English

Purpose

English offers a rich, broad, and diverse curriculum that develops student’s knowledge and skills so they can speak and write fluently, communicate their ideas clearly and develop a love for literature through reading a diverse range of texts.

Based on the National Curriculum for English at Key Stage 3, the curriculum has been built to support students from their transition at Key Stage 2, to increasingly developing their knowledge and skills to ensure confidence at GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature.

The English curriculum aims to promote a love of reading to enable students to develop their social, moral, spiritual, and cultural understanding of the world around them and to build on their knowledge. It has been structured to ignite curiosity in our young people to prepare them well for future learning or employment developing language skills in speaking, reading, and writing to allow them to contribute positively to society.

The English department aims to:

• Develop confident readers who read fluently and with good understanding for both pleasure and information
• Equip students with secure skills to become developed communicators by demonstrating that they can discuss and elaborate on ideas, confidently explaining their understanding of given topics
• Acquire students with the core concepts for linguistic and literary study through an understanding of grammar and the linguistic conventions of reading, writing and spoken language
• Appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
• Develop the ability for students to communicate effectively and confidently by writing with clarity, adapting their language and styles for a range of contexts, purposes, or audiences, and using a wide vocabulary
• Develop student’s oracy, ensuring students are competent at speaking and listening, can participate in discussions, debates, and formal presentations
• Demonstrate that the study of English is key to our personal growth and through the development of effective written and spoken communication, it is the foundation for all our learning and the key to accessing the world of work and in navigating adult life.

Students follow an enriching, balanced curriculum at Key Stage 3, which is rooted in the National Curriculum for English. Our curriculum supports their transition from Key Stage 2 and increasingly develops the examination skills required for the GCSE examinations in GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature.

We promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping students with a strong command of the spoken and written word, developing their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. Our curriculum for English aims to ensure that all students: read easily, fluently and with good understanding; develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information; acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language; appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage; write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences; use discussion in order to learn; are able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas; and are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in group discussion.

Curriculum Features

As a department, we are incredibly aware of the importance of the impact English skills can have on the entire spectrum of a child’s education.  Due to this, we prioritise teaching core concepts and skills to all students through explicit instruction to enable them to become effective life-long communicators.

Key Stage 3

We carefully sculpt our curriculum to build on the skills and knowledge that students bring from Key Stage 2.  At Key Stage 3, we study a breadth of texts, covering a range of historical periods.  We are acutely aware of the demographic of Heath Park students coming from a range of cultural backgrounds; we work hard to ensure that there are texts that all students will be able to identify with and relate to.

We invite students into our curriculum with an interactive ‘Detective Fiction’ unit of study that allows for us to shine a spotlight on the inference skill that underpins a student’s reading aptitude. We ensure that students can capture the importance of this skill and staff can give attention to nurture this before progressing students through the rest of our curriculum. During year 7, students will embrace the theme of ‘Celebrating Differences’. This allows students to all embrace and celebrate their own identities, whilst also allowing valuable learning experiences from their peers as well as our curriculum. We explore a range of poems, novels, Shakespeare study and non-fiction texts. We allow students to look through an open-minded lens to enrich their communication within the world they live in.

In year 8 we begin our year with a unit of work around ‘Allusions’. This allows students to learn about a range of myths, legends, and popular literary influences. By securing a firm understanding of this at key stage 3, our students flourish with their independent inferences later as they can interpret texts more widely by understanding a breadth of allusions that writers use. Throughout this year, students will then explore the theme of ‘The Natural World’ and ‘Injustice’ through poetry, playscripts and non-fiction texts. This will create a spiral learning journey for students to continue recalling on their previously learned skills, whilst also allowing them to navigate new avenues of study to broaden their perspectives.

Key Stage 4

By year 9, our students have a firm grasp of the fundamental skills they need to be a successful linguistic or literary student.  This year will then give them the opportunity to learn how to command these skills towards their desired purposes. Within year 9 we will start to share some of the expectations of the GCSE curriculum; however, we will not begin the GCSE content with students until the following year. For example, we will study Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and an entire novel using the same approach that would be expected for the GCSE Literature Paper 1, but it would be using more appropriate texts for our year 9 cohort.

As students then embark upon their GCSE journey, we concentrate on fine-tuning their knowledge and skills to allow them to reach their full potential within both AQA English Language and English Literature GCSE qualifications.  Throughout the two-year course, we guide students through studying: an anthology of poetry, the novel of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Macbeth, and An Inspector Calls. We entwine our teaching between the Language and the Literature GCSE. Our practice of this allows students to apply their skills freely between the two subjects, whilst also enhancing their ability to transfer skills across subjects. This is directly beneficial for students to also be able to see where these skills can transfer to subjects outside of our department too. We have a dedicated team who will support students through quality first teaching practice accompanied by regular feedback, interventions, workshops, and masterclasses.

Key Stage 5

Our curriculum then provides students with the skill set to be able to choose English as an option to study at KS5 (Key Stage 5).  We offer the combined AQA Literature and Language course as we find that the nature of how we deliver our curriculum is then complimented by this course.  It also allows for students to be able to remain creative and passionate, whilst also developing skills that are directly applicable in societal interactions.  A-Level will enhance their aptitude and their passion even further, allowing them to master the subject and be prepared for future steps into this field of study.

Enrichment

Alongside this fundamental foundation of communication, we also offer an enriched curriculum that allows children to develop enthusiasm and passion towards all areas of linguistic and literary study.

We offer students the opportunity to have a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ lesson once a week in year 7-9. Class teachers transfer a passion and love of reading onto their students, usually resulting in the students directing and navigating their own path throughout the year, bespoke to their interests and needs.  In addition to this, we embrace every opportunity to celebrate our students’ hard work and talents.  We host a performance evening to give a platform for our students’ viewpoints, poems, stories, debates to be heard by a live audience (alongside the opportunity for their work to be published).  Students can regularly take part in a variety of competitions throughout the year.

We are always looking for opportunities to get our students out into real world contexts to be able to apply their skills learned within the classroom. Trips are an invaluable opportunity for our students to be able to delve into historical culture, embrace the natural world or experience a stage production. We will embrace every opportunity possible to bring our learning to life for our young people.

In addition to this, we look for leadership opportunities for our students. We have a poet laureate for each year group, who work as a team to capture significant issues that surround our school and communicate it through their unique voices. Staff also regularly nominate a ‘Literary Critic’ or a ‘Wordsmith’ to gain a certificate of recognition for their work.

We will also use opportunities for our mature students to enhance their own learning and that of the younger students. Post 16 students often work with younger students to help to refine important skills and share their knowledge. This offers fantastic experience for our older students to gain coaching/ mentoring skills that might benefit them in their future careers/ education.