Curriculum Overview
Vision
Our Vision for the curriculum at Harris Academy Morden is driven by our belief in the power that a great curriculum has to transform lives, not just by securing excellent qualifications but by developing every young person spiritually, morally, socially, culturally and emotionally, allowing them to mature into young adults fully equipped to realise their dreams and ambitions. To achieve this, our mission is to provide every student with the essential knowledge, skills and cultural capital to thrive both in their education and in modern society.
Intent of our curriculum
Ambition The intent of our curriculum is to provide a solid foundation across a wide range of disciplines through our comprehensive Key Stage 3 programme, which allows us to be ambitious for Key Stage 4, where all students continue to study an academic curriculum, taking one or more humanities subjects with as many as possible also studying a language to complete the Ebacc qualification. This will maximise the number of students equipped to progress to higher education.
Knowledge Our curriculum is primarily knowledge-based and is carefully planned by each Subject Director to ensure students learn the knowledge and key concepts for that discipline, while developing the skills they need to be successful. Teachers plan lessons that tap into students’ curiosity, encouraging them to think and work independently, in turn preparing them for the next steps in their education.
Creativity and Cultural Capital Our curriculum values creativity and from day one students are challenged to express themselves in art, drama, music and cookery, providing them with both the life skills and the cultural capital that comes with being able to talk about an artist they admire or a play they have performed in. These curriculum areas add richness outside the classroom through opportunities for theatre and gallery visits, along with numerous occasions when students can sing or perform.
Equality and Equity Our curriculum is underpinned by a commitment to equality of opportunity and complies with the Equality Act (2010) and Special Educational Needs Regulations (2014). We strive to ensure that all students are able to succeed no matter what their entry point is. This means that we have a sharp focus on reading, writing, speaking and numeracy. Some will require specialist teaching to help develop the basics that were not formed appropriately in Key Stage 1 and 2 through formal teaching of Phonics. For others this will be the development of subject specific language and knowledge through specialist teachers. All teachers know their classes and the individuals in them and so ensure that specific needs are catered for.
Personal Development To equip students to be responsible global citizens who engage with British society and its values, live happy and healthy lives and know how to achieve their life goals and secure their economic wellbeing, we have a comprehensive programme of SMSC, PSHE, citizenship and careers activities that expose students to a range of learning opportunities, experiences and inspirational speakers to ensure that the academic side of the curriculum is fully complemented, preparing students for life beyond school.
Implementation
Organisation – Key Stage 3
At Key Stage 3, we deliver the National Curriculum. This provides all students with a firm foundation across a wide range of disciplines and ensures that students have a secure grounding in all curriculum subjects before selecting their options. We have carefully balanced the curriculum provision so that all students make excellent progress in the core subjects whilst having ample time to develop their talents in the arts, humanities and languages. This ensures that all students have the opportunity to progress to the English Baccalaureate qualification at Key Stage 4.
In Years 7-9 students are taught in mixed ability classes. We believe that mixed ability provides more benefit for the majority of our students. This enables teachers to organise groups around a range of criteria such as behaviour, a balance of gender, a balance of academic ability and friendship groups. This creates harmonious groups and the most important factor, there is never a ‘sink’ group. We believe children learn from each other, therefore the brightest students learn from ‘teaching’ and sharing their knowledge to others and less academic students learn from their peers to support the learning gained from their teachers. Fogelman and Kerchoff showed that “students in remedial classes performed especially poorly compared to ungrouped students” (Gamoran, 1992), concluding that setting has a negative impact both on academic performance among middle and lower attaining students and a significant impact on equity of education. For this reason, teachers and Subject Directors also consider the factors outlined in Dunne et al’s study, 2007, including student behaviour, gender ratios and friendships.
