“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere! (Albert Einstein)

We aim to develop students’ art skills, knowledge and understanding through an enjoyable and challenging curriculum which provides endless opportunities to explore new ideas and concepts to broaden our students’ understanding of the world they inhabit locally, nationally, and globally across different cultures and different places and times.

We explore concepts and perspectives the students have never encountered as well as those to which they feel they can make an immediate connection to enable our student to grow on a personal, social and cultural level. The curriculum is carefully sequenced so that the fundamentals are secured first and thereafter; knowledge, skills and understanding are deepened throughout their journey in art. However, we regularly review and modify content and delivery to better suit the nature of our students in the drive for excellence for all.

Year 7 and 8 covers a range of disciplines and approaches covering work in 2D and 3D, drawing, painting, printmaking, critical analysis and response, ceramics, mixed media and collage. Year 9 builds on this foundation to incorporate more complex processes and more sophisticated use of materials. Further artists & photographers are introduced and more independent and in-depth analysis and response is incorporated.

Key Stage 4 allows for greater independence in ideas, project direction, and specialism whilst demanding further depth of exploration and ideas generation and greater ability in application of knowledge and practical skills.

Knowledge supports and enables the application of practical skills as well students’ problem solving, decision making and communication skills which will be needed in their further academic and future careers.

The learning journey in Art will enthuse and excite students beyond the classroom creating intrigue into all art forms in the world around them.

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The Computing curriculum aims to equip students with the skills to participate in a rapidly changing world through the three main strands of Computer Science, Information Technology and Digital Literacy.

• Computer Science includes block and text-based programming and knowledge of hardware, software and networks. Also, the concepts of computational thinking.
• Information Technology they learn the different Microsoft Office packages, including Spreadsheets, PowerPoint, Word and creating forms.
• Digital Literacy is the ability and skill to find, evaluate, utilise, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet we discuss many e-safety issues surrounding social networks but also use software to create digital content, manipulate photographs and create comics.

Computing skills are a major factor in enabling children to be confident, creative and independent learners and it is our intention that children have every opportunity available to allow them to achieve this. It will support students with their further academic study, both in school and in their wider lives. It can lead onto careers such as software developers, programmers or technical support and jobs that currently do not exist!

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“Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art.”  (Margot Fonteyn)

Our intention is to create students who are not only confident in their ability to perform in public but who are also able to interpret dance through a range of performance skills. We pride ourselves in our ability to develop students' personal and social skills by working as part of a team.

Our curriculum is broad and enriching. We aim to provide opportunities for students to explore and develop ideas, devise performances and evaluate their work. Students will be introduced to a range of dance skills in both performance and choreography so that they can interpret various dance works as well as using skills effectively in their own performances.

The curriculum is sequenced to ensure that key skills are learnt first and then filtered into all future learning, building on their knowledge and understanding of not only what these are, but how and why we can use them in our performance work. Across all three performing arts disciplines students will focus on three key areas of study: confidence, accuracy and fluency.

The learning journey in dance is both educational and enriching: enabling all students to study performance and choreography in practice as well as dance from around the world. Exploring different types of world dance will enable them to make decisions about style when developing their own ideas. Students will look at professional repertoire; analysing this as well as learning excerpts and creating their own work inspired by what they have seen. Examining other production roles forms part of extended learning work as well as being covered in the wider reading articles.

Outside of the classroom, we want to ensure students recognise the importance of Dance more widely. Dance club forms an important part of the department’s enrichment offer. We are passionate about giving students opportunities to participate in performances and our annual whole school production is one of the highlights of the academic year.

Theatre trips also inspire students to pursue Dance and to develop their understanding of performance and choreography by experiencing live Dance on the stage. Dance will support students with their further academic study enabling them to go on to study not only dancing and choreography but a range of other non-performance production roles.

