SAA Quality of Education Statement

Intent 

At St Augustine Academy, our theologically rooted vision, the school’s values of Courage, Compassion and Community, along with the motto ‘Together with God, we Achieve’ creates a foundation for all activities and interactions with the school. These values guide our curriculum intent and implementation, ensuring that every member of the school community feels valued and respected. 

• We talk about curriculum in terms of the students’ whole experience 

• We want our students to become lifelong learners  

• We deliver a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum designed to prepare our students as best we can for their later lives so that they can flourish and live life in all its fullness.  

As an Academy, we are committed to providing the right curriculum offer for our students. We believe that a broad and balanced curriculum that includes a vocational offer and a full range of academic and creative subjects. 

We provide a three year Key Stage 3 covering all aspects of the National Curriculum.  At Key Stage 4 our curriculum is structured to ensure high ambition for all our students. All students can follow the Ebacc pathway regardless of prior attainment or SEND. A number of vocational options are also made available at KS4 to further expand the offer.  
 
The curriculum is seen as a five year journey. Content, knowledge and skills are carefully considered and are logically sequenced over time as a ‘learning journey’. Also key are planning opportunities to develop and address gaps in student literacy, particularly through a focus on the explicit teaching of reading and vocabulary. Lesson planning in each curriculum area is rooted in long and medium term overviews and a structured Assessment Calendar, which are adhered to consistently.  

Relevant aspects of SMSC and PSHE are integrated into the curriculum subject areas to provide them with context and meaning. There is also an extensive age-appropriate structured tutor time and assembly programme and ‘drop-down days’ occur throughout the year in order to deliver certain key aspects of PSHE/SRE.  

Extracurricular programmes run though the week at the end of the academy day. Trips are  part of the experience of every child and we offer a range of opportunities, including residential visits abroad.  

Academic and personal growth at the Academy are rooted in our ethos, values and a strong pastoral system. We look to ensure every child is known and nurtured shown compassion on their own learning journey. We seek to ensure that barriers to learning are identified, supported and removed so that our students can benefit in full from our curriculum provision. As such, intervention is part of the day to day experience as required.

Implementation

Our formal curriculum is taught across a two week timetable of 25 periods weekly of 1 hour each. Lessons and learning are sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before and pupils can work towards clearly defined end points. 

In terms of assessment for learning, teachers take a broadly common approach to giving written feedback and we think carefully about the impact of our teaching on the students. Teachers check regularly for pupil understanding and misconceptions. Summative and evaluative assessment are carefully planned and mapped through the departmental schemes of work and feed into the Assessment Calendar. This enables us to evaluate the progress of our students at key points in the learning journey and allows teachers to plan for reteaching and intervention.  

Home learning is integrated into the curriculum and is planned to support in-school learning by meeting one or more of the following principles: 

• Embed learning by consolidating what has taken place in the classroom 

• Extend learning beyond what has been achieved in the classroom 

• Exercise learning by practising learning from the classroom. 

Our commitment to educating the whole child means that we invest a lot in our extended curriculum, offering a range of enriching opportunities. Our hope is that every child in the Academy will be involved in some form of personal enrichment during their time with us. The after-school clubs and extracurricular opportunities at the Academy are therefore numerous and cater for the many diverse interests of our students, ranging from activities as diverse as drama to weightlifting. 

Sports are a huge part of Academy life and we encourage students to take part and represent the school in their chosen sport. Our SAA sports teams compete against other local schools in Athletics, Football and Rugby. Our Weightlifters have competed in National Championships. Performing Arts is another strength of the Academy. Students will have the chance to sing in a choir and to take part in the numerous music, drama and dance performances that take place throughout the year. The Duke of Edinburgh Award has grown in leaps and bounds since its launch, with nearly 30 students successfully completing the assessed expedition in the South Downs National Park.  
 
As well as exploring explicit curriculum links to careers and futures in lesson plans, students are given opportunities to engage with such employers in a tangible way, to hear about their career pathways and ask them questions. KS4 students also all partake in a careers interview in order to fully guide them on their next steps. 

Key Stage 3 Curriculum

Our broad, rich KS3 runs across years 7, 8 and 9 and covers all aspects of the national curriculum. The KS3 curriculum incorporates: 

• Maths, English, Science 

• French or Spanish 

• History, Geography, RE and Citizenship 

• Drama, Dance, Music, Art 

• IT and Computer Science, Design Technology, Food 

• PE 

Encouraging the value of reading for pleasure is an important part of our curriculum delivery. Students are encouraged to read aloud and they regularly experience teachers modelling good reading practice in class. To further support reading, all KS3 students have a fortnightly English lesson in our library. Where required, students are supported through a graduated range of reading and literacy interventions. 

Key Stage 4 Curriculum

KS4 runs across years 10 and 11 and all KS4 students study Maths, English Language & Literature and Science as well as core PE and RE each fortnight. 
 
In terms of choosing options, students select 3 option subjects from a broad selection. A number of students follow the Ebacc pathway and make an open choice from a suite of creative and physical subjects such as Dance, Music, Art and PE. A number of additional vocational options are also made available at KS4, enabling students to tailor their experience by choosing from options such as Hospitality & Catering. This is not designed to overcome barriers to learning or disadvantage, but to give all students appropriate choices which help them to make informed decisions about their future. The aim is that expanding the offer will encourage improved engagement at school and all option decisions are supported by ‘knowing our students’.

Impact

We want our students to know more, remember more and be able to do more, becoming lifelong learners during their time at the Academy. 
 
When leaving after Year 11 to pursue their chosen path of education, training or employment, we want our students to move on from the Academy as well-equipped as they can be for their next steps. Our aim is that our curriculum educates the whole child and maximises the future life chances of all our students. 
 
It is also key to us that our leavers possess the learning skills and cultural capital needed to go on and have fulfilling, happy lives. Our destination statistics are extremely positive, with the vast majority of our students leaving for a defined path in terms of their next steps, be that school sixth form, vocational college, apprenticeship, university or work.