Table 1 – The KS3 Curriculum model from September 2024
|
|
Lessons p/w |
Hours Per Year 7 |
Lessons p/w |
Hours Per Year 8 |
Lessons p/w |
Hours Per Year 9 |
|
English |
5 |
158 |
5 |
158 |
5 |
158 |
|
Maths |
4 |
127 |
4 |
127 |
5 |
158 |
|
Science |
6 |
190 |
6 |
190 |
6 |
190 |
|
Art |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
|
Citizenship |
0.6 |
19 |
0.6 |
19 |
0.6 |
19 |
|
Computing |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
|
DT |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
|
Drama |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
|
Geography |
2 |
63 |
2 |
63 |
2 |
63 |
|
History |
2 |
63 |
2 |
63 |
2 |
63 |
|
Spanish |
3 |
95 |
3 |
95 |
2 |
63 |
|
Music |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
|
PE |
2 |
63 |
2 |
63 |
2 |
63 |
|
RE |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
Table 1 shows the Key Stage 3 Curriculum from September 2024. Years 7-9 complete Key Stage 3 over 3 years, making their option choices in Year 9. Lessons are typically of 50 minutes’ duration, although most subjects have several double lessons of 100 minutes. In the tables above and below, one period equates to 50 minutes. Students in years 7, 8, 9 have 30 periods per week. Students in years 10 and 11 have 33 50-minute periods per week and at least 3 twilight sessions per week of up to 2 hours per session.
Organisation – Key Stage 4
The intention of the KS4 curriculum is to develop a deep understanding of the core curriculum and the subjects of personal interest to each student which in turn will prepare students for external examinations. KS4 provides the ‘keys’ that will open doors in a child’s future. KS4 life at Harris Morden will focus on developing each student’s academic, pastoral and moral well-being to ensure they are able to select any ‘door’ to open in the future to follow their hopes, desires and dreams.
Students continue with their core subjects in Key Stage 4 and select 3 options.
Table 2 – The KS4 Curriculum model September 2024
|
|
Lessons p/w |
Hours Per Year 10 |
Lessons p/w |
Hours Per Year 11 |
|
English |
8 |
253 |
8 |
253 |
|
Maths |
6 |
190 |
6 |
190 |
|
Science |
6 |
190 |
6 |
190 |
|
Art |
4 |
127 |
4 |
127 |
|
Citizenship |
0.6 |
19 |
0.6 |
19 |
|
IT/Computing |
4 |
127 |
4 |
127 |
|
DT |
4 |
127 |
4 |
127 |
|
Geography |
4 |
127 |
4 |
127 |
|
History |
4 |
127 |
4 |
127 |
|
Spanish |
4 |
127 |
4 |
127 |
|
Music |
4 |
127 |
4 |
127 |
|
PE |
1 |
32 |
1 |
32 |
|
RE |
4 |
127 |
n/a |
n/a |
Table 2 shows our Key Stage 4 model for 2024-25. At Key Stage 4, all students continue with a core curriculum of English Language and Literature, maths, science, PE and citizenship. In addition they study 3 option subjects. Each year we review the option subjects offered, but typically, in addition to the National Curriculum subjects, students are given the opportunity to choose GCSE Psychology or a vocational option such as Graphic Design or Sport Studies. All students study humanities and we encourage as many students as possible to take a language and achieve the Ebacc. When our students choose their GCSEs we emphasise that they are taking their first step on the path to university and a career. We guide them to make good decisions about their education and understand what they need to do in order to achieve their ambitions and aspirations. We fully prepare our students to be able to begin A Level courses by Year 12 as strong, independent learners.
Harris Academy Morden fulfils its statutory requirements to provide Religious Education at Key Stage Four to all pupils through termly lessons and Spiritual, Moral, Social, Cultural (“SMSC”) days. All pupils across the school receive assemblies which highlight different religious celebrations and events throughout the year.
For those who do not select computing/ICT as an optional subject, National Curriculum Computing continues into KS4 delivered through a series of projects delivered across the 6 annual drop-down days.
We are very aware of the levels of stress placed on young people during their GCSE years. Quite apart from the increased amount of content in the newer GCSE syllabi, the modern world of social media and the internet causes many young people to be anxious and they are called upon to be very resilient at this important time. We address this in a number of ways
- By ensuring students focus on an appropriate range of qualifications without being over-stretched by too many qualifications or conversely held back by a narrow curriculum
- By structuring revision. Courses aim to finish their content by Christmas of year 11, providing time to review, revise practice examination techniques and gain confidence
- By giving students additional access to teaching and support through the twilight programme. These after-school sessions ensure students are guided in their revision and have an appropriate, structured place to study.
