Curriculum
“A curriculum exists to change the pupil, to give the pupil new power”
CHRISTINE COUNSELL
At Lodge Park Academy we have an outstanding and diverse curriculum which aspires to respond to the local and national agenda in order to ensure all our students receive a high-quality learning experience at all times.
We value the acquisition of powerful knowledge, as a goal in itself, as an entitlement for all children. We invest significant time and resources into ensuring that all students gain a broad knowledge base to enable them to become active members of their community in the future. Alongside a rigorous and challenging academic curriculum, students also experience a broad range of sports, arts and musical opportunities, ensuring that they have the richest experience a secondary education can give.
We have high academic expectations and believe that success is achieved through a conscientious approach and a knowledge-rich curriculum.
Our approach to knowledge-rich curriculum is underpinned by four principles.
- Rigour: Knowledge selection that is underpinned by a subject’s traditions, practices, and truths, creating academic challenge.
- Scope: Ambitious with the knowledge that manifests over time, through complexity (depth) and breadth.
- Coherence: Knowledge is attached to the subject’s underpinning concepts, themes, threads, and skills.
- Well-Sequenced: Knowledge is mapped across the curriculum with new knowledge linking to prior knowledge.
Curriculum Intent
We want students to be effective communicators; to be confident readers allowing them to access any chosen path. We want students to be able to write successfully in a range of contexts, to know how to debate, to develop an argument and discourse, both orally and in a written context, building stamina for extended writing and being confident enough to speak publicly.
We want students to be passionate about subjects, understanding how curriculum content is relevant to their life beyond school. We want them to know how to solve problems and to become independent, resilient learners.
We want students to have a broad range of knowledge in a variety of subject areas and that they can apply their knowledge appropriately, effectively and with confidence.
We want students to know that each day is a new day and when they make mistakes, it is how they move forward that is important. We want the, t to take advantage of all opportunities and not be limited by prior expectations.
We want our students to develop emotional intelligence and transferable life skills that supports them throughout their adult life.
Our curriculum allows students to become:
- Confident and successful individuals who enjoy learning, progress beyond national expectations and achieve high quality and meaningful qualifications.
- Responsible citizens in our 21st century society who make a positive contribution to their local community and the wider international world in which they live.
At Key Stage 3 all students follow a broad curriculum which enables them to make an informed choice.
In year 9 students make their option choices for Key Stage 4, where students in Years 10 and 11 concentrate on their chosen subjects, within the prescribed guidelines of the National Curriculum. Further information on the GCSE option subjects we offer to students at KS4 can be found in our options booklet, below.
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2024 - 2026 Year 9 Options Booklet
download_for_offline
download_for_offline2024 - 2026 Year 9 Options Booklet
Key Stage 3 & Key Stage 4 Timetables
At Key Stage 5 we offer a wide range of A Level and BTEC courses with most students studying three subjects. For further information about our Sixth Form please click here.
In addition there is an extensive programme of sporting and extra-curricular activities.
If you require any additional information about the curriculum at Lodge Park Academy please contact us.
Please see the attached documents for a full breakdown of the curriculum we offer in each year.
British Values
What sort of skills does enrichment teach?
- Determination to succeed
- Teamwork
- Winning and losing with grace
- Respect for others
- Tolerance
- Confidence in yourself
- A sense of fun and enjoyment
- Creativity
- Focus and attitude
- Health benefits
The experiences offered at LPA are not only those we can offer within the confines of the school building,
The Trust has partnerships with a number of organisations that work with us to provide opportunities in music, drama, art and other cultural pursuits. These activities and events are designed to enhance their academic studies and to provide opportunities that many students may not otherwise have access to.
In addition, we hold regular careers and higher education events to make choosing the next steps easier and clearer for students of all abilities and interests.
Some of the partners with whom we have worked include the Nevill Holt Opera, Shakespeare Schools Festival, The Kalisher Trust, the University of Nottingham, the Outward Bound Trust and Lincoln Castle, to name a few…
All of the Trust wide opportunities sit alongside our 3 dropdown days for enrichments and with our House system we have also added to our offer a vast amount of house competitions, that are varied and exciting as well as being focused on key pastoral areas of our academy such as attendance and behaviour. Our house assemblies focus on promoting these competitions and driving the excitement as well as delivering a 3-weekly cycle of character and value assemblies to our students, aligned with our whole school assembly schedule. Our competitions range from Limbo to Spelling Bee and are designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to take part in something and represent their house. Our house ethos is to support and motivate and although the element of competition between the houses will be strong, students also learn to respect each other and see our academy as one community. We ensure that all students have leadership opportunities within the academy. These roles include Head Students, House Captains, Media Leads, Charity Leads, Student Representatives for each tutor group, Mental Health Champions, Diversity Champions or Young Leaders.
We also have a community outreach programme which features Harvest festival at the local church, a Remembrance service and opportunities for our feeder primary schools to join in with activities. Our Student Leadership also organise community charity events in aid of Houses chosen local charities.
