At Fortis Academy we have invested a great deal of time in creating a curriculum that is bespoke to our learners. We have collaborated with our peers in Science Faculties throughout the Shaw Education Trust and utilised the Best Evidence Science Teaching (BEST) resources. BEST provides diagnostic questions that enable the teacher to steer the learning of their class according to the students’ prior knowledge with fantastic response activities. Addressing misconceptions and developing key skills are not only essential to a career in Science but provide all of our learners with the toolkit needed to question, analyse and evaluate data and information for its integrity, so that an informed decision can be made.

Science is essentially a way of gathering information about anything in our universe. The idea is that this information has been tested and experimented, so we view it as knowledge. That is why people with Science jobs are a curious, creative bunch who want to find out how things work. This is why we do not apologise for focusing some of our attention on career opportunities within Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. These careers are vast and offer great rewards in terms of enjoyment, satisfaction, and financial security.

Our successes at Key Stage 4 and at Key Stage 5 speak volumes about how serious we are in ensuring we create and develop curious minds of the future, and are a credit to the amazing wealth of expertise that we have within the Academy, all of which has contributed towards the nurturing curriculum that we see in our Foundation Academy. Finally, we are proud of the excellent facilities that we have in our Foundation Academy which allow us to deliver a curriculum like no other!

Each of our topics at Key Stage 3 is named after a career that could be pursued with further study, for example Geneticist, Astronomer, Molecular Chemist, Analytical Chemist, Pharmacist, Geologist, Physiotherapist, Electrician as well as many others. We make sure that we satisfy the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum but do so in an engaging and thought-provoking manner. We support the Foundation Academy’s themed curriculum by sequencing our topic areas inline with the current theme. This helps to support our learners as they develop skills throughout the year.