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Design & Technology is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. Creativity, imagination and practical realisations are core to the delivery of this subject. Students design and make products that solve real world and relevant problems within a variety of set contexts, considering their own, others’ and client needs, wants and values. Students are encouraged to inquisitively question the established conventions and seek out innovation whilst using terminology accurately.

The world of D&T is ever changing and our curriculum gives students the foundation of design principles, and processes that can be adapted to whatever new technologies evolve. Curriculum projects are regularly reviewed in order to meet the specific needs of the students and the developments within the local, national and global field.

Sequential lesson plans and explicit lesson resources support a consistent approach to the curriculum. At Key Stage 3 students engage in projects that provide them with an insight into aspirational careers as well as a range of practical skills which they may need in in both their future lives.

Knowledge and skills gained in Key Stage 3 are built upon at Key Stage 4, as students are offered the opportunity to opt for specific qualifications in engineering and construction. We further students’ knowledge and understanding of industries linked to these qualifications by establishing links with local colleges and professional companies in order to further prepare them for future career opportunities.

Collaborative learning approaches are used in all lessons in which students are encouraged to gain experiences in leadership, teamwork and project management. Through this approach students learn how to take calculated risks; becoming resourceful, creative, innovative, and capable citizens who are aware of their environment and their impact on the future of the planet.

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We aim to provide opportunities for students in English, to develop a love of reading, writing and literature in order to promote our students’ understanding of the world.

The curriculum is sequenced to ensure that that all students can read fluently and with accuracy, as well as encouraging a passion for reading and guiding students to read a wide range of texts and genres by immersing them in all forms of literature to encourage them to become lifelong readers. We will stimulate students’ curiosity and desire to read, make links with their own knowledge, reading and other curriculum subjects.

We will develop students’ writing skills, by using their reading as a springboard for their own writing, to give them the core life-skills to succeed, as well as developing writing as a form of expression and pleasure.

To ensure students succeed in English, we will nurture their creative flair in writing, encourage them to have personal, critical opinions when reading and help them to develop their opinions and arguments, using evidence to support these, when expressing their opinions in written form.

English will develop students’ understanding of a range of issues through discussion and debate which builds understanding of diversity whilst also addressing stereotypes and misconceptions.  We also strive to develop students who listen respectfully, speak like experts and can articulate themselves confidently in and out of the classroom.

English will support students with their further academic study, enabling them to envisage the vast opportunities available through the study of the subject and its importance in their continuing learning journey, whilst ensuring their enduring love and curiosity for the subject.

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We aim to provide students with the knowledge of Enterprise and a clear understanding of how a business would market itself in the modern world. The sequence of learning is delivered to give students the core theoretical underpinning of key entrepreneurial concepts, while allowing time for students to develop their own ideas making enterprise relevant to themselves.

Reflective practice is at the core of the Enterprise and Marketing course, allowing critical thinking to form a large part of the student's tool kit of skills. Students will develop both personally and professionally, understanding the need to be resourceful, independent and a strong team player – preparing students for the workplace. Students will be able to use financial data to assess the viability of a business proposal, which is unique to each student.

Enterprise and Marketing will support students with their further academic study, ensuring students are equipped for careers paths such as marketing or finance and give students the key skills to be confident in starting their own business.

The learning journey in Enterprise and Marketing will be relevant, interesting, and challenging; inspiring students to take an active part in being entrepreneurial and understanding the key part entrepreneurship plays in the wider economy.

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“Give a man a fish, and he will be hungry again tomorrow; teach him to catch a fish, and he will be richer all his life.”

In Food and Nutrition, we aim to provide opportunities for students to become inquisitive and creative citizens capable of being able to cook confidently and apply principles of nutrition, food science and healthy eating.

The curriculum has been developed to teach, extend and embed practical skills whilst developing a ‘love of cooking’. The curriculum is sequenced to ensure logical progression in skill acquisition, giving the students opportunities to show resilience with fault correcting and independence. We aim for our students to have the ability and confidence to adapt and change recipes to suit needs.