- By providing excellent pastoral support. We offer a wealth of guidance through assemblies, mentoring programmes, online revision and tutoring, inspirational speakers and mindfulness sessions for those who need them.
Our model provides more time for students to learn the content in greater depth. The model provides time for intellectual discussion and challenge for the highest ability students whilst at the same time, slows the pace of learning to a more manageable one for students who require more time and patience (but equally have aspirations and potential to do well).
Curriculum Planning and Review
The implementation of our curriculum across the academy is illustrated below. It starts out with the planning of schemes of work and lesson materials and their delivery in the classroom. Their success is then tested using a range of assessment methods. At the same time, senior managers assure the quality of delivery and impact through lesson observation, book scrutiny and student voice interviews. This then informs feedback to Subject Directors to inform their planning and help identify training and development needs.
Planning
Subject Directors are the key agents in planning the delivery of the curriculum in each subject. The primary focus of their role is to plan sequences of lessons that ensure that students master increasingly complex knowledge and skills, with each year’s learning building upon the last. Working with their department teams, they expertly drive the implementation of their subject by employing and encouraging a wide range of creative approaches and techniques to best secure student learning. To view the plans for each subject please visit the ‘Subjects’ page on our website.
Each Subject Director oversees the preparation of Schemes of Work for each year group. We have developed schemes of work to support all teachers by setting out the curriculum for their subject with an emphasis on what is to be taught and in what order. All subjects have identified the intents for their specific discipline and create plans which deliver and revisit these key aspects throughout each year. When planning a unit, teachers define endpoints for each unit and then plan sequences of lessons which contribute to these endpoints. They will consider the key vocabulary that students need to know and plan in strategies to help students know and remember more, such as interleaving or retrieval practice. They will make decisions about how often to revisit topics or practice skills. They will identify opportunities for cross-curricular work, for example, the core knowledge of World War 1 in history adds to the hinterland curriculum for English when they study war poetry. Each subject identifies opportunities to develop cultural capital, both through lesson activities and beyond the classroom with enrichment and trips.
All teachers ensure their lessons are planned to stretch and challenge the most able students in their classes as well as supporting those who sometimes struggle. This is underpinned by the principles of Quality First teaching. Throughout their time at Harris Academy Morden, students who need extra support receive it through a wide range of channels, including within lessons, during after school catch-up sessions and, where appropriate, via the SEND department.
Assessment
Assessment is an on-going process and is built into every lesson. Teachers assess student progress in a range of ways, including the assessment phase of each lesson, questioning and class discussion, end of unit tests and formal assessments. They carry out detailed question level analysis of students’ work and use this to identify strengths and areas of weakness so that they can intervene appropriately. They mark students’ books in line with our marking policy and provide students with feedback to respond to.
At least twice per year, students complete a formal assessment which will be marked and moderated to establish how well each student can recall and apply what they have learnt. Subject Directors analyse the test against their planned curriculum intents and populate a Question Level Analysis document which provides information about how well different aspects of the planned curriculum have been learnt. Time is then built into the calendar for teachers to focus on the outcomes of the QLA and revisit points of difficulty.
All of this assessment activity provides valuable information on how well our students are understanding what is being taught and how well our curriculum is being implemented. This will inform both short- and medium-term planning because:
- Teachers will adapt their lessons to review points of difficulty and challenge misconceptions
- Subject directors will review their schemes of work to maximise the impact of their curriculum.
Teaching and Learning
Monitoring of teaching and learning by senior and middle leaders is also focused around ensuring the effective planning and delivery of the curriculum. Each subject undergoes a cycle of review and evaluation each year which includes:
- Discussions between SLT and the Subject Leader about strengths and areas for development in the department
- Observations of each teacher in that department, covering a range of year groups across the department
- A review of the scheme of work in relation to what is being delivered in class
- A review of the assessment data for the subject
- Scrutiny of a range of student work and exercise books
- Discussions with students about their learning
- Discussions with teachers about their lessons (feedback meetings)
Each Subject Evaluation and Review Cycle is led by a senior leader who will summarise its findings and discuss them with the relevant Subject Director, to inform their Subject Improvement Plan. In addition, the outcomes of the monitoring process will be used to inform termly reviews of the Quality of Teaching at the academy and help identify Academy Professional Learning needs and shape both our weekly Best Practice sessions and any additional whole Academy sessions.
