3 and 6.
Teachers must gather sufficient evidence from a range of assessment tasks to enable them to make a professional and informed judgement guided by the criteria to determine a student’s achievement level. Achievement levels for the four criteria are added together creating a total number out of 32. Using the table below, this is converted to an MYP Grade from 1-7, with 7 being the highest. The tabs below describe in broad terms the standard of work being produced.
Produces high-quality, frequently innovative work. Communicates comprehensive, nuanced understanding of concepts and contexts. Consistently demonstrates sophisticated critical and creative thinking. Frequently transfers knowledge and skills with independence and expertise in a variety of complex classroom and real-world situations.
Produces high-quality, occasionally innovative work. Communicates extensive understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, frequently with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar and unfamiliar classroom and real-world situations, often with independence.
Produces generally high-quality work. Communicates secure understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, sometimes with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar classroom and real-world situations, and, with support, some unfamiliar real-world situations.
Produces good quality work. Communicates basic understanding of most concepts and contexts with few misunderstandings and minor gaps. Often demonstrates basic critical and creative thinking. Uses knowledge and skills with some flexibility in familiar classroom situations, but requires support in unfamiliar situations.
Produces work of an acceptable quality. Communicates basic understanding of many concepts and contexts, with occasionally significant misunderstandings or gaps. Begins to demonstrate some basic critical and creative thinking. Is often inflexible in the use of knowledge and skills, requiring support even in familiar classroom situations.
Produces work of limited quality. Expresses misunderstandings or significant gaps in understanding for many concepts and contexts. Infrequently demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Generally inflexible in the use of knowledge and skills, infrequently applying knowledge and skills.
Produces work of very limited quality. Conveys many significant gaps in understanding for many concepts and contexts. Very rarely demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Very inflexible, rarely using knowledge and skills, rarely applying knowledge and skills.
The academy supports learners who may not be able to access Level 2 qualifications in English and maths by delivering Functional Skills qualifications in English and Entry level qualifications in Maths.
Home Language Qualifications
We provide the opportunity for students to take a GCSE in cases where students are able to speak and write an additional language and the GCSE is available. We have facilitated this in the following languages:
Portuguese
Italian
Punjabi
German
Turkish
Greek
Russian
Key Stage 5
At KS5 the academy delivers a mis of A levels and Level 3 BTECs. In addition students will study either core maths – which provides Functional Maths skills which will be useful for a range of subjects including Psychology, Biology, Chemistry and Business – or the Extended Project Qualification – which allows students the opportunity to develop their research skills and consolidate their ability to learn independently. Each of these qualifications is worth an additional AS grade. Students will usually select 3 qualifications.
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