Curriculum Intent
Our English Department is driven by enthusiasm for our subject and passion for providing our students the best learning experience. Our curriculum takes pupils on a literary journey, exploring celebrated literature from our literary heritage as well as reading pieces from contemporary authors. Through the exploration of varied fiction and non-fiction texts, we aim to foster a curiosity for English and enable students to develop intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually while acquiring a love of the subject. The study of English Language will enable our students to communicate effectively: the key to unlocking our understanding of others and the world. We will teach our pupils to write fluently and speak confidently in order to prepare them for the world beyond school. Above all else, we will deliver a curriculum which offers a breadth and depth of learning experiences so that all of our pupils enjoy, thrive and achieve.
English has a unique place within the curriculum because it encourages students to explore ideas about humanity and society through the texts we study. We introduce pupils to ideas and concepts that are new, to texts that they may not ordinarily choose to read outside the classroom, and to ensure that all pupils have a solid foundation and grounding in classics from the English literary canon. We spend time equipping students with the skills they need to be able to read, write and communicate orally to a high standard which will set them up to be successful later on in life in whichever path they choose to take.
The modules that we study from Year 7 onwards build on students’ prior knowledge from Key Stage 2. Our students are encouraged to develop their reading and writing skills by accessing a wide range of texts from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales to The Bone Sparrow and the texts we have selected are intended to provide a solid basis for study at GCSE and beyond. Students’ learning is interleaved to encourage their skills and knowledge to build over the three years because a challenging and dynamic Key Stage 3 is crucial in ensuring that students are not only prepared for their GCSE study, but are also set up for a lifelong love of Literature.
English Learning Journey
The fundamental aims of the English department are to:
- provide opportunities to develop speaking and listening skills that will enable students to speak appropriately in a given context, adapting their speech to suit the purpose and the audience;
- develop reading skills, using a range of texts from different periods, cultures and genres to enable students to be able to understand the conventions writers use and to understand their effects;
- encourage a love for reading and engage students with an enthusiasm for language and how writers use it in different ways;
- provide opportunities to enable students to write appropriately and accurately to suit the purpose and the audience;
- encourage students to be aware of the conventions of types of writing and to adapt them successfully in their own writing;
Above all we aim to foster a love of literature and language in every student.
English KS3 Curriculum Overviews
GCSE
AQA GCSE English Language Students – The AQA specification is designed to inspire and motivate students, providing appropriate stretch and challenge whilst ensuring that the assessment and texts are, as far as possible, accessible to all students. It enables students to develop the skills they need to read, understand and analyse a wide range of different texts and write clearly. We look in detail at a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction texts from both contemporary sources and 19th/20th century writers.
AQA GCSE English Literature – The English Literature specification is designed to inspire, challenge and motivate every student, regardless of ability level. We cover a diverse range of texts from English literary heritage as well as modern day classics.
Curriculum Overviews English GCSE
Sixth Form
AQA A Level English Language – This course encourages students to develop their interest in and appreciation of English Language, through learning about its structures and its functions, its developments and its variations. Over the span of the course we explore issues of language change, acquisition, diversity and representation.
AQA A Level English Literature – This course aims to broaden your mind by reading and analysing a range of literary texts, focusing initially on how narrative works in texts and how connections can be made across texts through the use of different narratives; you will then go on to study critical theory and also elements of the ‘Crime’ genre.