The Upper Site aims to provide a personalised curriculum combining core subjects with more specialist choices where the learner's individual needs are paramount. 

Curriculum Philosophy (Intent)   

Trinity Academy Newcastle's curriculum is an extension of this belief; it is our platform to enable our learners to go on and achieve success. The principles of kindness, honesty and calm are well established throughout. We are proud to be creating confident, competent and kind citizens of the future.

Trinity Academy Newcastle's culture is deeply rooted in supporting learners with their social, emotional, and mental health needs. We offer a broad and balanced curriculum that allows learners to develop the knowledge, skills and experiences that support them throughout school and into their adult life. Core skills of literacy, numeracy, positive communication, reading, and vocabulary development are central to our offer, delivering a full range of National Curriculum subjects and allowing learners to direct their own learning pathways as they progress through the school.   

Ability is not seen as permanent or pre-determined; we relish the opportunity to work with learners, irrespective of any disadvantages they may face, to reach their potential.   

Educating the whole person is pivotal to developing secure moral and social bases from which our learners can prosper as positive citizens. We prepare our learners for life, including adulthood, relationships, and the possibility that one day they may become a capable parent.   

We strive to offer high quality opportunities and activities outside of the main school curriculum. These activities are an exciting feature of our learners' experience of life at Trinity; they also contribute enormously to our learners’ social, emotional, and academic development. We believe all our learners should experience success in as many aspects of school life as possible and the extra-curricular activities are designed as a tool to enable this realisation. All learners, regardless of their background, have opportunities to participate in all extra-curricular activities and experiences.   

Curriculum Implementation   

Trinity Academy Newcastle's curriculum is implemented to allow every learner the right to access a full range of subjects, knowledge, and experiences relevant to them, allowing skills development and success in future endeavours. Leaders provide high quality professional learning opportunities. Teachers are empowered to support curriculum design, set the direction of, and engage in high quality CPD and can articulate their role in Trinity’s curriculum and the difference it is making to our learners.   

The curriculum is mapped using interim reference points supporting sequential progression. Key concepts are revisited to build on prior knowledge. Lessons are designed to be creative, practical, and engaging and enable learners to work collaboratively, developing teamwork and friendship skills.  

Working towards individual Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) goals/targets is central to the delivery of our curriculum. Progress towards these goals/targets is evaluated periodically by the team around the child.   

In Key Stage 4, learners alter their curriculum by choosing two Pathway subjects, most of which lead to accredited qualifications; this is alongside core subjects and much of our wider curricular offer/experiences. Pathway choices promote personal development and incorporate key issues such as choice, academic ability, career aspirations and special educational needs; examples include sports coaching, art, food technology, DofE, PSD and careers. The key aim is to support learners to gain both skills and qualifications to equip them for future life and employment opportunities.   

Health and well-being, learner safeguarding, protection against extremism, personal safety, online safety, the promotion of Fundamental British Values and community cohesion all feature heavily in the school’s wider curriculum offer. Trinity utilises a range of initiatives and activities that promote the spiritual, moral, social, and emotional needs of our young people aimed at protecting them from radicalisation and extremist influences. We do this through our wider learning opportunities, including tutor time, assemblies, drop down days, the use of guest speakers and transition events.   

Careers education and progression routes are also a key part of our commitment to preparing our learners for the future. Lessons and learning experiences are planned to make explicit links to careers and employment opportunities. We evaluate our careers offer using a nationally recognised GATSBY framework and are working towards a Quality Careers Mark.   

Learners’ learning across the curriculum is assessed formatively and summative, ensuring that knowledge is embedded and applied effectively. Teachers clearly define the next steps in learning to support learner's progress. Pupils are encouraged to embrace our “Learn, Remember, Achieve” approach. This is underpinned by our expectations of learners to be “In the Right Place, at the Right Time, doing the Right Thing,” which is integral throughout our culture.   

There is a broad range of extracurricular activities and experiences to support holistic development; this includes arts, sporting provisions, cooking, outdoor adventure, and team building activities. We also offer learners the chance to experience learning in different settings, to visit educational venues linked to different curricular and cultural areas and by providing visits, for example, to a variety of National Trust venues.  