Support Programmes
During a student’s time at Harris Academy Morden they may require additional support programmes dependent on their arrival point and their individual needs.
Our philosophy is to provide extensive support to students based on their need.
In terms of the curriculum, we have two main programmes of support:
- EAL support programmes
- Literacy based support programmes
We passionately believe that if students do not receive enough depth in their areas of need then this can diminish a student’s life chances and their Academic success is capped.
At Harris Morden we have invested heavily in our EAL and Literacy programmes. We have specially trained TAs and teachers to manage and deliver these programmes of study and allocate a significant number of hours over a week to ensure students improve in their areas of need quickly and move to re-join a wider or full curriculum as quickly as possible.
It is this programme of extensive early support that enables students to progress and we are deeply proud of our efforts and the success our students achieve as they become more confident in their reading and speaking skills thus opening the door for them to progress and experience a range of curriculum opportunities.
EAL Support Programmes
Harris Academy Morden is within the top quintile for the number of EAL students. We have therefore invested in an extensive EAL programme to support the many students whom English is a 2nd language.
Our approach is to provide bespoke direct instruction within the EAL department before a student progresses into the mainstream curriculum in the future. For some students this means starting out full- time within the EAL centre completing the English Immersion programme, whilst for others withdrawal will only be for part of their curriculum. The desire is to build the students’ English language skills quickly, so they can re-join the main curriculum and be successful. We sometimes place a child in the year group below their chronological age to facility this programme and provide the additional time they require to learn the language and then access the curriculum.
EAL Pathways
KS3 English Immersion (EI) Pathway
KS3 Students assessed to be at New to English (A) level (DfE levels) are offered an English Immersion (EI) Pathway. Students on this pathway follow a bespoke English language programme delivered by the EAL specialists, which aims at developing their overall English proficiency and enables them to be integrated into full curriculum as soon as they are ready. In addition to the intense and personalised English language programme, students also attend practical mainstream subjects (art, PE, music, catering, and drama) as well as mainstream maths lessons.
KS3 EAL Withdrawal
KS3 students assessed to be at Early Acquisition (B) level receive EAL withdrawal sessions (across the subjects) and in class support in science, English, geography and history. In their EAL withdrawal sessions they follow an inspiring and up to date English language course aimed at developing their proficiency in English across all 4 language skills. The curriculum for this pathway is based on National Geographic learning materials and TED talks which help the learners develop their language competence through inspiring ideas to motivate learning, effective models of communication, a focus on critical thinking and authentic language. The students on this pathway also benefit from the EAL extra-curricular offer.
KS3/ KS4 Access Pathway
Students assessed to be at New to English (A) Level (DfE levels) are offered an EAL Access Pathway. Students on the Access Pathway follow a bespoke English language programme which aims at developing their overall English proficiency across all four language skills - speaking and listening, reading and writing. The students benefit from small group teaching and individualised programmes of study which leads to them being entered for Cambridge KET (A2 Key, formerly known as Cambridge English: Key) or Cambridge PET (B1 Preliminary, formerly known as Cambridge English: Preliminary) exams. In this pathway students also attend mainstream Maths lessons and PE lessons. Each student’s progress is closely monitored and once they reach Early Acquisition (B)/Developing Competence (C) level they are gradually reintegrated into all mainstream subjects. Some of the year 11 Access students sit their GCSE Maths in the Summer Term. All students move on to college to take on ESOL level 2 courses or to start their GCSE/Vocational courses.
In addition, The EAL Department works in conjunction with the English Department, Science Department and Humanities Department and offers English literature, geography, and science lessons on a weekly basis to Access Pathway students to enable them to access these subjects once they move on to study GCSE/Vocational courses or level 2 courses at college.
