Our Curriculum Journey

Students at Wymondham High Academy experience a 5-year curriculum journey starting in Year 7 with our Core Curriculum, before moving onto our Focused Curriculum in year 9.

Our Core Curriculum is designed to encourage students to focus on gaining a solid understanding of key concepts, where knowledge can be anchored and deeply understood. They can extend their knowledge and skills as they progress. We ensure students have dedicated time to focus on the core and foundation subjects combined with an engaging programme of study in performing and visual arts, technology and foreign languages. We value all areas of our broad curriculum and want students to become well-rounded individuals with secure core knowledge. Each subject area has a planned learning journey with clear statements setting out what students need to know, understand and do to reach aspirational and challenging end points. Lesson planning allows students to develop a range of skills which they can apply across all subject areas to help them with the challenge of the curriculum. Our Curriculum Leaders have a detailed awareness of all content and skills being taught across subject areas to ensure students can create links and transfer skills and knowledge seamlessly. The National Curriculum content is carefully considered and reviewed to ensure ourstudents have an enhanced experience following our curriculum programmes and all key areas in the National Curriculum are covered. Curriculum Leaders carefully consider what students need to understand and apply at the end of each of our transition point.

Students begin our Focused Curriculum as they begin Year 9. Mastery is a key focus at this point of their curriculum journey. Students choose 5 subjects to study in depth. This is a deliberate action to engage students, enable students to really enjoy their subject and learn the depth of their subject over the next three years. The curriculum model allows students to choose subjects in addition to the Maths, English, Science, PE, Computing or IMedia, COMMS and RPE. All students study a language throughout this transition point and either History or Geography. This provides students with a broad and balanced curriculum as well as allowing depth of knowledge and passion for subject choices. All our students have equal access to subjects.

We provide a substantial range of extra-curricular activities, to ensure students can maintain a deep interest in a subject, even if not formally studying in their second phase of the curriculum journey. Students are offered a mixture of practical and academic subjects from all subject areas. As well as offering a broad and balanced curriculum we want to maximise the outcomes achieved by everyone. Our Curriculum design allows stretch and challenge for students to ensure they have the skills, knowledge and experiences to meet the demands of the local labour market and able to access post-16 options. This model also maintains the widest possible choice for progression routes Post 16 as every student will have a wide variety of subjects to enable future opportunities for education and training. Both outcomes and destinations demonstrate the success of this model.

Students begin our Specialist Curriculum if they remain with us in Sixth Form. Our Sixth Form offers 30 different A Level subjects and a Cambridge Technical. These courses are offered to students after careful consideration of other local providers to give students choices and options. Students are challenged and supported as they progress through their level 3 courses. Students study 3-4 A Levels with the option of an EPQ or Core Maths. Students research and consider destinations throughout their time to ensure they make informed decisions for their futures. Outcomes and destinations remain strong over time. Last academic year over 80% of student applied to university and 90% of these students secured places. 39% of students secured placed at the top third of universities with successful applications to Oxbridge and Medical schools. Humanities, Social Sciences and the Sciences remain the most popular fields of study. Of the students not moving to university, a third have secured places on apprenticeship courses or in work with training. The remaining are taking gap years to reapply to university for different courses.

Our curriculum policy can be found here.