English

As an English department, we pride ourselves on upholding the Trust values of Respect, Ambition and Bravery.  We do this through curriculum choices that are in line with the National Curriculum and through quality teaching and learning which gives students the opportunity to succeed both within school and beyond the classroom.

Our curriculum gives the students the opportunity to:

• Build on prior knowledge and attainment to ensure there is a seamless transition between key stages.
• Ensure they understand a range of reading, writing and communication skills.
• Develop oracy through verbal responses as well as more formal speaking and listening.
• Be exposed to literature that makes up both their heritage and current culture including Shakespeare to add to cultural capital and embrace British Values.
• Be exposed to fiction and non-fiction texts including drama, prose, poetry that offers age appropriate challenge.
• Explore elements of drama including stage craft.
• Develop a love of reading for pleasure through diverse and challenging texts.
• Feel supported in creativity through writing and reading.
• Study an evolving curriculum that is rich in terms of resources and ways to learn yet also relevant to current topics in line with the National Curriculum.
• Improve tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary.
• Promote Trust values of Respect, Ambition and Bravery through their English learning.
• Apply knowledge from across the curriculum into English and take skills learnt to other areas of the academy.
• Prepare for adult life and literacy expectations of the wider world.

• Enthusiasm and passion for our subject and desire to actively improve pedagogy.
• Consistency across the department with both content and teaching and learning methods.
• Research driven CPD to effectively sequence the curriculum to ensure there is a clear a progressive build up of skills for students.
• Use of high-quality modelling as part of the learning journey to embody our Trust value of Ambition.
• Use of model, plan, draft and improve to ensure students have the opportunity to develop through self, peer and teacher assessment.
• Normalisation of mistakes and showing resilience to improve.
• Insistence on quality verbal communication through questioning and class discussion.
• Promotion of independence and resilience by ensuring the level of challenge is ambitious yet appropriate.
• Use of interleaving and spaced learning to ensure substantive and disciplinary knowledge is revisited and deepened.
• Insistence on high quality literacy teaching of reading, writing, spelling and grammar that is at the heart of our pedagogy.
• Specific vocabulary teaching through the Academy’s Vocabulary Vault to unlock student knowledge and application of both tier 2 and tier 3 language through the methods seen in Alex Quigley’s Closing the Vocabulary Gap.
• Insistence on showing pride in their work and books to create a clear English learning journey in books.

• Students will develop skills within English as a subject area to give them the tools to succeed at the end of Key Stage 4 and in further study or the working world.
• Students learn necessary skills for cross curricular study.
• Being prepared for adult life in terms of using written and verbal communication.
• Able to have an awareness of tone and writing types that may be important in future careers.
• Giving students the opportunity to foster a love of reading and learning that goes beyond school.
• Students being proficient in basic literacy to allow them to communicate efficiently.
• Builds foundation to study post 16 in a range of subject areas through their skill in reading, writing and communicating.
• An improved active vocabulary.
• An understanding of their country and culture through the study of literature.

• Book Buzz is book gifting scheme that ensures all students in Year 7 and 8 are given the opportunity to choose an age and stage appropriate book based on their interests to encourage reading for pleasure.
• The English faculty take a key role in supporting staff across the academy with Drop Everything and Read on a half termly basis offering suggested reading materials to show students the cross curricular importance of reading as well as showing them how to read like an expert in a range of subject areas.
• Celebration of national events such as World Book Day to again show students the importance of reading from all members of staff who act as ambassadors for reading throughout the year.
• The faculty have worked closely with our immediate feeder schools to offer a transition scheme of learning that prepares students for the rigour of Key Stage 3 and exposes them to the expectations of the academy through their Key Stage 2 teachers.
• The English faculty gift new Year 7s with a reading book in their final weeks of Year 6. This shared reading experience unites our new students.
• The faculty hosts a Key Stage 3 and 4 Book Club who act as reading ambassadors, take part in national reading awards and engage in reading material discussions.
• Biennial faculty trip to London to explore the theatre experience at Shakespeare’s Globe and the literary and cultural history of London.