KS4 EAL Double Withdrawal Option
KS4 Students assessed to be at Early Acquisition (B) level are offered EAL Double Withdrawal Option. They attend all core subjects and 1 option subject and receive EAL intervention in place of two other option subjects. This gives them a chance to develop their English language proficiency in order for them to be able to access and successfully pass their chosen GCSE subjects. To achieve this, the students follow a bespoke support programme which comprises of specific English language teaching sessions as well as an in depth study opportunities focused on revision and enhancement of their GCSE subject knowledge. The students also take the Cambridge KET/PET qualification. As part of this pathway, the students receive in-class support from the EAL Department in all GCSE subjects.
KS4 EAL Single Withdrawal Option
KS4 Students assessed to be at further stages of Early Acquisition (B 5-10) level or Developing Competence (C) level are offered EAL Single Withdrawal Option. They attend all core subjects and 2 option subjects and receive EAL intervention in place of one option subject. This gives them a chance to develop their English language proficiency in order for them to be able to access and successfully pass their chosen GCSE subjects. To achieve this, the students follow a bespoke support programme which comprises of specific English language teaching sessions as well as in depth study opportunities focused on revision and enhancement of their GCSE subject knowledge. The students are also supported in most of their GCSE subjects.
In-class support
In addition to teaching English language in withdrawal sessions, a significant component of EAL provision involves in-class support, with EAL specialist staff assigned to attend subject lessons to support students in the language of the content area.
The GCSE performance of EAL students is fantastic, with +0.97 achieved in 2023 (SISRA estimate) therefore a clear demonstration that our long term strategy for EAL has the desired impact for our students.
Literacy Support Programmes
Literacy is a whole Academy priority and every teacher is a teacher of literacy in their subject. Students develop their literacy throughout the Academy, however, some students arrive with very low levels of literacy and require targeted intervention. Students are tested twice-yearly and this data allows us to provide teachers with contextual information about students’ reading ability and identify those who require
We operate an Academy-wide reading programme to ensure students continue to develop the three key intentions of the Key Stage 3 English programme of study for reading. The three areas listed below are critical for the life chances of all students and although they are the intentions for English they form the backbone for every subject hence the importance we place on this within this Academy:
- Develop an appreciation and love of reading, and read increasingly challenging material independently
- Understand increasingly challenging texts
- Read critically
We believe in the ‘Power of reading aloud’ and continue the practice students undertake in the early years at Primary school where students read aloud to their teacher. It is here that the teacher can witness if a child is breaking down words and decoding, whether they are reading fluently and whether they have an understanding of text through their expression of words, sentences and paragraphs.
Reading aloud is something usually associated with children or unsophisticated readers, a remedial technique to be phased out as soon as people learn to read silently. But a growing body of research suggests that reading out loud may actually have significant cognitive benefits — even for experienced readers.
The recent study, conducted by researchers Colin Macleod and Noah Forrin at the University of Waterloo and published in the journal Memory, found that reading words aloud made them easier to remember compared to reading them silently. This is because verbally pronouncing a word creates a memorable experience — a phenomenon the researchers call the “production effect”. The active cognitive process of encoding the word into speech also helps to encode it into long-term memory. Additionally, when it came to words heard through recordings, students were better able to remember those recorded in their own voice than those pronounced by someone else. According to the authors, this suggests that hearing one’s own voice provides a distinct stimulus of self-recognition, which also helps make the content memorable.
https://www.scilearn.com/blog/little-known-truths-about-reading-aloud
Our approach to EAL is research-based and proven as an effective method of teaching and the results for our EAL students over time have been with the top quantile.
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Research to support our EAL strategy
So what are the benefits of withdrawing learners from the mainstream classroom? According to the British Council EAL Nexus website, a withdrawal programme claims to fall into three broad categories; social, linguistic and logistical advantages (Small Group Intervention outside Mainstream, EAL Nexus. British Council, n.d. Web. 2017). Here are the details:
Social Advantages
Linguistic Advantages
Logistical Advantages
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Research to support our EAL strategy
- While it can be argued that EAL learners have an entitlement to experience a full and varied curriculum through complete class immersion and no withdrawal, some would argue that learners benefit from being withdrawn for time limited support to help them develop their English language in order to assist them in accessing the curriculum (NALDIC, FAQ Podcast, 2017).
