| Curriculum |
| Introduction |
As with all secondary schools, what is taught (“the curriculum”) tends to vary depending upon the age of the student. As with very, very few schools in the United Kingdom, Woodlands Academy operates an accelerated curriculum. Essentially, the traditional Key Stage 3 (Years 7, 8 and 9) is contracted to two years and the “extra year” is added to the end of an expanded Key Stage 4 (Years 9, 10 and 11) in order to provide opportunities for enrichment and a diversity of individual pathways and progression routes.
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| Key Stage 3 |
Students study the core subjects of English, mathematics, science, ICT, PE and CES (Cultural and Ethical Studies), and foundation subjects art, drama, music, history, geography, French and technology. Teacher assessments, including APP (Assessing Pupil Progress), has replaced the SAT’s exams.
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| Key Stage 4 |
For their GCSE Years (9 and 10), all students study the same core subjects as at Key Stage 3 plus four option subjects from within Business Education, Creative Arts, Humanities, Performing Arts and Technology. All GCSE’s are taken at the end of Year 10. Since September 2007, the accelerated curriculum has brought a newly-devised Year 11 curriculum which involves Personal Development, Recreational Sport activities and 6-week cycle ECM (Every Child Matters) courses ranging from Survival Skills and Food Hygiene Certificate to Carpentry and Working in the Community. These are non-accredited subjects but students will build up a portfolio based on their involvement. In addition, all students – irrespective of their GCSE results at the end of Year 10 – will follow a Core Skills Entitlement course in Literacy, Numeracy and ICT, ranging from bridging/AS courses to functional skills. Finally, they will be able to choose four options of accredited full courses which offer a range of BTEC and other vocational courses, AS/bridging courses and further GCSEs.
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| Post 16 |
Students from Woodlands Academy are able to join with their female peers from Tile Hill Wood School and Language College to form the West Coventry Sixth Form, which is a member of the city’s South West Federation of educational establishments. A wide range of courses is available at AS and A2 levels, both traditional and applied, and teaching is shared between the two schools on all subject courses.
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| PSHCE |
Curricular aspects of Personal Social, Health and Citizenship Education such as health education, careers education and guidance, the environment and citizenship are taught at Key Stages 3 and 4 via six dedicated PSHCE Days throughout the school year, approximately one per half term. Such days involve external agencies ranging from SHADOW (Sexual Health and Drugs Outreach Work) to the armed forces, and students are taught in their House tutor groups in order to enhance working relationships and bonding within our House-based pastoral structure. In the Post-16 Centre, PSHCE at Key Stage 5 is incorporated into the weekly Tutorial period on both sites and is co-ordinated by the Director of Post-16 Studies.
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