English
Our Faculty Mission Statement is:
The English family transports pupils to a range of new worlds and experiences through the beauty of the written word. Our rich and rewarding broad literary canon inspires our students to aim for excellence as they develop into analytical readers, creative writers and confident speakers.
Ultimately, through our shared faith, we endeavour to shape global Catholic citizens who have a love for reading and a passion for sharing viewpoints with empathy and conviction. This allows pupils to make relevant and conceptual links to the ever-evolving times we live in.
The English Faculty aims to build global Catholic citizens by engaging and guiding students through a rich and rewarding experience of a broad literary canon spanning the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. In studying these texts, we aim to inspire our students to develop into analytical readers, creative writers and confident speakers. We ensure our students are introduced to a plethora of cultures, contexts and forms, inspiring enthusiasm and passion for the written word.
The Key Stage 3 curriculum consistently builds and develops skills and understanding of reading, writing and oracy through a challenging range of texts and genres. We link contextual study with the Key Stage 3 History course, strengthening and consolidating understanding through a conceptualised approach.
Across Key Stage 3, we adopt a linear approach across years 7, 8 and 9 with the topic and text form studied, allowing effective development of learning. The academic year opens with a novel, allowing for social and historical contextual exploration, interleaving with History in their nineteenth century study and a unit focusing on black people of the Americas. We then analyse and explore poetry, providing all pupils with an engaging variety of poetic forms that are linked to wider social and emotional factors: nature poetry in Year 7, multicultural poetry in Year 8 and a sample of war poetry in Year 9.
The Spring Term focuses on language analysis of a variety of text types from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. By exploring the historical and social contexts, we are equipping our students with the ability to link the influences over writers to the features embedded in their texts, opening a world of perceptive and insightful deeper meanings.
Shakespeare is our focus in the Summer Term. They will explore character development, writer’s language choices and practise writing analytical responses. Pupils will practise both reading and writing skills for each unit of study, and enjoy a variety of challenging, engaging and exciting activities in lessons.
All pupils are transported to a range of new worlds and experiences through the beauty of the written word. We aim to shape our students into resilient, confident and inquisitive learners who are equipped for the wider curriculum and the world beyond the classroom.
Ultimately, we endeavour to build a love for reading and a passion for sharing one’s own viewpoint and opinions with empathy and conviction of knowledge steeped in social and historical fact, allowing pupils to make relevant and conceptual links to the ever-evolving times we live in.
