Bedford Academy vision:

The BA Way is the foundation of our curriculum. At Bedford Academy we strive to ensure every student becomes a young person who is:

Community minded: a responsible, thoughtful and independent member of society that takes ownership of their own actions and decisions

Driven: a confident individual that achieve their full potential and work towards success, without excuses or compromise

Aspirational: have high expectations of themselves and others, always aiming to improve, succeed and excel

Bedford Academy prepares students to make a positive contribution to society in their next steps outside of school and in the future careers.

Bedford Academy intent:

The BA curriculum is broad, balanced and inclusive. Traditional academic subjects are allocated a significant proportion of curriculum time to reflect the profile of our school community. This enables us to raise aspirations and develop students’ self-belief that everyone can achieve. We offer a diverse range of academic and vocational courses to provide individual pathways that reflect the interests and strengths of our students. The breadth of these pathways supports the building of aspirations and has clear and purposeful links to our post-16 offer.

All students are encouraged to complete the demanding EBACC qualifications in order to study their choice of A-Levels and aspire to achieve a University place. For students who wish to follow a different pathway we offer extensive guidance and a range of vocational qualifications at KS4 and 5. This offer is supported by our strong careers provision and our Sixth Form Sport and Dance Academy.

We believe in a seven-year curriculum model, spanning from Year 7 to 13.

Key Stage 3 is broad and balanced, ensuring students are well-prepared for modern life. This includes building skills, knowledge and confidence for Year 10 where the first assessed qualification is gained.

Our two-year Key Stage 4 allows students to study a range of optional subjects alongside their core offer (Year 10 and 11).

Key Stage 5 (Year 12 and 13) is two years of Level 3 study on an A-Level, vocational or blended pathway. Students also have an option to be part of our growing Sport and Dance Academy offer, which is proving to be increasingly popular with external students.

Each subject identifies their subject content through a Learning Ladder. These are compiled to ensure students learning is sequenced, building on existing and prior knowledge so students know and remember more. These are widely shared with students and parents and our teaching staff refer to them regularly, so that links are clearly identified. All learning ladders can be found here https://www.bedfordacademy.co.uk/learning-ladders/501.html

Provision Map

 

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

Year 10

 

Year 11

Teaching & Learning

Our 'Community Minded, Driven, Aspirational' values mean that learning is considered to be a partnership between students, staff and parents. We aim to create an environment based on encouraging students to aspire for excellence as a result of the delivery of high quality teaching and learning across the school.

The teaching at Bedford Academy is designed to be engaging, exciting and challenging. We want all our students to be fully prepared for their futures by providing them with a range of academic opportunities and developing their character so that they leave us as well-rounded, employable young people.

At Bedford Academy lessons last for 1 hour. Our staff work hard so that all students are challenged and supported to make sustained and substantial progress in all aspects of their studies. This is achieved through:

Consistent High Expectations

The high expectations underpinned by The BA Golden Five mean that lessons are conducted in a positive working environment that is conducive to high quality teaching and learning. Teachers use the information available to them to plan lessons that meet the individual needs of the students we teach.

Stretch and Challenge

All lessons contain a variety of learning activities and tasks to ensure that students are engaged and challenged. Teachers employ a range of strategies that offer the opportunity to transfer, reinforce and extend the knowledge and skills of the students they teach. This includes a focus on high quality questioning, and modelling and scaffolding to support learners in completing more complex tasks.

High Quality Feedback

As we look to foster a love of learning in our students and develop independent and resilient learners, our students will receive high quality feedback that provides students with clear next steps on what they need to do to improve and develop the quality of their work. This feedback is provided through a variety of “no written marking” strategies to ensure that the feedback is immediate, whilst also reducing the workload of our teaching staff.