Please see overview of our English Curriculum Plan here
Reading and writing are complex and creative processes that require the integration of many spheres of knowledge. Our ambitious Key Stage Three English curriculum has been designed to develop deep readers and thinkers who are able to express their ideas from a foundation of secure knowledge.
The attainment of secure, flexible knowledge is a continuous process of connecting previous knowledge to new knowledge and skills. As such, each year in the KS3 curriculum contains explicit links to learning from previous schemes of learning and previous years of study and has been developed around these central concepts:
Success at GCSE begins in Year 7. Our KS3 curriculum is designed to prepare students gradually and steadily for the demands of the GCSE curriculum in Y10 and Y11.
Students need rich, varied, and challenging texts as a vehicle for developing and embedding critical thinking, reading, and writing skills
Vocabulary, critical thinking, reading, and writing skills should be explicitly taught, modelled, and practised to mastery
Our English curriculum at Key Stage Four is designed to enable students to reach their full potential on their GCSE Exams by building upon the foundation of their learning at KS3 and preparing them to meet the demands of their exams. The course is comprised of two GCSES, which are assessed through a spoken language component and four written exams that require students to write in different forms for a variety of purposes.
In Year 10, students are taught all the literature content and introduced to the English Language exams. In Year 11, students deepen and develop their knowledge through weekly revision cycles and an increased focus on exam technique, essay structures, and extended writing practise. As in KS3, we believe that exam writing should be explicitly taught, modelled, and practised to mastery. We conduct regular assessments to ensure that students are receiving frequent feedback to fully prepare them for their exams.