2021-22

The aim of our curriculum is primarily to support the particular learning needs of our students. We are ambitious on behalf of all our students and are determined that they have opportunities to catch up on missed learning and achieve well, in readiness for the next stage of their educational life.

In the 2021/22 academic year, teaching is delivered by staff based in Thornhill Academy. In order to regain students’ lost learning, we have a particular focus on English, Maths and Science as our core curriculum. Additional to that, students benefit from a range of subjects depending upon their previous learning.

We use a platform called Century to support teaching and learning. You can find out more here:

• Overview of CENTURY platform
• A CENTURY launch pack where you can find a parent/ guardian guide to CENTURY 

2022-23

As a specialist provision, it is important that we design our curriculum offer to meet the needs of our students. The traditional approach has not worked for our students, and so we have adopted a creative and ambitious curriculum design and pedagogy drawn from the highly successful, Expeditionary Learning approach in the US. Students are recognised for their achievements in:

• The Mastery of Skills
• Character
• High Quality and Beautiful Work; as well as for their learning and progress in curriculum subjects.

As we move into the 2022/23 academic year, our curriculum will be delivered by teachers employed directly by Evolve. Our students will benefit from a cross curricular "Pathway” approach, which helps embed learning. These Pathways are:

• Language, Communication and the Arts (CLA)
• Science, Technology, Environment and Mathematics, along with Vocational opportunities (STEMV)
• Society, Culture, Outdoor and Service Learning (SCOSL)

Underlying these Pathways are the specific subject areas, through which students can follow qualification courses.

You can find out more about the principles of Expeditionary Learning here: https://eleducation.org/who-we-are/our-approach and in the lovely book “An Ethic of Excellence” by Ron Berger.