English
| Ms C Jones | Head of English |
| Mrs N Midgley | |
| Ms K Scott | |
| Mr E Sharp | |
| Miss A Collyer | Librarian |
Year 7 are following a Mastery Curriculum that is being delivered in conjunction with Sheffield University
Intent of the English Curriculum
At The Community College, we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop a student’s love of reading, writing and discussion. Our aim is to inspire an appreciation of our diverse literary heritage and develop the habit of reading widely and frequently.
The English Department aspire to create a culture, where our students take pride in their writing, whilst developing the skills to write clearly and accurately, adapting their language and style for a range of contexts. Furthermore, our intent is to create a learning environment which inspires our students to confident in the practice of speaking and listening, encouraging our students to challenge, critique and question, whilst delivering their ideas coherently.
The English team are advocates for promoting high levels of literacy, as we are acutely aware that the education we provide students with holds the key to their life opportunities.
Implementation of the English Curriculum
These aims are embedded throughout our schemes of work. We have a rigorous and well-organised curriculum that provides a plethora of purposeful opportunities for reading, writing and discussion. Collaborative curriculum planning lies at the heart of what we do in the department.
In addition to English lessons, KS3 students also have fortnightly literacy lessons and reading lessons. These not only focus on the fundamental skills of reading and writing, but also on promoting enjoyment and creativity – with opportunities for free reading and writing. This includes opportunities for ‘Talk for Writing’, where students are given the opportunity to discuss ideas with each other, prior to writing.
At KS4, the English Department make use of ‘Working Walls’. All classes have displays, which are accessible to all students, including extension and home learning tasks (arranged by topic) and key quotations, which are fundamental to the Literature Papers.
Our formative assessments are designed to support students in achieving fluency across all topics. This means that, in lessons, pupils are quizzed on prior knowledge, in order to embed this knowledge in their long-term memory, through use of 5-a-day starters and recall tasks. This frees up their working memory to attend to current learning. Furthermore, knowledge organisers provide students with key information in each topic, enabling them to memorise the key knowledge they require, in order to be able to perform higher-level functions such as analysis and evaluation.
Our approach to teaching and learning supports our curriculum by ensuring that lessons build on prior learning. At The Community College, our English teachers frequently model responses, to both guide and challenge pupils. We use both in-class modelling strategies and tutorial videos, to offer students further support outside of the classroom. Furthermore, both teachers and Learning Supports Assistants support all pupils on a regular basis, by providing intervention, support and challenge, to advance their learning in all areas of English.
Impact of the English Curriculum
As a result of our intent and implementation, we have a student community who feel empowered to question the world around them. Through our thorough curriculum planning, our students are confident in voicing their opinions and continue to develop the mastery of the written and spoken word.
Assessment for learning strategies are used on a daily basis. These allow a picture to be built up of the pupils’ progress, identifying any areas of strength or weakness which can then be used to inform future planning.
We pride ourselves on our strong moral purpose to prepare students not only for the classroom, but for life beyond. Sharing our enthusiasm for the subject helps to ignite a passion for reading, writing and spoken language, in our students. We delve into some incredibly challenging texts, exploring themes and contexts through accessible means and, with a little creativity from our English teachers, push our students to think outside of the box. These strategies have ensured success in the department at GCSE, as we exceed the national average year on year.