Understanding food provenance is key to enriching their knowledge and understanding in an ever-changing world. The students learning journey encourages students to cook and enable them to make informed decisions about a wide range of further learning opportunities and career pathways as well as develop vital life skills that enable them to feed themselves and others affordably and nutritiously, now and later in life.

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We aim to provide opportunities for students to develop the knowledge and provide opportunities for students to foster an interest in business and to enhance their entrepreneurial skills.

The curriculum is sequenced to ensure that students have a deep understand of how products and business systems work and the skills required for a business to thrive.

Business Studies will develop student’s ability to be resourceful, innovative and have the skills to work both independently and as part of a team – preparing them for the work place.

Business Studies will support students with their further academic study enabling them to have the confidence to begin their own business or leading onto careers including finance or marketing.

The learning journey in Business Studies will be relevant, interesting and challenging; inspiring students to take an active role in the globalised workplace.

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Today’s children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way’. Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education.

The SAX General Studies programme helps pupils to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to manage life’s challenges and make the most of life’s opportunities in modern Britain.  There is evidence to show that PSHE education can address teenage pregnancy, substance misuse, unhealthy eating, lack of physical activity, emotional health and other key issues. At South Axholme we believe an effective General Studies programme can also tackle barriers to learning, raise aspirations, and improve the life chances of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils.

Relationships and sex education (RSE) has always been delivered as part of a planned, developmental SAX General Studies programme. The Academy’s General Studies programme also contributes to the coverage of the national curriculum for Citizenship and supports the academy in achieving the Gatsby benchmarks for careers education, as part of the DfE Careers Strategy. The General Studies programme provides pupils with knowledge, skills and understanding to prepare them to play a full and active part in society. In particular, fostering pupils’ keen awareness and understanding of democracy, government and how laws are made and upheld, equipping pupils with the skills and knowledge to explore political and social issues critically, to weigh evidence, debate and make reasoned arguments. Additionally, the holistic General Studies programme, helps to prepare pupils to take their place in society as responsible citizens, manage their money well and make sound financial decisions

The academy’s statutory and non-statutory content is comprehensively covered by spirally curriculum model with six core themes across key stage three: ‘Health and Wellbeing’, ‘Relationships’, ‘Keeping Safe’, Personal Development’, ‘Financial Security’ and ‘Living in the Wider World’. This flexible approach provides a comprehensive programme that integrates, but is not limited to, this statutory content, for example covering economic wellbeing, careers and enterprise education, as well as education for personal safety, including assessing and managing risk.

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”Geography is the subject which holds the key to our future” (Michael Palin)

The Geography department at South Axholme Academy aims to bring the world to Epworth. We want our students to be global citizens and to understand the interdependence of our world and how we are connected through location and the interactions of the human and physical world.

Our curriculum is knowledge rich; we value knowledge and create lessons that develop a curiosity that deepens students’ understanding of our world. Through a knowledge-based curriculum students develop the skills required to interpret maps at various scales, graphs and images that extend their geographical understanding. A range of media brings the curriculum to life and makes it accessible to all.

The curriculum is sequenced to allow students to gain an understanding of Geography and make links between previous topics and new topics. Skills are intertwined through the range of physical and human topics and encourage the use of cross curricular skill, as Geography is a powerful bridging subject. Knowledge is fully embedded through retrieval. Students are challenged to understand complex issues or to make complex decisions based on a variety of facts, and through this approach the South Axholme mindset is embedded in order to make our students more resilient and to see the importance of taking responsibility for their actions.

We believe in promoting a love of literacy and we have developed a range of reading tasks that allow our students to further develop and enhance their understanding of the world through reading and comprehension tasks. This encourages students to speak like experts: oracy and the importance of using subject specific vocabulary is promoted in all lessons.

