Welcome to Woodfields Academy Astrea Academy Trust
The Astrea Way – Astrea Woodfields: Curriculum Overview
Ambitions
At Astrea Academy Woodfields, we are ambitious for our curriculum to be academically rigorous, carefully constructed by subject specialists and sequenced in a way that ensures systematic teaching and mastery. It should introduce students to powerful knowledge that takes them beyond their everyday experiences and places students in a strong position to lead successful lives beyond school, to question and debate the world around them, making them intellectually curious and tenacious and preparing them for citizenship in a democratic society.
Through engagement with their subject specialism and their subject communities, teachers understand the distinct nature of their subject and can engage with the evidence-based research through the subject lens, so that a subject-specific pedagogic approach can be adopted and used effectively. We do not narrow the curriculum for any pupil. Instead, we ensure that all students receive their entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum, including a generous allocation of Art, Drama and Music as distinct specialisms at Key Stage 3.
We work to ensure that our curriculum is coherent and builds learning over time. We ensure that our students have embedded opportunities to connect current learning to both past and future, which enables our students to build this core knowledge at Key Stage 3, with the opportunity to specialise at Key Stage 4.
Within our curriculum, we ensure that we develop the literacy, communication and numeracy skills. This places at the centre of the curriculum plans the need for our students, from their cultural and socio-economic backgrounds to make them ready for a fulfilling and successful life in the future.
Our Personal Development curriculum enables students to make informed choices about being safe and staying healthy. This is supported by access to a well-planned PE curriculum. British Values are interwoven through Personal Development and throughout the frameworks of the relevant subject areas. The Personal Development curriculum has recently been reviewed and improved, building character and cultural capital, considering specifically the local contexts and needs of our students, whilst requiring them to appreciate and respect other cultures.
We provide excellent careers information, advice and guidance and have a dedicated member of staff to support students at crucial points in deciding their next steps.
Literacy:
We use Apollo (Tutor Time) and curriculum development to prioritise high quality reading for all students. Students are introduced to high quality texts, which they engage with in the best way according to research. All schemes of work throughout the academy take into account challenging reading texts and the development of student vocabulary through a Reciprocal Reading Approach. Students are given feedback as a whole class, with individual pointers as to where they have made errors that need correcting by the student.
Key Stage 3
Our students follow a broad and balanced, traditional 3-year KS3 curriculum which is firmly based on the knowledge needed to progress. Our lessons are 1 hour 5 minutes, with 5 lessons per day. Each Key Stage 3 student has a daily 20 minute Apollo lesson.
We assess students on entry to the academy using GL assessment data. This gives us more information about students which we can use to explore needs further.
Curriculum Allocation per fortnight
| English (8 lessons) | Mathematics (8 lessons) | Science (6 lessons) |
| Geography (4 lessons) | History (4 lessons) | Spanish (4 lessons) |
| PE (4 lessons) | RE/PSHE (2 lesson) | Art, Design & Tech (4 lesson) |
| Music (2 lessons) | IT (2 lesson) | Drama (2 lesson) |
Key Stage 4 (Y10 & 11)
In Key Stage 4 all pupils continue to study a broad and balanced academic curriculum to GCSE or equivalent, but can specialise, to reflect their passions and chosen future pathways. We offer a guided pathway route into Y10 to allow scholars to choose some subjects that best reflect their interests. Please click the link for the Y9 Guided Pathways Options Booklet – AAW Guided Pathways 2024 Booklet
We continue to ensure that the curriculum is balanced, academic and knowledge rich ensuring that curriculum is not narrowed to ‘the tests’.
We have allocated considerable time and resources to ensure pupils achieve well across the core and options subjects. Further information can be found in our Post14 Pathways documents as to the different options our students can undertake at Key Stage 4.
Curriculum Allocation per fortnight
| English (9 lessons) | Mathematics (9 lessons) | Science (9 lessons) |
| Three Specialised Subjects (3 x 6 lessons) | ||
| PE (3 lessons) | RE/PSHE (2 lessons) | |
To find out more information about the BTEC qualifications we currently offer at Woodfields, please click the following link: