Intent of the Curriculum
Our curriculum has been carefully tailored to ensure all students can make excellent progress and achieve their full potential. Over the past three years we have increased dedicated curriculum time for Humanities, English, Maths and Science and the vast majority of students study a foreign language from Year 7. However, we have strived to ensure that our curriculum remains balanced and diverse and provides students with a range of skills and opportunities. It is a curriculum that promotes their mental and physical health and allows them to explore their creative side.
We want our most able students to be able to go out and compete for places in the best universities. We want students that have never considered university as an option to strive to do so and we want our least academically able to leave Westbourne with a range of qualifications and skills that can unlock level two opportunities at a college or sixth form. Most importantly we provide a broad and balanced curriculum so that students can find subjects that they have a passion for studying.
Click on the text below to view more detailed information:
On our Departments page you will be able to view our curriculum journey maps for KS3 and KS4 in all subject areas.
Careers and Progression Provision
At Westbourne we are working hard to make our students aware of the opportunities out there for them and to prepare them for the next step and beyond. In addition to the career based activites included in our enrichment curriculum, We have a separate menu of career and progression opportunites planned for the year based around the Gatsby benchmarks. These opportunities are being provided by a range of external providers and from within our own subject areas.
Oasis Centre
The Oasis Centre is open five periods per day. It is staffed by a Higher Level Teaching Assistant who specialises in dealing with students who are struggling to cope with the full curriculum. It is open to all year groups. These students have complex behavioural, social or emotional issues. Oasis can be used for students who have been withdrawn from particular subject lessons, or during period one and five to give students support at the start and the end of the day. The Oasis centre offers a bespoke way of learning within a very small group environment. The Oasis HLTA works hard to build positive relationships with these students. Without this crucial provision these students would not be able to continue in mainstream education. It is the role of the SENDCO and pastoral team to identify which students require Oasis intervention.
EAL Provision
Thirty percent of our cohort have English as an additional language. A large percentage of our EAL intake are from the Roma community or are refugees that have had little or no formal education, before joining us. Many are illiterate.
EAL students who are new to the academy follow an intensive two day induction programme. The induction focuses on delivering interventions in reading, writing and numeracy.
Once students join the full curriculum they are ably supported by a dedicated team of TA’s that specialise in working with the EAL community.
At Key Stage 4, a number of our EAL students are placed on the Green pathway where there is an EAL group in one of the option blocks. Within the EAL option they are supported to improve their English. They also use this time to complete work for other subjects, consolidate learning by revising key topics and to get support with homework that they are struggling to access.
