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HEAD OF ENGLISH

Mrs Kaur

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Statement of Intent:

• To become critical readers who read for pleasure, interrogate texts and use reading as a tool to learn in order to develop cultural capital.
• To become critical writers who write proficiently so that they can express themselves and communicate with creativity, purpose and accuracy.
• To become effective orators in a range of contexts so that they have accurate expression and the ability to listen to, agree with, build on and challenge their peers constructively.

At Khalsa Academy we aim to empower and equip our students to become the very best communicators, readers, writers and thinkers.  The functions of our Literature and Language studies in enabling students to effectively interact with the world around them is at the forefront of our curriculum.  It allows our learners to be submersed in a vast array of texts that will challenge, inspire and excite them.  We aim to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to learn to appreciate the beauty of language through the exploration of the writer’s craft. 

At the end of our KS3 curriculum for Year 7 and 8, we expect students to become confident and skilful readers and writers.  Most of our lesson time therefore is dedicated to developing the building blocks necessary for such avid readers and writers, such as vocabulary acquisition, language practice and inference skills.  Students are also provided with a variety of opportunities across units to nurture their imagination and creativity as well as develop more formal non-fiction writing skills such as persuasive speeches and articles.  It is a key priority for Khalsa Academy to ensure that students have the necessary literacy skills at this stage in order to access all other subjects within the wider curriculum, so where there are identified learning gaps, targeted intervention is put into place to help support progress.

Year 9 marks a specific transition towards the application of skills and knowledge acquired at KS3.  By the end of this year, students are expected to have gained a sound understanding of the context surrounding the Victorian era, as well as consolidating their contextual knowledge of Shakespeare and his literary craft.  Each unit has been specifically planned to further develop and refine the skills required for critical readers, writers and orators; thus, paving the way towards success at KS4.  It is in these final two years in KS4 that students prepare for and sit their AQA Literature and Language GCSE examinations.  Over this duration of time, students learn to critically analyse texts such as Macbeth, A Christmas Carol, An Inspector Calls and AQA’s anthology of Power and Conflict poetry.  Students also engage in focused critical explorations of writer’s craft looking at both fiction and non-fiction texts as well as learn to develop their own writing capabilities, crafting language for a desired purpose and effect. 

For those students who choose to further their studies in English at KS5, our curriculum provides an opportunity to approach the reading and study of Literature through the lens of genre and theory.  We aim to encourage the independent study of a range of texts within a shared context, giving logic and meaning to the way texts are grouped.  A clear progression from GCSE is offered, where students are allowed to build on the skills and knowledge already gained and prepare for their next steps.  Through a variety of assessment styles, such as passage based questions, unseen material, single and multiple text questions and open and closed book approaches, students develop a wide range of skills such as the ability to read critically, analyse, evaluate and undertake independent research which are valuable for both further study and future employment.

Not only does our curriculum within school provide our students with the necessary language capacity to navigate and succeed in all aspects of life, we also aim to develop our learners’ ability to think deeply about humanity and discover the riches of their Literary Heritage, whilst also nurturing the critical faculties to appreciate the power of the written word in everyday life.  Our English curriculum therefore, forms a backbone to our school’s ethos in that it develops our students as lifelong ‘learners’, demanding them to think inquiringly and independently, developing their ability to confidently articulate ideas, whilst also listening, evaluating and responding to the opinion of others.  In this way, our curriculum at Khalsa Academy goes far beyond achieving the best examination results, we pride ourselves on our strong moral purpose to prepare students not only for the classroom, but for life beyond – offering opportunities to explore and understand the world in which they live.

We therefore aim to build the Cultural Capital of our students by not only equipping them with a vast multitude of skills that will be pivotal in their development as learners and professionals, but also by providing them with rich opportunities and experiences relevant to the wider world.  For example, our study of Literature texts such as ‘An Inspector Calls’ allows students to engage with societal inequality within the Edwardian era, comparing the class warfare of the time to current distinctions within the 21^st Century.  The study of Shakespeare at KS3 and KS4 provides students with rich contextual knowledge surrounding religions most widely practised within the Elizabethan era, the monarchy’s influence and issues with witchcraft at the time.  Cross curricular links are made with RE and History, so that students are able to utilise knowledge and skills to further their own understanding and progress, particularly in terms of Christianity, the Industrial revolution and WW1 and WW2. 

Students are also exposed to a range of different cultures and traditions when studying poetry throughout their learning journey, where cultural activists and prominent leaders around the world are used to inspire and motivate students.  We also encourage participation in local and national poetry and writing competitions, giving students the opportunity to express themselves through this medium of creative art.  National events such as World Book Day and International Women’s Day offers students the chance to engage in various tasks and activities being practised by students globally.  This sense of wider community and belonging is something inherent in our school’s ethos ‘Together as One’, where we aim to nurture this collective humanity.

All this is achieved through a carefully planned progressive curriculum in that is knowledge engaged; one where knowledge underpins and enables the application of skills.  As a department we proudly take our students on a lifelong learning journey that regularly exposes them to the knowledge and skills required at optimum points, helping them to further explore, recall and retain their learning through a range of current practical, creative and analytical approaches.  Both our Language and Literature units are built around a process of interleaving knowledge and skills, where we aid the development of long-term memory and mastery of both the skills and knowledge required in order to be proficient not only in the study of English, but for life after school as confident and continuous learners.

Furthermore, the mastery of these higher-level reading, writing and thinking skills will become ever more vital to young people in a world where the media and manners of communication are changing rapidly, and in unpredictable ways. A sophisticated understanding of how language can be used to inform, persuade and manipulate is essential to enable young people to negotiate their way through the many voices of the internet age, and a high level of confidence and precision in spoken English will be crucial to communication with colleagues in a virtual, yet global workplace.  As a result, our role in the English Department is to build the basis for these endlessly adaptable, flexible skills.

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Our main curriculum aims and objectives: -

1. To become critical readers:

• To nurture students who read for pleasure
• To create critical readers who interrogate texts in order understand and question the information given
• To use reading as a tool to learn

2. To become critical writers:

• To build writing proficiency so that students can express themselves and communicate with purpose and accuracy
• To create opportunities for creative writing and expression
• To provide opportunities where students can master these skills

3. To become effective orators:

• To foster opportunities where students can practise speaking in a range of contexts
• To develop students’ accuracy in expression
• To develop listening skills so that students are able to agree, build and challenge their peers constructively

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