Having a better understanding of the complexity of the world in which we live, and the use of transferable skills will enable our students to follow a range of career paths in an ever-changing world.

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The curriculum has been crafted to secure a love of History that will deepen students’ understanding of how the world that they live in today has been shaped by the past. Students’ learning will be underpinned through experiences which will enable them to become knowledge rich and expert historians.

The curriculum is sequenced chronologically to ensure students develop a narrative of British history and can place it into a context of world events. Concepts such as ‘government’ and ‘monarchy’ are introduced early to allow students to track the development of these ideas and define them within different contexts and cultures.

It has been designed to ensure that students gain an appreciation of divergent perspectives. For example, we introduce students to characters and groups who have traditionally been ignored such as LGBT+ and Native Americans. This ensures that students receive a rounded education in History and is essential in teaching attitudes of tolerance.

In History lessons, students will regularly apply new knowledge to conceptual questions. Each topic is framed around a challenging historical question which is linked to a second order concept. Lessons mirror this, with key questions forming the basis for each lesson enquiry. This will ensure students access and apply high level vocabulary with increasing rigour over their time in history classrooms.

The study of History supports students in their further academic study as it is viewed as a valuable qualification by employers and demonstrates the ability to think and work independently. A qualification in History is ideal for students pursuing careers in teaching, management, social work, journalism and the heritage and tourism industries.

Just as history has made our world, we believe that it can be a key part of our student’s future. The learning journey throughout this course allows for the development of a love and curiosity of the subject by allowing for students to immerse themselves in a range of cultures and develop an enquiring and critical outlook on the world

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“The essence of math is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple.” Stan Gudder

We seek excellence by providing opportunities for our students to develop their Mathematical skills, knowledge and understanding to be able to solve problems and work logically. The curriculum is sequenced to allow previous learning to enhance the understanding of a new topic; ensuring students are fluent with key mathematical concepts whilst deepening their understanding. The curriculum is planned to ensure the foundation building blocks are in place to enable learners to make progress.

Mathematics will provide students with the opportunities to develop communication skills – both written through logical steps and verbally, speaking like a Mathematician to convince others.  It will support students in their future lives; helping them to use their ‘maths sense’ in everyday problems to make informed decisions, as well as developing a love and curiosity for the subject.

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Music at South Axholme Academy aims to provide students with a broad understanding of the theoretical, practical and contextual knowledge and skills to be able to further develop their interests and musical capabilities both outside school and as part of the school community.  The curriculum intends to capture the interests of students through providing an experience of a wide range of musical genres, from the Western Classical tradition, Popular music and World music.

The curriculum is sequenced to ensure that there is clear progression between the units of work.  Every year group has the opportunity to develop their performance skills, composition skills and musical understanding through the exploration of two music units which focus on different instruments.  Students are taught how to read music and understand what they are listening to in order to be able to put this knowledge into practise by both composing and performing their own music. Students are encouraged to explore and develop their ideas, using their knowledge of different musical styles and features to inform their choices.  Students will have experienced playing keyboards, ukuleles, djembes, percussion and singing by the end of Key Stage 3.

Studying Music will enhance students’ personal development by challenging them to step outside of their comfort zone: performing is an integral part of the National Curriculum and we aim to provide opportunities for students to perform regularly in lessons.  Learning a musical instrument promotes resilience, perseverance and a good work ethic.  We embed the SAX Mindset into all music lessons, with a focus on respecting and supporting each other.  Music can have a hugely positive impact on students’ emotional and mental health, and we encourage students to find music that they relate to on a personal level.

Beyond lesson time, students are encouraged to participate in the school choir, keyboard club, rock band, wind band, school productions and take music lessons if they want to.

Music will support students with their further academic study by enabling them to progress to study music at KS4.  The music and performing arts industries continue to be one of the most profitable sectors in the UK and at South Axholme we aim to support all students with talent and determination to be successful.

