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Exceptional Education at the Heart of the Community

Exceptional Education at the Heart of the Community

Curriculum Subjects

Oasis Community Learning Statement of Intent

As part of Oasis Community Learning, our curriculum is informed by the Trustwide Statement of Intent below.

The OCL Curriculum Statement of Intent In line with Oasis’ Education Charter, the curriculum is the heart of our academy’s educational provision.

Through this - and our commitment to an exceptional climate for learning and great pedagogy - we make focused learning the foundation of every lesson. We have designed our curriculum to meet the needs of all, striving for personal as well as academic and vocational excellence.

Through our curriculum we will achieve outcomes that drive social mobility and give everyone freedom of choice throughout their lives The Oasis ethos and 9 Habits are a foundation stone to the design and delivery of our curriculum. We know that the development of character doesn’t happen by chance but by purpose and intention: it is therefore an explicit part of our curriculum. We therefore work hard at preparing our students to be the best version of themselves not just for today but for their futures too. We provide our students with information on careers and the world of work encouraging them to be aspirational and ambitious so that they can secure their dream job and enjoy fulfilling careers.

Our curriculum has been designed to ensure our young people thrive, achieve and flourish. It enables them to understand what it is to be human and equips them for life so that they become kind and model citizens. Our curriculum not only develops our young people academically but socially, emotionally, culturally, physically and spiritually.

Whilst our knowledge-rich curriculum is designed to ensure the very best academic outcomes for our young people using the latest research in how the brain and memory works, it is about so much more than simply securing great results. It is about our academy’s determination to achieve excellence with equity and integrity: where we bring advantage to the disadvantaged, where barriers to learning are successfully overcome and there are no limits to the achievement and ambition of our most able. Our knowledge-rich curriculum and our commitment to the Oasis ethos and Nine Habits is supported by our Trust’s policies on Learning and Behaviour for Learning and the work of our National Lead Practitioners and Leads for Learning Innovation.

As well as ensuring our curriculum is informed by the OCL Trustwide Statement of Intent we are committed to delivering a curriculum that upholds and supports our school vision and mission.

Oasis Academy Leesbrook Vision

Oasis Academy Leesbrook is a school where all young people receive a personalised educational experience. Students' academic skills, habits and personalities are developed allowing them to successfully progress to work or further education, whilst making a positive contribution to our community.

Oasis Academy Leesbrook Mission

Developing happy and successful leaders who are culturally enriched role models in our community.

Key Stage 3, Years 7-9

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” ― Aristotle

Curriculum content is informed by subject specific Statements of Intent that aim to summarise our highly ambitions learning aims for our students whilst fulfilling our Vision and Mission. Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 all experience a full, broad and balanced, 3 year Key Stage 3 Curriculum that includes all National Curriculum subjects, with our 9 habits interleaved throughout. Progression is seen not as the acquiring of isolated facts, rather the development of interconnecting schema that sequentially build towards a true understanding of subject areas, whilst developing a lifelong love for learning.  A full list of KS3 subjects is as follows:

·         English

·         Mathematics

·         Science

·         Modern Foreign Languages

·         Technology

·         Computer Science

·         Humanities

·         Art

·         Music

·         Drama

·         Wellbeing (incorporating Physical Education)

In addition to discreet subjects and as part of our commitment to provide an outstanding and broad spiritual, moral, social and cultural education, all students at Leesbrook will be participating in a Blended Character Curriculum.  This program is compulsory and is a feature of the statutory education in all schools in England.  The curriculum is age appropriate and sensitive in its outlook, and will prepare students for adult life in Modern Britain.  This will build upon the PSHE program delivered in primary schools and incorporates the statutory elements of Citizenship, PSHE and SRE. The breadth of cultural diversity is celebrated and students are encouraged to share the knowledge and expertise they have gained from their own individual backgrounds. In addition to this, the curriculum incorporates a level of flexibility in order to respond to the needs of individual students. 

Individual leadership skills are developed through a range of activities, events and opportunities afforded to students. Additionally, the curriculum further develops critical thinking skills and an awareness of local, national and global issues faced by society.

The delivery of the Curriculum is through mixed ability classes, informed by research conducted by the EEF and available here.

