English

English is the bedrock of life and learning, from reading for pleasure and knowledge to interpreting and understanding language and its myriad uses, thereby enabling an ability to communicate confidently and effectively in the world.

Proficiency in both spoken and written English and comprehension when reading is also vital to enable students to access learning in subjects across the curriculum.

The study of English in Literature and Language develops a wide range of important transferable skills such as:

Communication (through Spoken Language study and opportunities, feedback and extended writing opportunities, Debating/Public Speaking Club, Writers’ Club)
To be able to understand and articulate opinions about the importance of Contexts to interpretation of text (e.g The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (KS3) and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, An Inspector Calls, Of Mice and Men (KS4)
Creativity (e.g. through fortnightly writing challenges, Creative Writing Club, Journalism Club, task choices both in class and for independent study)
Literacy – in both reading and writing (Word of the Week, Vocabulary logs, spelling logs, literacy lesson starters, purple penning, re-drafting to improve, Stop, Drop and Read, Reading for Pleasure time)

Diversity, resilience, empathy and an appreciation for others’ ideas – within the constraints of a National Curriculum and set content, we still try to allow students to access a range of texts showing aspects of other races, cultures and identities e.g. Twisted Fairy Tales (Yr 7) and Wider Cultures Poetry (Yr 7 and Yr 8), Merchant of Venice (Year 8), Of Mice and Men, Noughts and Crosses and Black Lives Matter topic in Transactional Writing (Year 9), BLM/discrimination-focused poetry for Unseen in Year 10 and 11.

We try to place reading at the heart of the curriculum, both in terms of time given for reading for pleasure and encouraging study of a range of fiction and non-fiction texts to broaden students’ engagement with the written word.

Any kind of reading provides stimulation for your brain, but different types of reading give different benefits. Stanford University researchers found that close literary reading in particular gives your brain a workout in multiple complex cognitive functions, while pleasure reading increases blood flow to different areas of the brain. They concluded that reading a novel closely for literary study and thinking about its value is an effective brain exercise, more effective than simple pleasure reading alone.

We therefore encourage both types of reading, not only through the study of literary texts but also encouraging a love of reading for its own sake.

Curriculum Plans