Curriculum Overview

The curriculum at Harborne Academy intends to provide our students with the best start in life possible regardless of their starting point.

Currently in Year 7, students study English and History in English Plus which allows them to work towards a project-based curriculum with outcomes ranging from reading assessments, written pieces of work, and pieces of artwork to consolidate their learning. Through this the Academy intends to ease students in to the secondary setting and ensure they are ‘Secondary Ready’ in all aspects. This model has proven to be successful for Harborne Academy and therefore is embedded well within the Academy.

Meanwhile, in other subject areas, Year 7 students are introduced to basic concepts which are built upon each year to continue developing lifelong skills through various topics until students achieve mastery within individual subjects upon reaching Year 11. The Academy prides itself on providing students with a broad and balanced curriculum with appropriate curriculum time being provided to each area. Throughout the curriculum, students are encouraged to develop their analytical and evaluation skills, as well as express their creativity through the arts.

Literacy is of great importance at Harborne Academy and is well embedded within Academy life with students being exposed to a variety of texts and stimulus material from The Big Read in tutor time to subject specific texts in each subject area. Following on from our love of reading, oracy also plays a major role within Academy life with students being provided opportunities in curriculum time to develop their communication skills to become confident and coherent communicators. Further to this,  enrichment activities including reciting poetry, poetry slams on National Poetry Day and Debate Mate, to name a few are utilised to provide students with a platform to showcase their skills.

Enrichment opportunities linked to each subject area are flourishing with students being offered a range of out of class learning experiences including Masterclasses at Birmingham University, theatre visits, Kingswood Residential and extra-curricular sports clubs. Where possible, the Harborne Academy enhances students’ cultural capital by inviting performance companies to perform within the Academy and guest speakers to inspire our students.

Harborne Academy has worked hard to ensure students understand how topics are not just limited to a specific curriculum area and there are links across most subjects within the Academy. We have worked hard to ensure students are given a broad and balanced curriculum and their cultural capital is enhanced by recognising the value of cross-curricular links, where possible. This is highlighted to students so they are aware of the links between subject areas to show students the breadth of the knowledge they are acquiring and how it will impact their future lives.

It is through our core beliefs of having pride in your learning, passion for your subject areas, a professional attitude demonstrated by both staff and students, and commitment to outstanding performance by all that Harborne Academy has been successful in providing exceptional learning for our exceptional students.

Further information regarding curriculum provision in individual subject areas is available in the ‘Subject Information’ area of the website.