- Trzebiatowski (2017) explains that withdrawing students in a small group can allow the students to feel safe and provide them with a step-by-step, well-structured learning environment which will give them the building blocks they need to access the mainstream classroom.
- A study by Thomas and Collier (1997) found that EAL learners do not benefit entirely from mainstream instruction as much as they do when they receive academic content taught by an EAL teacher during withdrawal group sessions. In Thomas and Collier’s (1997) research they found that learners who had received a withdrawal group programme, were later able to access the mainstream classroom and finish school with similar average scores to that of their native speaking peers. This shows that offering suitable withdrawal can be very effective. Of course, appropriate differentiation within the class is also imperative.
So what are the benefits of withdrawing learners from the mainstream classroom? According to the British Council EAL Nexus website, a withdrawal programme claims to fall into three broad categories; social, linguistic and logistical advantages (Small Group Intervention outside Mainstream, EAL Nexus. British Council, n.d. Web. 2017). Here are the details:
Social Advantages
- Learners meet other learners from diverse backgrounds, each presenting their own knowledge.
- Learners are able to make friends with others in a similar position and are able to have empathy with one another.
- Learners will have time to listen, think and reflect in the new language and offer them a safe space to make mistakes and speak more freely.
Linguistic Advantages
- Learners are able to learn the language of the curriculum prior to the lesson.
- Language development involves constructing meaning in a social context.
- The more language they are exposed to, the quicker they will pick the language up.
- Intervention sessions will help new arrivals to hear good models of the language and be offered opportunities to practice the structures repeatedly.
Logistical Advantages
- Often the EAL specialist is able to work with the learners in both the mainstream and during the intervention sessions, gaining an overall understanding of the language development needs.
- Learners may not always join the school at the start of the year and therefore a need for intervention is needed to help them ‘catch-up’
- An intervention programme can be tailored to the needs of the learner, as not all learners start at the same point and each learner is unique.
For this reason we have elected to include one hour of reading per week into our English curriculum and students are listened to and tracked using the bespoke Harris Academy Morden reading programme.
There are also children who need further specialist work to help develop their literacy, reading and writing skills and confidence. At Harris Academy Morden we offer small group sessions using a variety of programmes to address this need.
A full programme is detailed below of the intervention delivered and how the students are selected for this intervention:
|
Intervention Programme |
Targeted Students |
Delivery Details |
|
Reading Lesson |
Years 7, 8 and 9 students |
Weekly designated Reading lessons. Students will begin the lesson reading their own bespoke reading book that is focuses on reading for progress, for students to progress through the HAMD reading scheme. The second half of the lesson, students engage with a class reader in which all students can engage with. Each book that is used as a class reader relates to that year groups scheme of work. |
|
Lexia intervention |
Year 7, Year 8, students who are withdrawn from class for literacy intervention. |
Students who are withdrawn from class for literacy intervention will be asked to complete LEXIA for homework. This will be checked by ERA on a weekly basis.
|
|
Intensive ‘Fresh Start’ literacy intervention |
Lowest Reading Age students in Year 7. |
Students complete the Fresh Start phonics programme and complete grammar and punctuation lessons. They are removed from a variety of subjects until they complete the course. |
|
Vocabulary literacy intervention |
Students who are identified as having low word recognition are placed onto the vocabulary intervention. |
Students are taught how to identify and group various words based on decoding root words, prefixes and suffixes. |
|
Reading – literacy intervention |
Students who score low on reading comprehension accuracy |
These students have reading broken down to them and they are taught the skills of reciprocal reading. These skills are broken down into four key components: summarise, clarify, question and predict. |
|
Book Buddy Breakfast sessions |
Students underachieving in English in Year 7 and 8 |
Students read with mentors in morning sessions. |
|
Bedrock Vocabulary |
Years 7, 8, 9 and 10
Selected students in Year 11 are given additional vocabulary lessons.
|
Students complete the programme for homework.
