Curriculum Area: English
Curriculum Leader: Mrs S Badham
Intent
In English we aim to provide a curriculum that is rich in diversity, creativity and opportunity and which is driven by challenge. It is knowledge rich and sequential, builds upon prior understanding and ensures that there are regular opportunities to review content through interleaving.
We also aim to:
- Successfully equip students with the necessary skills needed both in and outside of the classroom.
- Promote independent learners and critical thinkers who are not afraid to take risks when expressing themselves and when faced with opposing views.
- Foster a love of reading both in and outside of the classroom and expose students to whole and high-quality texts.
- Create confident and competent users of literacy and oracy. Students are empowered to use the power of talk to build confidence, enhance learning and change their own lives.
The biggest change for 2021/2022 to the English Department
The English Department have curated a curriculum that is personalised to our students’ needs and our school priorities. It enriches our students’ understanding of the society around them and their place within it, suitably preparing them for life beyond secondary school. Our curriculum actively encourages students to vocalise their thoughts and feelings on the big ideas and concepts explored in texts and develops their cultural capital by exposing them to a wealth of Literature. Over the course of KS3 and KS4, students are also provided with a number of extracurricular opportunities, including theatre performances, which serve to deepen their understanding and further fuel their imaginations.
What are we most proud of?
We are most proud of the depth and breadth of our English curriculum and the journey that students are invited to go on as they explore Literature through time. They will study some of the most iconic texts and writers that have shaped the English landscape and explore the nuances of our language and its importance in shaping meaning.
School Library
The TQEA library currently holds around 10,000 fiction and non-fiction books and last year saw up to 3000 loans taken out. In addition to these, there are magazines, graphic novels and short stories for a quicker read. Students are able to borrow up to 3 books at a time and in KS3 will visit the library with their English class at least once every 2 weeks. The library is open to students during break and lunch time for them to borrow/return books, read or study. KS3 reading and kindle clubs are held daily in the library at tutor time along with handwriting club for all years.
The library aims to actively support and encourage reading whether for pleasure or learning and we have a range of fiction and non-fiction to suit all ages and abilities. Our stock is regularly updated and we have many of the currently popular novels and series as well as the classics. Students are also encouraged to enter national writing competitions; in previous years, 50 TQEA students successfully had their Mini Monologues published (with another 66 Grim Tales accepted for publication) and one of our students became a finalist in a story writing competition judged by Bill Bryson. We have also had two students win a national competition where the prize was two signed copies of Anthony Horowitz’s Stormbreaker.
