Our Curriculum

At Harris Academy Sutton (HASU) we believe that our curriculum, which is the substance of what we teach, is one of the most important elements of our work as a school. We aim to ensure that every student attending our Academy has the opportunity to enjoy an ambitious, broad, balanced, culturally rich curriculum which will enable each individual to achieve their very highest potential, regardless of their background or starting point.

At the heart of our vision and ethos are our core values: Innovation, Integrity, and Discovery. We aspire, through our curriculum, for students to leave us with integrity at the heart of their character, ready to use the rich and powerful foundation of knowledge developed during their schooling to find innovative solutions to the challenges of tomorrow, and furthermore to discover new knowledge themselves that will help them to drive forwards the frontiers of our understanding.

We believe that the best way to prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s world is with a broad, challenging academic curriculum through which every student can access and engage with the best that has been thought and said. We are a school with our Science specialism at our heart, and our curriculum vision takes inspiration from, among other sources, one of the great scientists of the past:

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."Isaac Newton 1675

We aspire for our students to see themselves as flourishing scholars, learning the best there is to learn and standing on the shoulders of giants to gain an ever greater understanding of the world around them.

 

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Our curriculum intent

At Harris Academy Sutton, we intend for all students to:

• Experience a broad, balanced and deep curriculum, rich in powerful knowledge that will enable students to understand, engage with and help shape the world.
• Develop into literate, numerate and eloquent communicators
• Mature with strong character, underpinned by the principle of acting with integrity.
• Personally develop into culturally literate, rounded, healthy and happy individuals who are able to lead safe, satisfying and successful adult lives.
• Leave us equipped with the qualifications, experiences, knowledge and skills required to progress onto their next steps and futures.

Our curriculum encompasses ‘what we teach’ in the broadest sense, drawing together:

• The academic curriculum taught through discrete subjects
• The personal development curriculum taught through tutor time, assemblies and IID days
• The wider curriculum taught through educational visits, enrichment, and our abundance of further curriculum experiences
• The ‘hidden’ or ‘cultural’ curriculum, taught through the day to day experience of being a student within the Harris Academy Sutton community.

 

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How is our curriculum designed?

Each subject has its own bespoke curriculum, designed by our subject specialist curriculum leaders to provide breadth, challenge, and powerful disciplinary learning. Subject teachers maintain their high levels of subject knowledge through regular, subject-specific training and self-study, and draw on further support from active engagement with subject associations and collaboration with the Harris Federation’s expert central teams of subject specialists.

Each Subject Curriculum is developed with our six guiding curriculum principles in mind:

• Challenge
• Powerful Knowledge
• Cultural Literacy
• Sequencing
• Retrieval
• Student Futures

More information about what we mean by these principles can be found in our Curriculum Policy.

Through careful design in topic and theme choices in all subject areas, and by considering the needs of our community, we have ensured that our provision meets the duties as laid out in the Equality Act 2010 and the SEND Regulations 2014. More information can be found in our General Equality Duty Statement and Plan and our SEND Policy.

 

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How can you learn more about our curriculum?

Each subject has its own page on this website, a list of which can be found here.

On each page, you can find the Subject Curriculum Plan for each Year, which sets out the intended curriculum and the rationale for what subject leaders have chosen to teach and when. These documents provide a foundation for more detailed curriculum planning by setting out the knowledge and skills to be taught during a given period of time.

The Personal Development and Wider Curriculum is detailed in the Personal Development section of the website, which can be found here.

 

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How is our curriculum organised?

Timetable

Students are taught through 6 x 50-minute lessons a day, in addition to 30 minutes of tutor time a day The academy day is detailed here.

Key Stage 3

Key Stage 3 encompasses Years 7, 8 and 9. During Key Stage 3, all students will follow the Academy’s Key Stage 3 curriculum which incorporates the full National Curriculum entitlement and Religious Studies. The HASU Personal Development curriculum, incorporating age appropriate Relationships and Sex Education, is delivered through Tutor Time. 