The learning journey in Music incorporates broad and balanced content which is explored in creative and practical ways.  By doing this we hope to instil a love of music and ignite students’ curiosity, as music is an integral to culture and is a vital part of so many aspects of daily life.

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We aim to encourage our students to explore their identity and to develop an understanding of religious and non-religious worldviews. Living in a multi-faith society in the 21st century requires young people to be religiously literate and hold informed conversations about religion and life. The curriculum is sequenced such that prior knowledge in Christianity, Islam and other religions of focus is developed and deepened throughout based on the North Lincolnshire Agreed Syllabus.

RE supports students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through high quality lessons involving critical thinking, critical analysis and discussion of a range of philosophical, theological and ethical topics. RE poses challenging questions on what it means to be human, the purpose and meaning of life, beliefs about God and ethical issues from a diverse range of perspectives which students can learn to understand, explore and question.

RE provides the opportunity to learn about and learn from the major world faiths and secular belief systems by allowing students to draw on their own experiences and compare them to those of others from different backgrounds. The subject explores the beliefs held by others, while considering the similarities and differences that make our world so diverse. In RE, students have the space to discuss challenging moral and philosophical issues in local, national and global contexts while promoting respect for all. Students will learn and build on their skills in being able to interpret, analyse and evaluate the beliefs of others as well as their own through the study of texts and sources of wisdom.

Studying RE will lead to any career working with other people but is particularly pertinent in the field of law (enforcement, judicial system or punishment & rehabilitation), psychology, care and medical professions and social work.

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“The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.” – Albert Einstein

We seek excellence by providing opportunities for our students to develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics to help them understand the world around them.  The curriculum is sequenced to allow previous learning to enhance the understanding of new ideas and concepts, ensuring students are confident with fundamental building blocks in biology, chemistry and physics to deepen their understanding of new phenomena and processes around them.

Science will provide students with opportunities to develop their teamwork skills – both in practical and problem solving activities.  They will develop their critical thinking skills throughout their journey through science as we seek to help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them.  Students will be encouraged to speak like an expert and develop their communication of scientific ideas.

Science has a great ability to improve lives, so it is essential that students develop a knowledge of core scientific ideas and methods, alongside an understanding of how these have come about.   This will support students in their future lives; helping them to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.  Students will leave South Axholme Academy with an excitement and curiosity about the world in which they live, and an ability to analyse causes and recognise the power of rational explanation.

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“Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about” (Benjamin Lee Whorf)

The MFL department wants students to embrace and value the opportunity to learn a new language. Spanish lessons will therefore provide opportunities for students to develop their listening, reading, writing and speaking skills so that they are confident to communicate with increasing independence and accuracy as well nurturing a cultural knowledge of the Spanish Speaking World.

The curriculum is sequenced to enable students to gradually build up their knowledge of the Spanish language, to develop their confidence, and with regular retrieval to ensure that new language is embedded into long-term memory.  Students will learn and use a range of tenses and grammatical structures to enable them to communicate for different purposes.

Through their own spoken and written work, they will be able to use their language acquisition to communicate detailed information about themselves, their lives and their hobbies.

By learning Spanish students also develop their cultural understanding of the world beyond their local area.  They will gain an insight into other countries around the world, and increase their understanding, tolerance and respect of other lifestyles.

Students will enhance their career prospects.  GCSE Spanish provides a strong foundation to continue to study Spanish at A level or degree level, or indeed as a basis to learn other languages.  Students will learn how Spanish (and languages in general) can be useful in a wide variety of jobs and careers, from the more obvious roles of Teacher or Interpreter to the less obvious roles of Journalist, Lawyer or Marketing and Sales Executives ect. In addition, by learning Spanish students will develop other skills that are highly valued by employers, such as problem solving, communication skills, teamwork and emotional intelligence

Finally, by learning Spanish students will acquire a practical skill that will enable them to explore the world both near and far and increase their curiosity and love of other cultures and people.

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