English

English Department Curriculum Intent

Above all, we aim to inspire a love of English amongst our students and to provide a lifelong enjoyment of reading and writing. A purposeful, dynamic and engaging curriculum is at the heart of this. We actively foster and encourage the learning habits we know to be essential for our students to reach their full potential, particularly the ability to participate in high quality discussion and to reflect on their own learning. As English specialists and passionate advocates for the value and power of language, literature, and oracy the intent of our core English curriculum is:

To enrich the cultural, emotional, and literary understanding of our pupils by exposing them to a diverse range of literary texts, which enable them to encounter and empathise with cultural, social, moral and historical contexts.
To enable pupils to develop a passion for literary analysis through the study of literature in all its forms, from the canonical through to the contemporary.
To encourage pupils to develop a deep love of reading widely and for pleasure as well as education.
To give pupils the cultural capital and power to confidently express themselves in written and oral contexts.

Our English curriculum aims to meet the needs of all pupils, providing each of them with a range of opportunities to learn and achieve. We seek to ensure that all pupils receive a broad knowledge rich English curriculum. Through the study of English Language and Literature pupils build their understanding of the human condition and develop socially and morally, and whilst also understanding fundamental British values through the appreciation of a breadth of culturally diverse texts.

Key Stage 3 Curriculum Summary

Our knowledge-rich curriculum at Key Stage 3 is built upon 35 threshold concepts that equip students with the ability to access a range of texts and apply concepts accordingly. You can view the list of concepts on the following link: Threshold Concepts Slide

For an overview of the Key Stage 3 Curriculum and the texts that are studied, please click here: Year 7, Year 8, Year 9

Literacy skills and reading skills are supported in Key stage Three lessons with the Sparx reader programme, this enables students to improve on reading comprehension skills by reading texts within their zone of proximal development. Please click here for website: Sparx Reader

The Key Stage 3 Curriculum is supported by regular oracy lessons as part of the Let’s Think in English programme. These lessons are focused on a range of prose fiction, poetry and drama and enable to students to deepen their own metacognition around unseen text. For more information, you can visit their website here: Home – Let’s Think in English (letsthinkinenglish.org)

Key Stage 4 Curriculum Summary

GCSE English Language

Exam Board: AQA GCSE English Language (8700) 2-year course

English Language is the close study of a range of texts at an analytical level that allows pupils to develop a close understanding of authors methods and their effects. The course allows for the development of an analytical voice and rewards pupils who have perceptive ability and a confident writing style.

Terminology is key, as pupils are in a stronger position to really develop analysis of unseen texts when they have a confidence with the application of methods and a security in their comments on effects. Given our concept driven KS3 curriculum, with a strong focus on textual exposure and knowledge of how writers create their story world, pupils are well prepared to tackle challenging unseen texts and meet the creative demands of writing for genre and purpose. Their prior knowledge is advantageous as pupils write with confidence about authorial intentions. Reading skills that were developed in Key Stage 3 years leads our students to being not only better readers analytically but also better writers.

Knowledge in English

English needs a firm foundation of knowledge, so that pupils can apply analysis and evaluate in different contexts. The course spans the two years allocated and is taught in a combined way with English Literature. In Key Stage 4, pupils will continue to be taught knowledge of:

Language and Structure – how writers create meaning and effects.
Evaluation – how to critique the effectiveness of methods and their effects in texts
Creative Writing – knowledge of genres and forms and features of style which enable writing to a stimulus or persuasive purpose.
Summary and synopsis – linking texts across time period, writing with concise expression and detailed precision round the method used by writers.

How Pupils are Prepared for GCSE

We have already built a foundation of literary analysis, writing creatively and contextual knowledge, this course simply presents an opportunity to develop what pupils know and embrace new texts. Good conceptual knowledge is advantageous when exploring effects in language and our approaches to planning already ensure that we have writers who think about what they want to communicate and how to do so. Our assessments have already prepared pupils for extended responses, writing in depth, planning and of course the importance of accuracy. Our approach to key knowledge quizzing has also ensured that pupils have retained much needed terminology and will be able to apply this purposefully in the formal examinations.

A Level and Beyond

We believe that Longsands Academy pupils will be in a strong position to take English at A Level. English Language and Literature is seen as a favourable A Level and is a strong compliment to those studying History, Politics and Psychology. Given the academic nature and study, developing fluency and expression is a great cross over to all subjects and we think pupils who thrive in this subject will be supported in all their studies, with their skills of note taking, reading, analysis, planning and writing.

GCSE English Literature

Exam Board: AQA GCSE English literature (8702)

English Literature is the study of literary texts at an analytical critical level that allows pupils to develop a confidence in both reading and responding to challenging texts. The course allows for the development of personal response to texts and rewards pupils who have insightful knowledge and a passion for the subject. The course covers the main literary eras – from Shakespeare, to Dickens to Priestley. The course also spans the genre of poetry with a in depth study of poems from a variety of authors and prose.

Contextual understanding is key, as pupils are in a stronger position to develop a critical understanding of what they are studying and essentially why it mattered then and now to our society. Given our range of texts at Key stage 3 which focus on how writers present the world around them, pupils are confident about the significance of canonical literary texts and they will be able to exploit that prior knowledge throughout the course to their advantage.

The course spans the two years allocated and is taught in a combined way with English Language. The course is structured in units, based around each text. The knowledge cross over and application of linguistic terminology is similar to pupil experiences in Key Stage Three and pupils will be very familiar with the writers and styles.

Knowledge in English

Pupils already have a firm foundation of knowledge in English. They will continue to develop their prior knowledge at GCSE, as the more they know about writers and texts, the more they can apply this and excel. English needs a firm foundation of knowledge, so that pupils can apply analysis and evaluate in different contexts. We have built this throughout Key Stage 3 (Year 7-9). In Key Stage 4 (Year 10-11), pupils will be taught knowledge of:

Shakespeare – style, genre, language, context, literary significance and culture
19^th Century Writers – social concerns, development of style, knowledge of language use and authorial intent.
A selection of Poetry, including Unseen Poetry – effects, purpose, meaning and expression, individual context and construction of the poetic voice.
Modern Text – The importance of contextual influence, style, authorial intent and personal response.

How Pupils are Prepared for GCSE

Pupils have read extensively at Longsands Academy. As we have already read more than twenty-five high quality literary texts over Astrea reads in form time and in English classes, this course will simply be an opportunity to develop what we know and embrace new texts. Our assessments have already prepared pupils for extended responses, and we have developed pupils who have the ability to think, reflect and write with passion. We believe they will excel in this subject area and the content will feel familiar, due to how we have planned the whole course.

A Level

We believe that Longsands pupils will be in a strong position to take English at A Level. English Literature is seen as a facilitating subject at university and offers a strong compliment to those studying history, or even as a passion for those studying mathematics and science. Given the academic nature and study, developing fluency and expression is a great cross over to all subjects and we think pupils who thrive in this subject will be supported in all their studies, with their skills of note taking, reading, analysis, planning and writing.

Course Specifics

More information about the GCSE courses we have chosen, alongside assessment materials pupils can attempt, can be found here:

https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-language-8700

https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-literature-8702

Year 10, Year 11