Careful consideration is given to the curriculum studied at primary school so that our learners are fully supported with their transition to secondary school. We provide support and guidance but also rigour and challenge to mitigate against lost learning and provide opportunities for all to flourish. Our KS3 curriculum is rich and ambitious. In Year 7 and 8, the culture for learning is established. Our belief is that academic input coupled with experiential learning prepares youngsters for a bright future. At the UTC, we develop a culture that fosters a high degree of independence, and we work in partnership with students to raise aspirations. Our longer than average school week, with fewer sessions affords the opportunity to cover the full breath of the curriculum. This is supplemented by the UTC extra-curricular programme.
We strive to imbue a natural curiosity and love of learning in our young people. At the UTC, we understand that proficient skills in literacy and numeracy are a prerequisite to success. Therefore, we provide rich opportunities for these skills to be developed across the curriculum. At Key Stage 3 students will follow all areas of the national curriculum alongside extra time on STEAM subjects such as Art, Business, IT including Coding, The Built Environment and Design Technology. Our longer school day allows this to happen.
The KS3 curriculum has been developed into a detailed but user friendly ‘Online Curriculum’ resource which can be accessed at home by students and parents to follow the courses they are studying when not in school and also to supplement students’ learning with additional resources and homework.
The Year 9 curriculum is detailed on our OLC and is mapped out to build on the knowledge acquired during Year 7 and Year 8. Year 9 students will enjoy a curriculum co-produced with our partners at Thomas Telford School. The year is designed to equip students with a solid foundation that provides a transition from Key Stage 3 to Key Stage 4.
To avoid redundancy and to prevent stagnation in progress, students choose which of our specialisms they want to gain greater depth in at this stage in their educational journey at the UTC. Year 9 is therefore designed in a way that maximises students’ opportunity to build their knowledge through an enriched curriculum.
The transition year allows Thomas Telford UTC to excel in the Personal Development of our students, by giving them the opportunity to participate in additional drop-down days, trips, careers events and personalised employer mentorship, which has helped many of our past students successfully achieve their aspirational destinations. Most importantly our Year 9 students will also immerse themselves in Employer-led Projects based on our specialisms, which are fantastically successful, and are a great benefit to building students’ leadership and team-work skills, their confidence and self-esteem.
Students’ exposure to Humanities is maintained through cross-curricular links within our ‘Build’ specialism (such as ‘Sustainability’, ‘Regeneration’ and the evolution of Architecture), as well as through coordinated topics chronologically linked to English and science.
Computer Science is also threaded through the full Year 7 -11 curriculum via our Design and Innovate curriculums, which utilise Computer Aided Design, Building Information Modelling, coding, music technology and sequencing, 3D printing and Virtual Reality amongst other ICT applications.