Middle School (Years 7 - 10)

Students progress from The Academy's world class middle school curriculum to build strong foundational knowledge and skills, as well as a deep sense of community.

Our middle school curriculum is a robust evidence-based programme inspired by internationally recognised and proven curricula such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Cambridge International Lower Secondary programme.

Our science courses are informed by current educational research such as the Best Evidence Science Teaching project developed by the University of York Science Education Group, the Salters' Institute and the Institute of Physics

The Academy’s mathematics curriculum follows a strong research base of the science of learning, informed by work from the following education bodies:

Our technology curriculum has been created in consultation with leaders in the technology industry, giving our students a significant advantage as they build a broad and high-quality portfolio of work.

Core Curriculum

The middle school core curriculum, Years 7 - 10, focuses on the following subject areas:

All subjects are taught by expert teachers, each specialising in their respective disciplines. The middle school courses have common tutorial times between multiple year levels, fostering an environment of stong peer support and interaction.

The extended experiences which take place each Friday allows us to provide a broad and diverse experiences and projects for students. This is where The Academy's Citizenship curriculum will be covered, as well as Outdoor Education and Relationships, Health and Sex Education.

Comprehensive academic feedback is provided to parents at face-to-face meetings throughout the year, with written reports provided twice a year. Through our regular dialogue process, our staff monitor and proactively address academic strengths and areas for academic improvement, with the school communicating directly with families on an as-needed basis.

Years 7 - 8

Science

The introduction to The Academy's middle school is an exciting journey, harnessing the wonderful energy and curiosity that our beginning students bring to our school. These are important transition years at The Academy, with the goal of building a supportive community and a strong culture of learning. Students in Years 7 and 8 develop independence, responsibility, ownership, and organisational skills in an environment where they have considerable freedom to explore their interests — with high expectations.

We focus on building a disposition in students which is aligned with the school virtues (Integrity, Perseverance, Excellence, Courage, Humility and Empathy), and this forms the focus of our reporting to parents at these levels, in addition to their academic achievement. We believe that building this strong foundation of good learning habits and attitudes is the most important priority to achieve future resilience and success.

The Year 7 and 8 core curriculum give students a solid grounding in mathematics, reading and writing skills and fundamental scientific knowledge.

The weekly tasks and regular dialogue processes at these levels aims to build good habits and act as a check in to ensure students feel supported and sufficiently challenged.

Projects at this level will include building a personal website to publish work, staging plays, building an electronic alarm system, programming a game in JavaScript, constructing basic instruments, sampling the biodiversity of our local park and maintaining a vegetable garden.

Relationships, Health and Sex Education topics at this level cover physical fitness, sleep and healthy eating, mental well-being, respect and friendship, puberty and first aid. Online safety and responsibility is covered as part of the technology curriculum.



Years 9 - 10

In Years 9 and 10, students continue cultivating their disposition as they take on increased expectations and challenges. They are exposed to deep content and analytical skills in our core curriculum which allow them to take on more complex and creative challenges. Students who complete these year levels are extremely well prepared to succeed in the senior school external assessments. As well as academic expectations, homework expectations are increased, helping students develop their independence and agency, and build executive functioning skills like organisation and planning.

Students at these levels will learn to engage in debates, build measuring equipment to assist their science experiments, chart long-term night sky observations, apply their mathematics skills to more challenging programming tasks, program a physics engine to simulate aspects of nature, take part in national robotics competitions, and expand their personal website with more complex and useful features.

Relationships, Health and Sex Education topics at this level include safety and consent in intimate relationships, mental health and well-being, bullying and harassment and drugs and alcohol. Online safety and responsibility is covered as part of the technology curriculum.

Students take part in our regular dialogue process, where they articulate their learning and engage with a task alongside a teacher to apply their knowledge. This process helps build accountability and emphasises the importance of strong communication skills. Students prepare for these dialogues through the assigned weekly tasks which they complete during tutorials and as homework.

Curriculum Pathway