Art

Please note that our subject pages are currently being updated as we move across to the United Learning Curriculum. If you have any queries regarding our curriculum, please contact us.

Art has the power to enrich our lives and offers pupils unique opportunities to develop and explore their own powers of imagination and creativity. The Heath Lane Academy Art and Design curriculum is designed to expose pupils to the core principles of art; drawing and painting, beginning with the skills and techniques required to create an accurate observational outcome in a range of media. Mastering accurate observation, using both primary and secondary sources, is at the core of the Heath Lane Art and Design curriculum. Once observational skills are mastered students can adapt, explore and experiment with them in diverse and creative ways as they move through key stage 3.

Once pupils have begun to develop their artistic skills and techniques, they then explore how they can convey ideas to an audience through their work, taking their first steps towards becoming their own artist. Pupils develop skills and techniques in a diverse range of materials, increasing the artistic challenge and scope for creativity with each cycle of the curriculum.

Throughout Years 7,8 and 9 pupils are introduced to key artists and art movements, from pre-historic art to the work of contemporary artists. Pupils develop an appreciation for the ways in which art has evolved, being both influenced and an influencer on society and culture.  

For those pupils who wish to follow Art and Design into key stage 4, we offer two GCSE pathways: the Edexcel GCSE Art and Design qualification, which offers both a Fine Art or Photography endorsement. Both courses have been selected to allow pupils to continue their creative journeys that they began in key stage 3. Pupils are required to build on their knowledge, artistic vocabulary, awareness, skills and techniques in order to produce their own portfolio of proportioned and emotive pieces of artwork in response to a given stimulus.

Physical Education

Please note that our subject pages are currently being updated as we move across to the United Learning Curriculum. If you have any queries regarding our curriculum, please contact us.

Physical education is a cornerstone in developing healthy, academic and well-rounded young people today and for life. The PE curriculum aims to develop the full potential of every pupil through high quality physical education within academic and sporting environments. 

Between Year 7 and Year 9 pupils study a range of topics from basic health, fitness and wellbeing, through principles and methods of training, diet and nutrition to the structure and function of the skeletal, muscular and cardio-vascular systems. They will also participate in regular physical and sports activities such as football, basketball, hockey, netball and athletics.

Pupils can go on to study for Edexcel GCSE PE or OCR Cambridge National Sports studies from Year 10 onwards.

Performing Arts

Please note that our subject pages are currently being updated as we move across to the United Learning Curriculum. If you have any queries regarding our curriculum, please contact us.

The Performing Arts curriculum at Heath Lane Academy aims to ignite pupil creativity and imagination. Pupils face the challenge of turning their ideas into a practical performance, providing them with opportunities to collaborate, communicate and develop their performance skills. Curriculum themes are carefully selected to expose pupils to scenarios that demand the expression of social, emotional and cultural ideas.

Our Performing Arts curriculum is constructed to:

• Develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the skills that underpin dramatic performance, and enjoy opportunities to apply them
• Help pupils explore the work and influence of important theatre practitioners and choreographers
• Allow all pupils to explore important themes in creative and imaginative ways, and to nurture their wider interest in the arts

Our Performing Arts curriculum is carefully sequenced to help pupils develop their confidence and competency year on year. In Year 7 we focus on an introduction to the core skills that form the foundations for learning throughout Key Stage 3, and into Key Stage 4 for those pupils that select the subject as one of their option choices. Pupils create, perform and evaluate dramatic and dance performances throughout each series of lessons, and consider their own progress and development.

In Year 8 pupils are introduced to the work of important theatre practitioners, who have inspired generations of professional performers across a range of performance styles. Their work is used as the stimulus for lessons that help pupils continue to develop their core skills.

In Year 9 pupils evaluate and perform an increasingly diverse collection of dramatic texts and choreographic devices which span a range of genres and styles. Pupils develop the sophistication of their practical performances, and their appreciation of the performance of others.

Our pupils also enjoy opportunities for participation in our extra-curricular activities. Heath Lane Academy whole school productions enable our pupils to get involved in singing, acting and dancing aspects of a show, and provide a wealth of opportunities for them to collaborate with others as performers, musicians, sound and lighting technicians, set designers and choreographers.

In Performing Arts lessons pupils express their opinions verbally, and are taught how to articulate their ideas using subject specific vocabulary. The ability to describe and evaluate a practical performance in a critical manner is vital for success in our Key Stage 4 curriculum.

Pupils at Heath Lane Academy study the BTEC Tech award in Performing Arts. This qualification, which has endorsements in both Dance and Drama, allows pupils to explore the performing arts through existing repertoire and examine Professional Practitioners’ Performances. Pupils are taught how to interpret writers’ and performers’ intentions, and how to evaluate the inter-relationships between key features of a performance. Pupils also devise and create performances in both Dance and Acting disciplines, depending on their individual strengths and interests.

At Key Stage 4 our pupils have the opportunity to engage in workshops delivered by professional artists in the performance industry. Pupils are also introduced to pieces of live theatre throughout their two-year course.

Music

Please note that our subject pages are currently being updated as we move across to the United Learning Curriculum. If you have any queries regarding our curriculum, please contact us.

The Music curriculum is designed to underpin key knowledge and core musical skills of performing, composing and listening. These skills are developed through varied units increasing in demand, context and breadth.

In Year 7 pupils focus on an introduction to listening, performing and composing skills via the elements of music. In Year 8 pupils develop these skills further whilst exploring a range of genres and their cultural context. In Year 9 they will further their independent use of the skills explored earlier in the curriculum -  listening, composing and performing a diverse range of pieces and genres.  

From Year 10, pupils can go on to study the Edexcel  BTEC Tech Award Music.