English
| Dr S Wilson | Head of English |
| Mrs K Russell | |
| Mr E Sharp | |
| Mrs G Wall | |
| Mrs L Gould – Crooke | |
| Miss A Collyer | Librarian |
Intent of the English Curriculum
We intend to deliver a high-quality English education that builds students’ mastery of reading, writing, and spoken communication. Our curriculum is designed around an explicit ‘read like a writer, write like a reader’ model, ensuring that students treat literature not as isolated plots, but as conscious artistic constructs that directly inform their own writing and speech. To achieve this, learning progresses through three cumulative annual strands:
- Term 1: narrative craft and dramatic character arcs;
- Term 2: poetry, form, and transactional rhetoric;
- Term 3: context, power, and unseen extract evaluation.
Through this structured journey, we aim to equip all students with the critical confidence, analytical stamina, and high-level literacy required to articulate their ideas with clarity, unlocking future life opportunities.
Implementation of the English Curriculum
We engage and develop our students through a sequenced 5-year spiral curriculum linked by shared analytical frameworks and collaborative planning. Across all year groups (Years 7–11), learning episodes follow consistent pedagogical routines: teachers use live modelling, explicit sentence starters, and tiered exemplars to guide and challenge all learners. Every learning episode begins with low-stakes retrieval starters that automate key quotations, vocabulary, and methods to free working memory for deeper analysis. Department-wide tools, such as the cinematic ‘Drop, Shift, Zoom’ framework, are embedded from Year 7 through to Year 11 to help students analyse structural focus in reading and direct intentional pacing in their creative writing. Furthermore, context is taught across all years through direct pairings with real-world non-fiction, matching texts like ‘Animal Farm’ with political propaganda, and ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ with Victorian journalism.
In Key Stage 3, we build early reading fluency, vocabulary, and writing stamina through dedicated fortnightly literacy and reading lessons. These sessions incorporate structured ‘Talk for Writing’ routines, allowing students to orally rehearse, debate, and refine their ideas before drafting extended responses.
From Year 9 onwards, learning transitions into standardised unit booklets designed to build academic independence and examination stamina. By consolidating core texts, context notes, tier 2/3 vocabulary banks, and analytical frameworks into a single resource, booklets allow students to independently access prior learning and model answers. Learning sequences deliberately fade support over time, moving from teacher modelling and explicit sentence starters to independent extract annotation and essay planning. Presenting extracts and questions in GCSE formats normalises exam layouts while building handwriting stamina, cognitive focus, and sustained analytical depth over the course of each unit.
In Key Stage 4, this is reinforced by classroom Working Walls, structured catch-up routines, and centralised SharePoint resources to protect learning momentum regardless of absence. Instruction integrates Literature themes into Language transactional rhetoric, treats anthology poetry as unseen texts to build independent annotation stamina, and culminates in structured Walking Talking Mocks to secure live exam timing and mark-scheme navigation. Formal oracy is embedded throughout, leading to the recorded GCSE Spoken Language presentation.
Impact of the English Curriculum
Through our sequenced curriculum, students build the academic stamina required to tackle dense 19th-century prose, deconstruct unseen poetry, and construct sustained analytical essays under timed examination conditions. As students progress from Year 7 through to Year 11, their classwork demonstrates a cumulative development in applying analytical frameworks, managing complex structures, and writing with increasing clarity and precision.
Beyond formal examinations, our students leave with the critical literacy required to identify bias, rhetoric, and propaganda in the modern world. They develop the confidence to articulate their viewpoints in public forums and carry forward the functional communication skills essential for A-Level study, vocational pathways, and life beyond school.