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English
English is a core subject that students will study throughout their learning journey. In year 10 and 11, students will be studying two GCSE subjects: English Language and English Literature. The skills required for both subjects are taught in Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4.
Reason for sequencing the curriculum for every year group in the way it is, and the subject specific/pedagogical approach taken:
- Stradbroke’s English curriculum offers a five-year progression of the key skills that are required at GCSE level.
- The key skills required at the end of KS4 are:
- Comparing 19th, 20th and 21st Century fiction and non-fiction
- Evaluating the writers’ perspectives
- Identifying and evaluating a writer’s structural and linguistic choices
- Creative writing
- Spoken language
- Identifying inference
- Demonstrating varied and accurate spellings, punctuation, and grammar
- Broadening their cultural experiences and considering the context of a text
- One of our goals within English is to enrich our students cultural understanding. We strongly believe that exposing our students to a wealth of challenging fiction and non-fiction and allowing them to discuss it in a safe and constructive environment, we are modelling the importance of reading and enabling them to consider real life situations from another person’s perspective. Promoting equality is at the very heart of every lesson that we teach within English.
- The English KS3 curriculum is sequenced in accordance with a particular theme that we wish to address.
Year 7 – Outsiders (social outcast)
- As our students embark on their new, educational journey, we devised a thematic scheme of work which is centered around the concept of being ‘an outsider’.
Throughout year 7, our students will read both contemporary and 19th Century fiction and non-fiction to evoke class discussions and personal reflection about how a writer has used both language and structure to manipulate our feelings towards key characters and settings.
Year 8 – The role of women (gender inequality)
- The long-term plan for year 8 students is centered on the theme: ‘The role of women’. The concept derives from our understanding of some of the central themes that are relevant in the set texts that we offer at GCSE level. We, therefore, designed a long-term plan that offers our students with numerous opportunities to discuss and write about the ‘role of women’ according to the text or short story that they are studying. An example of this is the task of researching a range of 1940’s adverts about housework, as an introductory homework task, that could form the basis of a class discussion about ‘the role of women’ and what society expected women to do or behave like. Once they have a greater understanding of the importance of context, they can then reflect on how and why the writer has created the female character in that way, using challenging and stimulating texts such as: ‘The Lamb to the Slaughter’.
Year 9 – Conflict (war and class)
- At the beginning of year, we have decided to use the first term to scaffold the skills of: evaluation and Identification of a writer’s structural and linguistic choices with a former GCSE set text ‘Our Day Out’. This highly relevant and stimulating playscript will promote their love of reading whilst enabling them to reflect on their own experiences within a school setting. It will also enable them to make comparisons between the expectations of school during the 1970s compared to the present day. We find opportunities to make cross- curricular links to history when we explore the politics surrounding each period that the text is set in. During term two and three, we have developed a curriculum that collates some of the core skills that they have been practicing throughout KS3: characterisation, evaluation of writer’s perspective, identification, and analysis of a writer’s use of literary craft.
- We take great pride in the fact that we teach mixed ability students, and we feel that it is of paramount importance that we give our students the sufficient time that they need to read, discuss, and process the challenging social contexts that are hidden within a GCSE Literature. As a result, we explore the use of language, structure and characterisation within our modern text within the final term of year 9 so that they can use the two remaining years of their GCSEs to develop their written expression and maturity to enable them to confidently explore context. We are a school which prides itself on inclusion and pupil progress. The creation of an ever-changing, challenging, stimulating, and thematic KS3 curriculum allows us to effectively cater for the wide variety of students that we teach. - In KS4, we have separated the cluster of fifteen ‘Power and Conflict’ poems into themes to allow our students to see visible and thematic connections between the poems and to revisit poems that they have already studied according to a different theme. The very nature of grouping poems relates to our sequencing approach in KS3 as we try to provide a clear rationale behind the purposes of studying the texts that we do or why we focus on a particular skill. Our rationale behind the thematic approach stems from student interviews and verbal feedback as our students are confident about why they are learning each new topic.
How we build on prior learning:
The English curriculum offers a five-year progression of the key skills that are required at GCSE level.
We use KS2 SATs scores and benchmark tasks to enable us to gain a greater understanding about the level students are working at. Such benchmarking activities also allows us to modify our lessons to support the needs of our students.
We provide opportunities for our students to address each key skill from year 7 onwards; we create tailored activities that are suitably challenging for the mixed ability students that we have in our classes.
The key skill is often accompanied by a carefully selected short story, piece of non-fiction or complete novel to allow our students to learn about how to approach a key skill and how to write about it as we offer countless opportunities for our students to demonstrate their understanding of the skill that we are addressing that term.
Throughout the five-year process, our students are taught key approaches to their analysis or creative writing which is taught consistently throughout each class; our students are then provided with secure foundations to build upon as their levels of maturity and understanding of the culture, that surrounds each activity, increases.
As our students’ progress through their five-year curriculum, we select more challenging texts and add more challenging subject terminology into their learning with a higher expectation for them to expand on their initial ideas so that they then produce a more detailed analysis or piece of creative writing that reflects the beginnings of a perceptive and confident learner.
We also try to offer our students with more opportunities to be independent learners; this can be seen through the types of homework tasks that we give our students.
How we prepare students for the future:
The five-year English curriculum offers students a wealth of opportunities to discuss and increase their cultural experiences. Each set text, that we study, has a host of contextual factors that we regularly discuss and encourage them to write about when exploring a writer’s perspective.
We look at historical context, ranging from WW1, WW2, modern warfare, The Great Depression, and racial inequality ‘Of Mice and Men’.
We explore the social context within texts such as depression, learning disability and gender inequality within texts such as ‘Of Mice and Men’, ‘The Curious Incident’, and ‘Princess and The Hustler’.
We also explore the political context within texts such as ‘An Inspector Calls’ and ‘Macbeth’.
We make wider curriculum links to other subjects that are studying key ideas at the same time as us e.g., year 7 (autumn one) are taught about symbols in literature as well as Art.
All our texts are taught with a great emphasis on class discussion and group work as it provides our students with a ‘safe learning environment’ for them to discuss their views, with the guidance of their class teacher, to enable them to appreciate who we all are and how our country, and others, have been shaped by society. · Our subject allows our students to be prepared for life beyond secondary education and their future careers. The ability to have a confident understanding of their written and verbal expression are essential skills for any future employment. Being able to interpret and make inferences from written texts are vital skills in all careers, however, the mastery of English is of particular importance in some careers such as: Art and design, publishing and media, education, recruitment and HR, law, advertising, and marketing. · By studying and teaching a range of texts, we are broadening our students’ views about society whilst modelling respect, empathy, and an appreciation for others.
Additional provision to support learning:
The English department offers a range of trips throughout the five-year curriculum.
Every year group gets the opportunity to go to a live theatre production so that they can experience live theatre and see actors/actresses exercising their creativity.
The English department have organised a trip for a small number of HPA students to visit another SET school so that they can broaden their horizons.
The English department run creative writing competitions to allow all students to produce high quality work that is recognised outside of their English classroom.
Contribution to school priorities:
We have high expectations and offer differentiation in lessons to support and challenge all learners
We orgainse tailored interventions with different groups (according to ability and need)
We organise trips and visits that those students may not usually have access to broaden their horizons.
We read a selection of fiction and non-fiction that enriches students’ historical and cultural knowledge
