English

To successfully implement our key intentions across all year groups, we have ensured, through our concise long-term planning, that our English curriculum offers challenging and stimulating schemes of learning that promote the development of students’ knowledge, understanding and skills.

Our curriculum planning sets ambitious expectations and ensures that we build on students’ prior knowledge as well as enabling us to fulfil all the requirements of the secondary National Curriculum. Primarily, this is achieved through a keen focus on developing spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of our schemes of learning. However, as a department, we are astutely aware that fluency in all aspects of English is an essential foundation for success across the Academy and in the wider world. Therefore, confidently implementing the National Curriculum is just one element in the education of every child that we consider when implementing our key intentions; in order achieve our aim of nurturing the ‘whole’ child, we also ensure there is time and space in our curriculum to range beyond the National Curriculum specifications at both Key Stage 3 and 4, developing cultural capital and emotional resilience at every opportunity.

As a department, we place great emphasis upon our students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills over time. Consequently, schemes of learning within our long-term planning are strategically sequenced so that students can acquire key knowledge and skills and build up further expertise and confidence over time through consistent evaluation and application in different contexts. To implement our well-planned curriculum, we have a consistent approach to teaching and learning that utilises the following methods and pedagogy:

• Medium term planning clearly identifies core knowledge that all students must be taught but also identifies ‘extra’ and ‘expert’ knowledge that not only ensures a high level of challenge but also aids with personalisation.
• Schemes of learning set the highest standard expected across all topics within all year groups.
• At key points in the academic year, schemes of learning are topical and require students to evaluate a wide range of knowledge and skills across various texts and text types.
• Clear interleaving of key knowledge across topics and year groups.
• All schemes of learning use key symbols that explicitly highlight the following to staff and students: stretch and challenge tasks; introduction of new vocabulary; where students are expected to use prior knowledge from a previous lesson or topic; expert knowledge to learn and use; cross-curricular links; oracy skills and teamwork skills.
• All schemes of learning develop our students culturally, socially, emotionally and/or spiritually.
• Quality first teaching and high-quality learning resources, including pre-populated resources used when teaching core knowledge, standardised English OSCA examples and exam board key documents.
• Utilising expert knowledge within all schemes of learning to ensure we reach beyond the range of the National Curriculum.
• Keen focus on enriching our students’ understanding of the wider world around them when teaching key texts/ topics – we refer to this as our ‘bigger picture’ curriculum.
• Use of Accelerated Reader programme in Year 7 and 8, as well as offering library facilities to all students in all year groups.
• Homework tasks that complement appropriate key skills and knowledge.

Planning – long term overview:

For an overview of the topics taught in English at Key Stage3 and Key Stage 4, please follow the link to an overview of topics:

Assessment:

In order to implement our vision, we ensure that our formative and summative assessment practices allows both staff and students to have a clear and confident understanding of the progress that is being made at key intervals. Below are some of the formative assessment strategies implemented throughout all schemes in all year groups to help track progress:

• Implementation of weekly or fortnightly big questions – to evaluate the learning that has taken place over a sequence of lessons.
• Low stakes quizzes – to test key terms, theories and new core, extra and expert knowledge.
• Multiple choice questions – to ascertain understanding of core knowledge.
• Rote learning tasks.
• Expert knowledge quizzes – to teach allusions and expert context.
• Convention quests – to demonstrate understanding of varied text types.
• Recall/ comprehension quizzing – to check on core understanding of plot, character and/or a writer’s purpose and intentions.
• Short application challenges to apply newly taught knowledge in short bursts.
• Speaking and listening – discussions, presentations, and debates.

As a department, we also ensure that our summative assessments test core knowledge and skills whilst also giving students the opportunity to show a more developed understanding of any extra and expert knowledge they have acquired. Our consistent and robust assessment practices allow for all staff in the department to frequently evaluate the impact of our medium and long-term planning, allowing us to make adaptations when required. Therefore, as a team, we are confident that our curriculum remains appropriately challenging and enriching for all our students, whilst engendering a love of English Language and Literature.

Extra- Curricular, Curriculum experiences – clubs/trips/after-school/visits/enrichments include:

• Creative writing club
• Reading club
• Poetry and short story competitions
• Make Yourself Heard – oracy competition
• Key Stage 4 ‘SuperLearn’ lectures
• Expert knowledge competitions
• Theatre trips
• External speakers

Useful websites for further reading and guidance at Key Stage 3:

Please follow the links for further reading (including useful websites for parents and students) linked to the topics taught at both Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4.

Further reading and guidance at Key Stage 3:

Further reading and guidance at Key Stage 4:

CIAG:
Possible careers linked to English:

• Speech and Language Therapy 
• Computing
• Teaching
• Teacher of English as a Foreign Language
• Translation and interpreting
• Publishing
• Law
• Advertising
• Government and politics
• Consultancy
• Film Industry
• Lexicography
• Forensics
• Journalist