Our curricular offer is reviewed annually, taking into consideration the views of our learners, their parents, teachers, and leaders. The reviews begin early in the academic year and support curriculum development.   

 

Pathways 4, 5 and 6  Monday lessons
DOFE	Art	Level 2 Food Tech
Pathways 4,5 and 6  Tuesday lessons
PSD	GCSE English	Sports Leaders	Careers
Pathway 5  Wednesday lessons
DOFE	Art	Level 2 Food
Pathway 5  Thursday lessons
PSD	GCSE English	Sports Leaders	Careers

Drop Down Days 2023/24 - Health and Wellbeing, RE and Music  

To complement our curriculum, we offer drop down days during the academic year. These sessions replace structured classroom lessons with activities used to strengthen learners' knowledge and application of skills and provide a deeper learning experience into different key topics. 

	KS1 - 4	Activity Ideas – AM drop down days
Half term 1	Healthy Minds	Link to world mental health day - lots of resources out there – 10th October 2023 – Wear yellow day  https://www.youngminds.org.uk/support-us/fundraising/helloyellow/?gclid=CjwKCAjw7eSZBhB8EiwA60kCW7qsZsNir6Z1LCgIp012nGvjGwyAyVJRYj8EeRk_Ji68bAacq2lPjRoC-o0QAvD_BwE     Science: What is stress? What it does to our bodies and how we can deal with it.   How does diet affect
Half term 2	RE – SMSC   LS and US   US – 12/11/23	Possible Activities  LS- Antibullying drop down day – 13th – 17th November  LS- Christianity – Christmas story  LS – Hindu – Creation story, Values, Art work     Hinduism – Festival of light – 12h November 2023  Christianity – Christmas preparations  Food Tech: Hindu foods/ various Christian foods - Christmas  Art: Hindu/ Christian artwork/ style  English/ Humanities: History/ key stories of the Hindu/ Christian culture  Maths: Vadic maths – ancient strategies  Additional options  PE: Traditional games and sporting activities  https://www.learnreligions.com/what-is-vedic-math-1770682
Half term 3	Healthy Living and Fresh Starts   10/2/24    LS and US	Idea of Fresh starts and healthy living  Diet, exercise and lifestyle: The effect on health  Chinese New Year – 10th February 2024  Exploration of Chinese traditions and cultures  Modelling/ making of Chinese celebratory decorations
Half term 4	RE – SMSC  30/3/24   LS and US	Possible Activities  Islamic/ Muslim faith – Festival of Eid Friday 9th April  Judaism – Passover 22nd April 2023  Food Tech: Muslim foods and idea of Ramadan the Eid/ Passover  Art: Islamic/ Jewish art work styles  English/ Humanities: History/ Kaye stories of the Islamic/ Jewish culture  Maths: Patterns in numbers
Half term 5	Music from the cultures of the world  19/5/24  LS and US	Visitors from external musical provision e.g. The Glasshouse  Possible activities:   DJing  Drumming  Visits - Glasshouse
Half term 6	Healthy Choices for the Summer 7/7/24	Preparation for removal of structure  Staying safe in the community  Gang culture, knife crime, drugs and alcohol. I'm sure VRU, Edge etc would support these activities (include laws on these activities)

Measuring the Curriculum’s Success (Impact)   

As Trinity Academy Newcastle's curriculum model has several elements to it and sets out to achieve several different aims, it is appropriate to view impact in several different ways. Primarily, knowledge accumulation and learner learning will be tracked and evidenced via assessments and outcomes.   

The success of preparing learners for the next stage of their education or employment will be evaluated using destination data and progression routes for Key Stage 4 learners.   

Parent voice, Learner voice, Attendance and Behaviour data will form learner engagement evaluation.   

Well planned lessons, taught by enthusiastic and engaging practitioners will be evidenced via lesson observations, learning walks, quality assurance and work scrutiny. This forms part of the quality of education evaluation.   

A learner’s personal (holistic) development is measured through personalised targets as derived from their EHCPs. Progress towards these targets is pivotal to the development of the “whole person.”