Curriculum

As a Dixons academy, our curriculum is aligned to a common set of trust-wide principles which are underpinned by our mission to challenge educational and social disadvantage in the North. We believe all students are entitled to an ambitious, knowledge-rich curriculum which will open doors and maximise life chances.

At Dixons Middleton Academy, we challenge social inequality by instilling shared powerful knowledge through an academic curriculum which is broad and balanced. Each subject specifies, in detail, the knowledge (both substantive and procedural) students will remember, underpinned by the National Curriculum and wider subject domains. As such, in each discipline, students are prepared for national assessments, and importantly, acquire knowledge from all cultural domains that builds wider cultural capital.

Our curriculum is informed by the latest evidential research from cognitive science about memory, forgetting and practice in order to help students remember more, and apply, the best of what has been thought and said. By employing our curriculum as progression model, we make knowledge stick so that it can be flexibly applied in a variety of different contexts and situations.

A curriculum that builds futures

Our curriculum is built on the belief that every student deserves the knowledge, skills, and confidence to thrive in a rapidly changing world. It is a knowledge-rich and skills-driven curriculum that ensures students not only learn key content but also know how to apply it effectively.

Running alongside our subject specialist curriculum are our Morning Meetings. Our students in Year 7 to 11 start each morning with Morning Meeting that supports our students’ vocabulary, metacognition, and acquisition of powerful knowledge. Morning Meeting follows a similar format across every year group. Morning Meetings have a specific focus on knowledge acquisition through retrieval practice as we believe that knowledge is the foundation for learning.

At Dixons Middleton Academy, we teach our students powerful knowledge so that they can understand and interpret the world and to think in new and unexpected ways. With the democratisation of knowledge, our students will be incredibly successful in high stakes examinations and will go on to use this understanding to achieve great things in the world.

We focus on:

• deep subject knowledge across a broad and balanced range of disciplines

• effective learning strategies to help students retain and recall information

• strong communication skills, both written and verbal

• independent reading to build confidence and comprehension

• resilience and independence, nurtured through a culture of reflection and improvement
   

Learning outside the classroom

We believe that education doesn’t stop at the classroom door. Our curriculum is enriched by a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities that support academic achievement and personal development.

Students can take part in:

• Formula One club, gardening club, and DJing club

• annual musical productions and a vibrant school music festival

• a wide range of sports teams and competitions

We are proud to hold the Gold Artsmark Award from Arts Council England and the Gold School Games Mark, recognising our excellence in the arts and sport.

Support for every learner

We understand that some students may need additional support in literacy or numeracy. Our curriculum includes targeted interventions to help every learner catch up and keep up. At the heart of our approach is a strong pastoral system, where every student is known and supported. We call this our “someone for everyone” promise.
 

How we assess learning

We use both formative and summative assessments to monitor progress:

• Summative assessment evaluates how well students can apply their learning and demonstrate deeper understanding

• Formative assessment helps us check that students have understood and remembered key knowledge

Core curriculum

All students study the following core subjects:

• English language and literature

• mathematics

• science (combined or triple)

• life education

• cultural studies (religious education)

• physical education (PE)

These subjects support students’ academic progress while promoting their physical, emotional, and social wellbeing.

Please note that parents have a right to withdraw their child from part or all of Religious Education (RE) and parents have the right to request withdrawal of their child from sex education (but not from relationships or health education, nor from statutory science). 

Please contact the academy via email should you wish to discuss this or if you wish to find out more information about the curriculum for any of our subjects.