Curriculum: Key Stage 4, Years 10 & 11

Like KS3, our Key Stage 4 Curriculum is highly ambitions, fully inclusive and informed by our Vision and Mission.  Academic outcomes, whilst essential for the young people we serve, are only one measure of success and progress towards fulfilling our subject specific Statements of Intent is equally important in designing and sequencing students learning.

Our Key Stage 4 curriculum remains broad and balanced:  It is our belief that all students should have full access to study the English Baccalaureate, including a language and a humanity to GCSE level.

In addition to the EBACC student, all students continue to study Religion, Philosophy and Ethics, and have the ability to choose options from a range of subjects including the arts, technologies or further humanities disciplines to GCSE or equivalent level according to their own preferences and strengths.  As our staff body grows so too will our ability to further expand our Key Stage 4 Options offer, which currently includes the following in addition to EBACC subjects:

·         Art (Fine Art, Graphics)

·         Music

·         Drama

·         Technology (Hospitality and Catering, Resistant Materials)

·         Wellbeing (incorporating Physical Education)

Furthermore, students who are able to exceed GCSE qualifications in year 11 will be provided with an appropriate range of additional qualifications, including level 3 courses and further level 2 courses (i.e. statistics). Support is scaffolded, with entry level qualifications including ASDAN and “Step up to English” available for students for whom this is most appropriate. KS4 students will continue receive their entitlement of Wellbeing, PSHE and careers guidance, further details of which are accessible through the website.

 

Curriculum: Careers

Careers education is fully integrated into our curriculum.  This means that skills for work readiness are delivered every day in all curriculum areas, from Year 7 onwards.  All members of staff are able to advise about the relevance of their subject specialisms in terms of jobs and careers pathways, in addition to being trained in the options available for Post-16 Education, from T Levels to A Levels and Apprenticeships.   The real life applications of in-class knowledge and skills are made obvious to our students, reflecting our belief that skills for the world of work need to sit at the centre of a robust careers education.   

Students will benefit from a carefully tailored program that meets their careers and guidance needs from Year 7 through to Year 11. To help us do this we link our careers guidance to the Gatsby Benchmarks which have been explicitly referenced throughout the DfE’s Careers Strategy (December 2017) and the new Statuary Guidance for careers (January 2018). These 8 benchmarks are outlined below:

1. A Stable Careers Programme

2. Learning from Career and Labour Market Information

3. Addressing the Needs of Each Student

4. Link Curriculum Learning to Careers

5. Encounters with Employers and Employees

6. Experiences of Work Places

7. Encounters with Further and Higher Education

8. Personal Guidance

Curriculum: Cultural Enrichment

Students also participate in our Cultural Enrichment Offer consisting of a variety of opportunities and experiences designed to set our students apart by providing them with necessary capital to succeed at any Russell Group University and beyond. We value the importance of opening our students up to every possible opportunity in life, and with hard work we know they can reach their goals.

Cultural Enrichment provides an opportunity after school to take part in new activities and develop students holistically, ready for when they become leaders in our community in the future. These activities and clubs can further support their education, develop new skills or continue to feed their passions and interests.

All students are required to attend two cultural enrichment clubs per week.

 

Curriculum: Safeguarding and Pastoral Support

The social, emotional and mental health of students and their safeguarding are of paramount importance.  Children who are happy and feel secure learn most effectively and are more likely to not only achieve but to surpass their academic targets.  Pastoral support and safeguarding is interweaved into curriculum learning.  For instance, learning about domestic violence and neglect through the study of texts such as Oliver Twist in the English curriculum.  Furthermore, our Character Curriculum delivered to students throughout their secondary career serves as a further measure to support our Pastoral support offer to students.  The highly skilled safeguarding and pastoral team are acutely aware of the significant challenges the young people of Oldham and the UK today face, both traditionally and in the modern virtual world of social media and internet enabled devices.  Through specific safeguarding teaching we aim to enable students to safeguard themselves as effectively as possible and become informed citizens of a global and connected society.  In addition and complimentary to these measures, safeguarding and students’ mental health is discussed and strengthened through whole school events such as Children’s Mental Health Week and Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness Day.  

Curriculum Subjects