Our Curriculum
As part of Penk Valley Academy Trust we will develop a rich, relevant and engaging curriculum that inspires, informs and challenges all our learners and appropriately prepares them for the future.
The Rural Enterprise Academy is a free school with a specialised curriculum focused around the environment and land-based sectors. Our pupils choose us as they have an interest in these areas and potentially want to develop a career from this interest. We offer a broad and ambitious curriculum to all our pupils which is focused on preparing them for their future career choices as well as challenging and informing them about current issues within these sectors.
We are committed to offering a three year KS3 curriculum where pupils will access a broad range of subjects. Our curriculum offers lessons in traditional academic subjects such as English, maths, science, humanities and PE as well as creative, technological and environmental curriculum, which are designed to develop our pupils understanding of the school’s specialism in land-based and environment sectors.
At KS4, pupils are able to complete GCSEs in a range of academic and vocational subjects. The KS4 offer includes English, maths, science, geography and business studies as core subjects with options in land-based subjects and more traditional GCSE subjects.
Languages are not part of the GCSE offer at KS4. Although languages make up part of the creative curriculum at KS3 and we continue to offer opportunities to learn languages throughout the school, we have made the decision not to offer a GCSE in language. Our pupils have worked and studied in many countries of the world, including Brazil and Australia, as well as working with other large agriculture producers, such as China. Our curriculum is designed to allow pupils to have a working knowledge of a range of other languages and cultural expectations so that they are able to travel across the world and communicate effectively with others.
Our curriculum is implemented using the Visible Learning approach based on John Hattie’s research. We want our pupils to understand how they are learning and take ownership of their journey with us. Our teachers use research-based evidence to plan and deliver effective lessons where learning and feedback are prioritised.
Lesson allocation all years 30 lessons per week
Years 10 and 11
- English 5 x 50 minute lessons
- Maths 5 x 50 minute lessons
- Science 6 x 50 minute lessons
- Geography 3 x 50 minute lessons
- Enterprise 3 x 50 minute lessons
- Religious education 1x 50 minute lesson
- CPHSE 1 x 50 minute lesson
- Option subject (currently Sport or Creative iMedia) 3 x 50 minute lessons
- Physical Education (Core PE) 3 x 50 minute lessons
Years 7 and 9
- English 4 x minute lessons
- Maths 4 x 50 minute lessons
- Science 4 x 50 minute lessons
- Geography 3 x 50 minute lessons
- Environmental Studies 4 x 50 minute lessons (Forest school in year 7 and Land based taster sessions in year 9)
- Religious education 1 x 50 minute lesson
- CPHSE 1 x 50 minute lesson
- Creative studies 2 x 50 minute lessons
- Physical Education (Core PE) 3 x 50 minute lesson
- Technology 2 x 50 minute lessons
- Information technology 1 x 50 minute lesson