Students with low levels of engagement in Y10 are required to attend Bedrock catch-up clubs run weekly by the English department. |
|
Years 10/11 Additional Time |
Students identified as requiring further help by SDs
|
Students complete after school twilight sessions with specialist teachers focusing on areas of need. |
|
Reading Clubs |
Open to all KS3+KS4 students |
Members of the English department run book and reading clubs to promote and foster a love of reading for pleasure |
Personal Development and Safeguarding
Alongside our rigorous academic programme, our curriculum makes a significant contribution to students’ personal development and safeguarding. The Academy develops students’ strength of character from the moment they enter the academy’s gates. The Academy motto is ‘Courage, Challenge and Success’. Every day students are expected to show resilience and have the determination to persist even when things are difficult. Our ethos fosters an environment where students are confident to voice their views, cope with struggle, ask for help when they don’t understand and identify their own strengths and weaknesses. Our marking and feedback is designed to help students reflect on each piece of work and provides them with an opportunity to improve on it, promoting resilience and independence by helping them see their own potential to improve.
We have a well-established programme of Personal Development, which is delivered through a number of channels including weekly assemblies, tutor-time activities including the Jigsaw programme, 3 Personal Development days per year and the annual AEE week when students have the opportunity to visit all manner of museums and other places of interest. As part of this, students are taught the Citizenship National Curriculum in a weekly tutor-led session and Fundamental British Values are promoted throughout the academy, in assemblies and on Personal Development Days. To encourage students to be active Global Citizens:
* Each faculty organises events for different charities and we observe various charity events throughout the year.
* The Student Council is active and meets half-termly.
* We take part in annual elections in school and have returned 2 representatives to the Merton Youth Parliament.
* We have also sent a representative to the London Youth Assembly.
The academy offers a wide-ranging extended learning and enrichment programme, designed to nurture, develop and stretch pupils’ talents and interests. There are over 30 different clubs offered to pupils, including a variety of opportunities in both music and the performing arts. Moreover, a wide range of sports clubs run on a daily basis, catering for both male and female pupils. Additionally, alternative clubs outside of sports and performing arts include cooking, learning Korean, an eco-focused club, training to become a Wimbledon ball-boy/girl and a school newspaper club. The academy hosts shows at Christmas and in the Spring and Summer terms. All pupils are encouraged to get involved in different ways to suit their personalities and interests. The most able Key Stage 3 students participate in the Most Able and / or Gifted and Talented Clubs, which seek to encourage pupils to maximise their potential and offer trips to universities and challenges for the pupils to take part in.
In September 2019 we launched the Harris Academy Morden “Careers Academy”. The central aim Careers Academy is to provide effective education and training for all of our students. Through a well-structured and highly effective programme of CEIAG we will ensure that that all students can develop their Courage, personal Challenge and future Success both in school and on into adult life. Our careers programme has been built around the ‘Gatsby Benchmarks’ to ensure it addresses young people’s entitlement and provides students with personal, social and employability skills alongside the knowledge and understanding to support.
Impact
Each year we review our curriculum as part of a continuous cycle of improvement to maximise its impact.
This is done at department level during the Summer term and informs curriculum planning for the following year. This review includes:
* Evaluation of assessment data for individuals and groups to identify strengths in the curriculum and areas for its development.
* Evaluation of methods of assessment to ensure they support the future development of the curriculum
* Curriculum coverage for the National Curriculum and examination specifications
* Evaluation of the sequencing of the curriculum to ensure it is optimal
* Evaluation of literacy development including oracy
* Evaluation of cultural capital development
* Evaluation of homework, independence and memory strategies
* Evaluation of the provision for groups including Higher, Disadvantaged and SEND
* Evaluation against targets set in SEF
At whole Academy level we also evaluate:
* Data on student outcomes in internal and national tests
* Provision for Personal Development, to identify further opportunities to enhance this
* Engagement in extra-curricular activities and trips to allow for targeted intervention as required
* Impact of interventions, for example improvements in literacy following intervention
* Quality of Teaching and Learning through learning walks, book looks and an annual Subject Evaluation and Review cycle
* Timetabling arrangements, to ensure appropriate balance between subjects
* Provision of staff CPD to ensure it is responsive to Academy priorities
This cycle of evaluation is ongoing and repeated each year to ensure the curriculum evolves and develops to maximise impact.