The Academy’s Key Stage 3 curriculum remains as broad as possible for as long as possible, ensuring that all students study a full range of academic subjects until the start of Year 10.

An overview of the Key Stage 3 curriculum can be seen below:

Subject	Lessons per fortnight
	Year 7	Year 8	Year 9
Maths	9	9	9
English	9	9	9
Science	9	9	9
Spanish	6	6	6
History	5	5	5
Geography	5	5	5
Computer Science	2	2	2
RS	2	2	2
Art	2	2	2
DT	3	3	3
PE	4	4	4
Music	2	2	2
Performing Arts	2	2	2
Tutor Time (30 mins)	10	10	10

 

Key Stage 4 Options process

During Year 9, students are inducted into the Key Stage 4 options preferences process. The vast majority of students are encouraged to choose the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects in addition to choosing options from a wide variety of Key Stage 4 subjects.

Students are provided with detailed information, advice and guidance so as to ensure that they make decisions with which they will be satisfied and which will allow them to achieve their potential.

The Academy’s options process ensures that all students follow a curriculum that is right for them, while remaining as broad and academically rich as possible.

 

Key Stage 4

Key Stage 4 encompasses Years 10 and 11. During Key Stage 4, students follow a personalised programme of study based on their Key Stage 4 options, in addition to the HASU Personal Development curriculum (incorporating further learning in Religious Studies and Computing for students who have not selected the subjects at GCSE) and age appropriate Relationships and Sex Education.

Subject	Lessons per fortnight
	Year 10	Year 11
Maths	10	10
English	10	10
Science	12	12
PE	4	4
Option 1	6	6
Option 2	6	6
Option 3	6	6
Option 4	6	6
Tutor Time (30 mins)	10	10

 

Key Stage 5

Harris Academy Sutton opened a brand new Sixth Form in September 2023. Our subject specialist curriculum leaders have prepared for the transition from GCSE to A-Levels, and our curriculum planning carefully considers the needs of an effective seven year curriculum. Our Key Stage 4 curriculum is intended to provide students with an excellent foundation for further study in any subjects that they should choose to take further.

More information on our Key Stage 5 curriculum can be found on the HASU6 Curriculum Page.

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Remote Education

All lessons, including after school interventions and holiday revision sessions run by HASU are currently in-person.  There are infrequent opportunities for online education, including revision semnars run by the Harris Federation.  Students are supported in such cases if they do not have a suitable device to use to be able to access this.

In the case of adverse situations resulting in school closure, the school may choose to resort to remote education. This would be most likely in the form of work setting and submission through Satchel:One and through Microsoft Teams.  All students have access to this as part of their ongoing work with their subjects at school and at home.  Students do need the Microsoft Authenticator to access these applications.  Further information on this can be found in the Parent Hub.

A pupil’s first day or two of being educated remotely might look different from our standard approach, while we take all necessary actions to prepare for a longer period of remote teaching.

At HASU, we seek to do all that we can to limit the impact of learning away from the Academy on our students' learning. Where students are forced to work from home through long-term sickness but are well enough to work, work might be provided for them by their teachers and set via Satchel:One or Teams.

We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school, wherever possible and appropriate. However, we may need to make some adaptations in some subjects whenever necessary.

We are expecting students to study for around 5 hours per day if they are at home.

We may make use of additional resources such as Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers, where appropriate

Some subjects may set long-term project work and/or internet research activities

If we have any concerns regarding your child's engagement or progress, we will be in touch to discuss with you

Some students may require additional support: the SEND team will be in touch regarding the nature and frequency of this support.

Students are expected to:

Access Satchel each day at 9 AM to review their work for the day

Follow the instructions set by the teacher carefully, including any instructions relating to how to submit the work completed (if required)

Complete all work set to the best of their ability

Engage fully with assessment activities so we are able to ascertain engagement and progress

Students can:

Contact their tutor and Head of Year if they have any problems, concerns, or require additional support: this is especially important if struggling with IT issues at home

Contact their subject teachers via Satchel:One or Teams or via email if they need specific help or to request additional work