The Curriculum

To create opportunities and develop the confidence to excel - together.

Curriculum Aims

We have identified a set of curriculum aims, designed to ensure we enable Waltham Toll Bar students to make positive contributions to the world:

1. Build deep knowledge, skills & understanding in all subject areas.
2. Develop Literacy & Numeracy to address social disadvantage.
3. Equip our students with opportunities and experiences within and beyond the curriculum to develop personally and be able to make informed and ambitious choices about their future so they can succeed in modern Britain and beyond.

Curriculum Impact

We are ambitious for all pupils to achieve as a result of the education they have received. Specifically, we want our curriculum to enable pupils to;

• Leave the Academy as young adults able to share their own ideas, views and opinions, responding to others in a considered and well-articulated manner.
• Know more, Do more, Remember More, making progress to acquire the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life, from what is intended in the curriculum.
• Produce work of high quality.
• Able to read to an age-appropriate level and fluency (if not, they will be incapable of accessing the rest of the curriculum, and they will fall rapidly behind their peers)
• Have been well prepared for their next stage of education, training or employment at each stage of their learning, including whether pupils in sixth form are ready for the next stage and are going on to appropriate, high-quality destinations.
• Achieve well in national tests and examinations, where relevant.

Curriculum Locality

Historically, our economy came from the fishing industry operating in the ports of Grimsby. Today, the area continues to be shaped by its connection to the North Sea. Employment in ports, manufacturing, and food processing sectors are at the core of the work opportunities for those that live here. The recent success of offshore wind farm clusters, off our coastline, continues to ensure an increasing number of businesses are now choosing the Port of Grimsby as their base. Although blessed with a number of economic opportunities, the region faces considerable social inequality. 50% of its population resides in areas with an Index of Multiple Deprivation in the bottom 3 deciles. 22% of the children under 16 live in low-income families compared with 15% in England and 18% of families experience fuel poverty in contrast to 13.2% in the rest of the country. Our large academy plays in important role in this region. Our highly ambitious curriculum is designed to provide a workforce that that possess the desired skills and knowledge needed by employers and an appreciation of how to thrive in multicultural Britain and beyond.

Curriculum Development and Research

We have learned from a wide range of sources to create and evolve our curriculum and pedagogy including: utilising the National Curriculum programmes of Study; OFSTED’s Subject guides; consultation with local employers, MAT primary schools, secondary schools in our MAT, local FE colleges, Hull University and Hull University student ambassadors programme, two local non-MAT primary schools Waltham Leas Primary and Scartho Junior Academy, parents and carers; governors, pupils, school staff; and considered the local economic strategy documents: https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/assets/uploads/2022/02/NELC-Council-Plan-a11y.pdf,https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/assets/uploads/2022/05/NEL-Economic-Strategy-2021.pdf;JSNA_2021_SoB_Final.pdf (nelincsdata.net)

Curriculum Principles

Every child has the potential to succeed and there are no excuses not to achieve that success. We expect that every Waltham Toll Bar Academy student leaves our academy with the qualifications, skills and confidence to achieve excellence. We have identified a set of principles which underpin our curriculum intent of creating opportunities and developing the confidence to excel - together. Our intention is that these principles enhance and develop students' character traits that last a lifetime.

• The curriculum is designed to ensure that students experience a broad curriculum for as long as possible in order to support students' learning and progression into further and higher education, training or employment.
• The curriculum is ambitious and designed to give pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND, the knowledge they need to take advantage of opportunities, responsibilities and experiences in later life
• When designing the knowledge-rich curriculum, care is taken to ensure that it is built on sound pedagogical principles to enable our students to know more and do more, and prepare them for 21st Century life.
• Considerable thought, time and planning is devoted by all staff in ensuring that the curriculum is mapped and sequenced to complement what has been previously learned. The build-up of knowledge and the practice of skills over time is gradual so as to enable pupils to achieve clear end points.
• Ensuring students enjoy their time in school and develop the cultural capital they need to succeed in life.
• Providing every child, regardless of their social background, race, nationality, disability, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, with a safe and nurturing environment in which to grow.

To discuss our curriculum please contact:

E. Hughes-Jones. Vice Principal. via https://walthamtollbaracademy.co.uk/contacts/