Curriculum

Merchants' Academy provides an exciting, personalised learning curriculum, which supports and challenges all of our students and is at the heart of our teaching and learning philosophy. We ensure that all teaching and support staff have access to the highest quality training programmes to provide the most innovative and cutting edge learning opportunities for every student.

Merchants' Academy aims to:

  • Meet the needs and aspirations of all students
  • Ensure all students can successfully access the curriculum offer, making any reasonable adjustments required where particular needs are identified
  • Recognise high achieving students and ensure they are given opportunities to stretch and challenge their learning
  • Plan opportunities for students to develop their personal potential
  • Establish an agreed range of policies and practices to guarantee a consistent approach towards learning and teaching in every classroom.
  • Involve all staff in developing and improving the quality of learning and teaching
  • Provide all staff with developmental opportunities to extend and enhance their range of teaching and repertoires
  • Develop staff to deliver skills beyond their own subject specialism and incorporate cross curricular initiatives
  • Identify students’ achievements and areas for improvement, through rigorous monitoring of progress and to plan appropriate interventions to enhance learning

Literacy

The link between literacy and life chances has never been as widely researched and recognised as it is now.  Without language and literacy skills then, a young person’s life chances are severely diminished; their employability, health, confidence and happiness are all compromised. 

We offer an alternative curriculum in English to support students at KS3 who need extra support with reading fluency and comprehension but we cannot rely solely on English teachers for literacy; students need subject-specific literacy to become experts in each subject. 

Our full approach to Literacy can be found here:  Literacy-Strategy-2023-2024.pdf

Remote Learning Resources

Every effort will be made to ensure that students are taught in the academy but there may be times where this is not possible for individuals or groups of students due to a range of factors, including but not limited to suspension, exclusion, isolation due to illness, weather or industrial action.

There is no expectation that a teacher will deliver a live hybrid lesson. Remote learning will take the form of self-directing resources, for example Oak National.

In this event, teachers will set appropriate work for students and share this via the academy’s digital platform Class Charts and/or email.

Where access to technology, including the internet is limited or not available, the academy will provide hard copy packs that will either be collected by a parent/carer, or posted to the student’s home

SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD TO WORK REMOTELY

VISIT REMOTE LEARNING FOR STUDENTS

If you have any questions, please email the lead teacher for each subject. 

If you require alternative work that does not require Internet access, please email Bianca Ramsden at bianca.ramsden@merchantsacademy.org.