Langdon Academy

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Secondary

Langdon Academy introduced a new secondary curriculum in September 2014 in order to enhance the progress of students in all subjects.

The curriculum we offer is broad and balanced and fully compliant with national curriculum requirements. In making changes from the previous curriculum offer our priorities were:

To ensure that provision meets the needs of all learners

  • To ensure that all students have full access to national curriculum requirements
  • To provide flexibility in each Key Stage to enable the curriculum to be personalised to the needs of individuals or groups of learners
  • To strengthen provision in English and Mathematics to ensure that the needs of all learners, from those with learning difficulties to the most able, are met
  • To provide maximum opportunity to enable learners to achieve the English Baccalaureate
  • To provide flexible pathways in Key Stage 4 to match the needs and aspirations of students, including a wide provision of GCSE Options and some vocational pathways
  • To ensure that the frequency and amount of teaching in each subject is proportionate to the demands of the national curriculum and public examination requirements
  • To ensure that students with Special Educational Needs have access to the full curriculum and that appropriate measures are in place to track their progress

In order to satisfy all of the above priorities we have:

  • Changed the structure of the school day to five subject lessons and one twenty-minute Registration / Assembly session
  • Reduced the length of lessons to one hour to maximise the pace of learning
  • Reduced class sizes to an average of 22 to enable teachers to devote greater attention to the needs of each learner
  • Recruited a large number of suitably qualified and experienced teachers to staff the increased number of classes caused by reducing class size
  • Recruited new key staff into important leadership positions to ensure rapid progress and high standards, including a new position as Head of Secondary Phase, an additional senior leader to line manage English, and a new Head of Mathematics
  • Replaced all temporary and agency teachers with suitably qualified and experienced permanent appointments
  • Introduced a two-week timetable to enable the allocation of five hours per fortnight for optional GCSE subjects in Key Stage 4
  • Managed the process of Option choice in Year 9 to ensure that all students follow pathways in Key Stage 4 appropriate to their prior attainment and academic targets
  • Increased the amount of curriculum time allocated to Modern Foreign Languages in Key Stage 3 to enable greater progression to GCSE and the English Baccalaureate
  • Introduced ‘travelling time’ between adjacent lessons to reduce lateness to lessons on this huge site to improve standards of teaching and learning
  • Created flexibility in the Key Stage 4 curriculum for individual subjects to group students by ability as required without affecting groupings for other subjects
  • Increased the amount of grouping by ability throughout the school

All of the elements (subjects, curriculum time, staffing and resources) are now in place to deliver excellent student progress and a high quality secondary education which prepares our students for progression to further and higher education and employment.