Key Stage 3, 4 & 5
Maths
Mathematics aims to develop knowledge, skills and understanding of key methods and concepts including number, geometry, measures, statistics and probability. Students are given the opportunity to acquire and use problem solving strategies, to select and apply mathematical techniques and methods in everyday and real-life situations.
English
Through English every student will have access to “the best that has been thought and said”, providing equal opportunities to all students.
Students are given the opportunity to access a range of texts from across time to develop their understanding of Literature and the human condition through a knowledge based curriculum. Through studying Literature, students will be given the keys to unlock the world around them and allow them to access all that the world has to offer to ensure that every student has the opportunity to achieve their ambition. English Language will provide students the opportunity to develop their own voice to comment on the world around both orally and in writing.
Science
Studying science allows students to make sense of the phenomena they see around them and question why things happen. Students cover a range of topics from all 3 disciplines of science. The purpose of the KS3 curriculum at LPA is to give students a sound and secure knowledge of the key ideas in science such as the structure of atoms, how energy is stored and transferred and the importance of interactions in our environment. Along with theory lessons students will partake in a range of practical activities to enhance their learning.
RE
Religious education is founded on the promotion of spiritual, moral, cultural and physical development of pupils at Lodge Park Academy. The curriculum has also been sequenced to ensure that pupils at the school are prepared for opportunities, responsibilities and experiences later on in life. The curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens. Religious education provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong, and what it means to be human. It can develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, of other principal religions, other religious traditions and worldviews that offer answers to questions such as these.
French
Our French curriculum has been designed to empower our students with the knowledge to become confident, accurate, fluent communicators. In addition, it enables them to develop an understanding of both shared and differing cultural traditions and viewpoints. To enhance their cultural literacy we equip our learners with the substantive knowledge of some key geographical aspects, historical events, artworks, literary texts, traditions and personalities pertaining to the culture of France.
History
Our history curriculum aims to offer broad, knowledge rich and intellectually challenging lessons which provide students with the knowledge to converse academically on a wide range of historical periods.
Geography
Geography allows us to understand the story of our planet; how it has changed and developed over time through natural (or physical), and later on, human processes. Our world today reflects the impacts of these processes; Geography helps us to reflect on what that means for ourselves and others.
PE
Computer Science & ICT
Computer Science and ICT equips students to understand how modern technology works. We focus on problem solving and computational principals as well as practical ICT skills to give a sound understanding of the different areas so that students are prepared for their option choices.
Art
Our Art, Craft and Design curriculum offers knowledge rich and creatively challenging lessons which provide students with opportunities to work within drawing, painting, collage, contemporary craft and sculpture. Students learn about and create a diverse range of responses to artists from a range of periods, cultures, and types of practice.
Design & Technology & Hospitality and Catering
In Design and Technology we build knowledge systematically about our planet’s resources and the role of designers and technologists within society. The students have opportunity to work with a variety of materials and processes to design, make and evaluate potential solutions for the world and its citizens.
Music
The Music curriculum is centred on three distinct, but interlinked, areas of music education:
1. Music in the classroom (the ‘taught curriculum’),
2. Instrumental & vocal tuition (in groups or one-to-one) and ensemble membership = co-curricular music
3. Musical ‘events’ and opportunities, e.g. singing in assembly, concerts and shows, trips to professional concerts = musical enrichment
All students access music in the classroom – the focus of curriculum music is on developing students’ musical understanding: getting to know how music works and how it conveys meaning.
Alongside this, students have the opportunity to learn an instrument, with 1:1 lessons taking place during the school day, and to rehearse in instrumental and vocal groups before school, during lunchtime and after school.
There is a series of musical events running through the year – assemblies, house music competitions, student concerts, school shows, workshops, residencies, arts weeks, trips to professional concerts – in which students experience music as a vital element in public culture.
Within the taught curriculum we start by teaching students core skills of singing, performing in unison using fundamental mechanics of the human body. Through this, we explore the elements of music in a practical way. These skills are regularly developed through multiple music mediums, including singing, keyboard and drumming. Performance ability is underpinned by a knowledge rich curriculum. All students learn to read and write music, both graphic and conventional notation. The skills learnt from performing and listening support students when they compose their own music.
Business
Psychology
Health and Social Care
PSHCE
This curriculum is for Years 7, 8 and 9 as a lesson on their timetable in Terms 1, 3 and 5.
In addition to this we have 3 drop-down days in Terms 2, 4 and 6 and a Contextual session at the end of each term for all year groups.
We also have RSE sessions planned across the year for all year groups with our external provider Wayne Stevenson from Stevenson Training. Parents may have opted their child out of these sessions, but at least 2 weeks prior to each session parents will be contacted with more details of these sessions and parents will have the option again to opt their child in or out of these sessions.
Any queries please contact slangley@lodgeparkacademy.co.uk
