Laurence Jackson School strives to inspire excellence in learning and life through a curriculum designed to inspire personalised academic excellence for students of all abilities. Students will experience an academic and practical curriculum that is ambitious, broad and varied and aims to foster a joy for learning. Developing character is a central part of our curriculum and has five key elements at Laurence Jackson School. We know that positive relationships need to be at the centre of everything we do and students need to be able to demonstrate the four key behaviour strands of be ready, be respectful, be resilient, be reflective.

Students are allocated to a Personalised Learning Curriculum Pathways. Each pathway following a varying route and ensuring access to a broad and balanced personalised curriculum. Students’ needs are constantly reviewed, and these pathways can and do change in response to individual needs either through our regular pathway and progress reviews or whenever it is deemed to be in the best interests of the student.

At Laurence Jackson School students will experience:

  • An education that develops character.
  • An academic and practical curriculum with a focus on the English Baccalaureate.
  • Quality first teaching in all subjects so that students acquire subject specific knowledge and skills.
  • A strong focus on literacy in all lessons which is enhanced for those students in the most need.
  • A bespoke curriculum that caters for students’ learning needs and progression.
  • The teaching of British Values in pastoral and curriculum programmes.
  • A careers education in every year group that is based on the Gatsby benchmarks to ensure all students are well informed to take their next steps.
  • Opportunities and activities that enhance and enrich the curriculum provision.

KS3 Curriculum Implementation:

The curriculum is deliberately broad and varied at KS3 with all students studying a broad range of subjects both academic and practical. Students are taught in both personalised learning pathways and mixed ability groupings. A bespoke curriculum is implemented to provide enhanced support to students who have Educational Health Care Plans.

Typical Key Stage 3 Curriculum Design:

Subject

Numbers of lessons per
 two week cycle

 

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

English

7

7

7

Mathematics

7

7

7

Science

6

6

6

Learning4Life

2

2

2

Modern Foreign Language (French or Spanish)

5

5

5

Geography

3

3

3

History

3

3

3

RE

2

2

2

Physical Education

4

4

4

ICT and Computer Science

2

2

2

Design & Technology

3

3

3

Music

2

2

2

Art

2

2

2

Drama

2

2

2

All lessons are 1 hour in length and there are 25 lessons per week.


KS4 Curriculum Implementation:

At Key Stage 4, options provide a rich choice of both academic and vocational provision to inspire all students to be successful on their future pathways. Students are encouraged to study a range of academic and practical subjects at GCSE linked to their interests and aspirations for the future. The option process guides students on their personalised learning pathway and sets out recommended numbers of academic and vocational qualifications. All students are expected to continue to study a Humanities subject and most to are expected to continue a Modern Foreign Language. A KS4 course overview is available here.

Typical Key Stage 4 Curriculum Design

Subject

Number of lessons per
two-week cycle

Year 10

Year 11

English

8

8

Maths

8

8

Science

9

9

Learning4Life

2

2

PE

3

3

Option 1

5

5

Option 2

5

5

Option 3

5

5

Option 4

5

5

All lessons are 1 hour in length and there are 25 lessons per week.


Quality First Teaching at Laurence Jackson School:

Through proven research, CPD and collaboration with the Trust, students will experience quality first teaching in all subject areas. Curriculum design ensures knowledge and skills are explicit to all, sequenced logically, deliberately practice and retrieved regularly to ensure students know and remember more. Modelling and scaffolding in lessons provide students with worked examples when learning new content. Periods of guided practice with individualised scaffolding ensures high success rates before students are challenged to work independently. Recall and retrieval activities are well embedded within curriculums and home learning strategies. Formative and summative assessment strategies ensure learning and progress is checked regularly in order identify gaps and provide targeted support.

At Laurence Jackson School quality first teaching is underpinned by;

The Personal Development Curriculum:

We aim to develop our students’ understanding of their place in an ever-changing world as part of inspir-ing them to a successful future. Personal Development at LJS is built upon inspiring all students to be ex-cellent in life beyond school. We prepare our students for the current challenges they face beyond the school gate and the challenges they will encounter in their adult lives.

We develop responsible citizens who are:

  • ready and eager to discover interests and talents and learn independently
  • respectful of themselves and every member of our community
  • resilient and adaptable in the face of challenge
  • reflective about their learning and themselves

This is supported through:

  • Morning Registration and our form tutor programme of activities
  • Timetabled PHSE curriculum through Learning for Life
  • Wider Engagement activities- both extra-curricular and enrichment
  • Pastoral and wellbeing support
  • Careers information, education, advice and guidance

Careers Education

Our careers education programme begins in KS3 and provides students with an understanding of the world of work and the careers which will be available to them locally, nationally and internationally. Work Expe-rience Week during Year 10 is also an important vehicle for inspiring students to look ahead to future ca-reer opportunities and helps guide their decisions about education post 16.

We offer a quality and comprehensive careers education, information, advice and guidance programme that support our students make realistic and informed decisions about their career pathways. We support students by providing access to differentiated, impartial and independent information and guidance about the range of options (including academic, vocational, apprenticeships) and introducing them to employers to prepare them for the world of work regardless of the pathway they choose.

Further details of Careers at Laurence Jackson School can be found here.

Educational Opportunities beyond the classroom

At Laurence Jackson School, we aim to Inspire Excellence by looking ahead to the future and out to the wider world. Students will experience an education that develops the whole person, where students devel-op strong character attributes to be successful in life in line with the school ethos. Developing our students’ understanding of their social responsibilities as citizens of our school, our community, our country and in-ternationally is central to this aspect of our ethos. This character development is being enriched by the de-velopment of our SMSC and Learning4life (PSHE) curriculums.

Laurence Jackson School is a school that is proud to serve its local community and seeks to develop stu-dents’ understanding of their place in that community. We also provide opportunities for our students to have a range of cultural experiences and ensure that they have opportunities to learn about, and travel to, communities that are outside our locality. We offer additional opportunities for all students in order that they can achieve at all levels. Our intent is to deliver additional learning experience that meets the needs of individual students. We are proud of our wider enrichment offer, open to all students that broaden op-portunities and experiences.

Sport is a central part of our school life both within the curriculum and through enrichment activities be-cause we recognise that good physical health supports good mental health and that developing a love of being active and a value of physical fitness is an important part of preparing our students for successful futures. Sporting opportunities at Laurence Jackson School also provide an opportunity for students to en-gage with others outside of our local community through regional, national and international competi-tions. We offer students across all year groups the opportunity to develop their knowledge, skills, talents and interests through an extensive provision of extended learning and diverse enrichment. Our pro-gramme is designed to offer high quality activities across a wide spectrum of different domains (for exam-ple cultural, creative, sporting, physical, service-oriented and leadership opportunities) which enable pupils to participate over time, learn and improve in their chosen activities and compete or perform as appropri-ate. A broad range of subject specific and special interest enrichment groups are held during and after school. Examples include:

  • Student Leadership Initiatives
  • Sporting activities
  • Musical activities
  • Performing Arts activities
  • Creative activities
  • Subject enrichment sessions and trips
  • Homework Clubs
  • Scholar Award Programme
  • Service oriented activities, for example charity fund raising activities
  • Engagement with local or national organisations such as the Duke of Edinburgh awards and the National Citizenship Service