Curriculum Overview
Curriculum Rationale
At Phoenix, our tagline of aspire, believe, succeed are at the heart of everything that we do. Phoenix is a learning environment at the heart of its community, where we set high expectations to ensure that every pupil excels across all aspects of school life. Our spirit for ‘excellence in everything we do’ is rooted in a desire to bring out the very best in all students and prepare them for success in life.
We want our students to leave with knowledge and skills which will not only create excellent life opportunities but will also prepare them for life beyond school.
Curriculum Aims and Principles
At Phoenix, students will experience:
- A broad, balanced and effectively sequenced curriculum, with a strong focus on core knowledge.
- An ambitious curriculum that is suitable for all learners, that allows them to know and remember more.
- A curriculum which focuses on developing the whole person, preparing them to flourish in a changing world.
- A curriculum which improves the reading, communication and Numeracy skills of all learners.
A broad, balanced and effectively sequenced curriculum, with a strong focus on core knowledge.
Our Key Stage 3 curriculum spans across 3 years, allowing the curriculum to meet National Curriculum requirements. Students learn essential knowledge built around a 'learning journey' which is effectively sequenced to ensure they have a deep understanding across a range of subjects. As students move into Year 10, they become more specialised in their learning through our option selection process.
An ambitious curriculum that is suitable for all learners, that allows them to know and remember more.
Our school is inclusive and ambitious for all, designed to give all learners, particularly the most disadvantaged, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. We have the same academic ambitions for all learners. There are many opportunities built into lessons to recall and retrieve previous learning so that knowledge is fully embedded. Our response to the EBacc curriculum has been through a sustained growth within these subject areas and this growth is planned to be accelerated in 2023 / 2024.
A curriculum which focuses on developing the whole person, preparing them to flourish in a changing world.
Alongside our academic intentions, at Phoenix, we strive to develop students as well-rounded future citizens who will make a positive contribution to society. With our students’ needs in mind, we have sought to create a curriculum which allows for students to develop the personal qualities and attributes, alongside the academic knowledge and skills needed for them to thrive in a changing world. To enhance this, we pride ourselves on our SMSC (social, moral, spiritual and cultural) enrichment days. SMSC is embedded in the school in order to develop the student as a whole, to ensure they are fully prepared for life in modern Britain. Students are also encouraged to take part in a range of sporting, CCF, Duke of Edinburgh, extra- curricular and charitable activities.
A curriculum which improves the reading, communication and Numeracy skills of all learners.
The development of students’ reading and communication skills are an integral part of our school’s curriculum, as we understand how vital these are for our students to be able to thrive in their life beyond Phoenix. We have created opportunities to read for pleasure in our tutor reading programme, in order to foster a love of reading within our young people. Subjects incorporate opportunities to develop students’ reading skills in lessons and vocabulary instruction is used to enhance students’ ability to articulate their ideas confidently and aid their understanding of texts. We ensure students have opportunities in all subjects to discuss, challenge and build on other points of view in lessons, especially in our ‘Oracy Friday’ retrieval activities, as we are committed to ensuring our students are confident in expressing their views. Numeracy skills are also embedded across the curriculum. Students who are working below the expected standard in reading and Numeracy receive interventions to help them improve. The school aims that all students are able to read in line with age related expectations and are numerate, enabling them to flourish and access the next stage of their education, employment or training.
Academic Year 2024 / 2025
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Year 11
Key Stage 5
The Post 16 offer from Phoenix provides an opportunity to study a wide range of Level 3 subjects, both academic and vocational. The further study of Level 2 English and Mathematics is expected for all students not achieving a GCSE grade 4 at the end of Key Stage 4.
