Curriculum Intent and Policy
Curriculum Intent
At Hafs Academy, our goal is to provide an excellent education for all our students, ensuring they are equipped for success in both their academic journey and future lives. Our vision of ‘best lesson, best day, best year, best future’ reflects our dedication to bringing out the best in each student, preparing them for both personal growth and academic achievement.
We have designed a powerful, intellectually stimulating, and rigorous curriculum to provide students with the core knowledge, skills, and values that will become the foundation for their success. Our aim is to nurture students’ cognitive development and talents, encouraging them to become well-informed, independent, and confident individuals.
We focus on developing not just academic knowledge but also the ability to think critically, evaluate, and engage with information actively. Each of these skills is taught within the rich context of each subject, ensuring that students appreciate and engage with the best of what has been thought and done across various disciplines. Through this approach, we aim to help our students engage with the full richness of the human experience.
Our curriculum extends beyond traditional classroom learning. We cultivate the whole child through a robust PSHE programme, extra-curricular activities, and our Work Related Learning provision.
Key Principles of Our Curriculum
- Knowledge: Our curriculum is designed to specify the knowledge that should be taught to Hafs Academy students. We provide resources to support this knowledge and help teachers bring it to life through their passion, pedagogy, and practice.
- Mastery: All students are encouraged to fully understand the curriculum content each year. Teaching is structured so that learning is built upon, reinforced, and revisited over time. This results in a clear and coherent pathway from Year 7 through to Year 11 and beyond to Year 13. We use assessments to monitor progress, ensuring teaching only moves forward when students have achieved mastery.
- Stability: While we adapt our curriculum based on feedback and experience, our approach prioritises consistency. This stability allows our teachers to develop expertise, continuously enhancing their teaching materials and assessments.
- Entitlement, Equality, and Inclusion: We believe that every student has the right to access the full Hafs Academy curriculum. Our curriculum reflects our commitment to equality and diversity, ensuring all students are represented and can see themselves within the curriculum. The knowledge students learn is designed to champion these values, enriching their understanding and the whole community.
- Education with Character: Our curriculum sparks curiosity and fosters independent thinking, contributing to the development of strong character. This is evident in lessons, PSHE, and our extra-curricular activities. Students reflect on their character growth and learning in their Character Journal each week.
For more information, please refer to our Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, and Assessment Policy available on our website.
