At Manchester Communication Academy, we believe in the transformative power of knowledge in tackling social inequality in order to fulfil the aspirations of all our students to ensure success beyond school life. Our mantra of ‘mitigating the impact of social injustice’ is at the heart of everything we do and this philosophy is evident in our highly ambitious and challenging curriculum.  Our aspirational, bespoke curriculum looks to embed, yet go beyond, the national curriculum and ensures students gain the necessary experiences to compete academically, practically, socially and morally in the wider world.

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Our curriculum is designed around six core principles. The MCA curriculum:

1.    Exposes all learners to powerful declarative and procedural knowledge within the subject discipline.

2.    Spaces and sequences of core knowledge to be revisited over time.

3.    Uses retrieval practice to strengthen learners' memory of the core knowledge.

4.    Elicits deeper thinking,

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5.    Provides opportunities for students to practice applying and manipulating powerful knowledge, towards mastery.

6.    Ensures that all learners experience high challenge and low threat.

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Our text-rich curriculum ensures that all subjects have reading at the heart of their curriculum. A curriculum rich in reading allows students to experience a wide vocabulary and encourages deep discussions on issues raised. Articles and books used in each subject aim to increase cultural capital for our students and encourage links to real life experiences. 

Alongside the text rich subject curriculum, students also have the opportunity to read during our twenty minute reading session each day. Using evidence informed approaches, students engage with a variety of text that stimulates their learning and knowledge of the world as well as developing their reading fluency and comprehension skills.

Beyond our universal offer, students are supported in their decoding, fluency and comprehension skills through a range of evidence informed targeted interventions. 

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Students have five one-hour lessons each day alongside 20 minutes of reading time. Before school each day, students have progress time with their progress leader where they have the opportunity to discuss any issues that may hinder their progress that day. Students can also attend before or after school clubs where they can engage in a wide range of activities based on their interests.

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KS3 curriculum

At KS3, all students have access to the same ambitious curriculum covering the following subjects. 

 

• Mathematics

• English

• Science

• Geography

• History

• French 

• Spanish

• Art

• Computing Technology

• PE

• Religious Education

• PSHE/Aspire

• Drama

• Music

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