Across all key stages, we strive to
offer a broad, varied and stimulating Curriculum for our students. We
promote challenge and cultural enrichment by teaching diverse and
challenging texts, incorporating a wide-range of voices, identities and
perspectives.
Our Curriculum is ambitious as it
offers students repeated opportunities to engage with a varied
collection of fiction and non-fiction material to support our students
in formulating their own opinions and identity within the modern world.
This includes poetry across time and a variety of non-fiction reading
material. We strive to encourage pleasure and enjoyment from the written
word, and our Curriculum grants access to a world of reading, including
a rich heritage of literary tradition.
As a department, we encourage
opinion-forming and model high-quality talk in our lessons. We explore
historical social attitudes and encourage students to challenge them
with a modern-day perception. We develop literary skills by teaching and
modelling reading for understanding. Student progress is supported
through the integration of explicit vocabulary teaching into our lessons
via strategies such as dual coding and identifying word etymologies.
Ultimately, we aim to equip our
students with the ability to understand and be understood, communicating
effectively and clearly in a range of different contexts and for a
variety of purposes.
English is a core subject in the National Curriculum. Key Stage 4 students study English Language and English Literature. This will give students two GCSEs in English. There are four examinations in the summer of Year 11.
English Language explores written language; fiction and non-fiction while Literature concentrates on texts from prose, poetry and drama. The syllabus covers modern as well as historical heritage.
Year 9 is important as it provides an opportunity to develop the skills needed to be successful at GCSE level. Students are set in Year 10 using assessment data from Year 9 work.
English is important in relation to other subjects as the key skills are tested in most other examinations.
Language Paper 1
Analysing an extract of creative writing, and writing your own descriptive piece
Language Paper 2
Exploring and comparing two non-fiction sources from different centuries, and producing a non-fiction text
Literature Paper 1
Exploring William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol.
Literature Paper 2
Exploring J.B. Priestley’s play An Inspector Calls and a selection of taught poems about Power and Conflict; analysing two ‘unseen’
Supporting Documents
