English​

​

​

​

​

​

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​1. Intent: why do we teach what we teach? 

​

For our school to provide an inspirational and ambitious education, English lies at the heart of the whole curriculum. Our English mission is to develop independent thinkers, successful readers, eloquent writers, and knowledgeable, empathetic citizens, who can achieve their dreams and goals in further education and in their chosen paths. Thus, each unit of our curriculum is built upon students’ development in three strands: 

​

 1. Skills in both reading and writing 

 2. Knowledge in both literary and contextual 

 3. Character in both ‘empowering knowledge’ beyond the curriculum requirements and students’ soft skills taught explicitly through Skill Builder  

​

Skills  

Reading: if our students can read with confidence, they will be able to learn and know more and enjoy the lifechanging experience of reading for pleasure. Therefore, to meet this intention, our English curriculum teaches phonics, vocabulary, fluency, retrieval, comprehension and analysis.  

​

Writing- we believe in the importance of confident self-expression in improving students’ future opportunities and personal well-being. Therefore, to meet this intention, our English curriculum teaches handwriting, spelling, grammar, punctuation and writing structures for a range of forms. 

​

Speaking and listening: we believe that through using language and hearing how others use it, children become able to describe the world, make sense of life's experiences and get things done. They learn to use language as a tool for thinking, collectively and alone. 

​

Knowledge 

Literary: our students deserve to critically read and enjoy a broad range of high-quality literature of different genres and diverse authors through fiction and non-fiction. 

​

Contextual: for true understanding of the texts they read, students need knowledge of the historical contexts in which each text was produced such at Victorian literature and the themes of social class. 

​

Character 

Empowering knowledge: learning in English and reading is complemented by the wider curriculum links. 

Soft skills: we value the importance of oracy, discussion and teamwork. All reading and writing skills, literary and contextual knowledge and character development skills are revisited and built upon each year, forming a spiral curriculum. 

 

2. Implementation: how do we teach what we teach? 

​

Structure of the English curriculum 

​

We prioritise teaching our children how to read – and how to love reading. We immerse children in a book rich and word rich environment and systematically teach phonics every day through the Read Write Inc Phonics programme, teaching children their sounds, then how to blend and then building their fluency and comprehension from there.  Students are carefully organised into groups for as long as they need them or 1:1 for students who need a more personalised approach. We know early intervention is best and invest time, energy and expertise into catching students up as rapidly as possible. All teachers across the school are teachers of reading and are trained in strategies embedded across all curriculum areas. 

​

Students are taught to love to write in a range of forms using their rich reading materials as inspiration for their own development as writers. We focus on mastering one form of writing each half term, immersing ourselves in becoming excellent storytellers or journalists for example through a process of shared and then independent writes where students use what they have learnt through the unit to write independently (or with scaffolding where appropriate). 

​

Reading and English 

​

Engaging every day with a range of high-quality texts is a fundamental part of our curriculum. This begins in our curriculum where we have mapped the whole curriculum around a carefully selected, age-appropriate and suitably challenging reading spine. Each term has an over-arching key concept that is revisited and built upon each year such as ‘Power and conflict’ where students 'empowering knowledge’ initially questions the roles of heroes and villains in historical myths and legends and then develop this further in their media scheme of work at the end of the year and compare these in film.  After studying a range of literature, including modern novels, 19th century fiction, poetry and a Shakespeare play, students synthesise their improved understanding of belonging, heroism, growing up and family relationships.  We have daily reading lessons which follow a robust model using the simple view of reading as well as the five pillars of reading as our guiding principles (Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension). We focus on reading shared texts as a whole class, allowing time to practise partner reading to promote fluency, explicitly pre-teaching highest leverage vocabulary to expand our students’ lexicon as well as equipping students with the skills they need to retrieve evidence and make inferences. All students will continue working on spelling to embed spelling rules through a systematic spelling programme (RWI Get Spelling or personalised plan). All benefit from grammar mastery sessions at least once a week to explicitly learn about language patterns and support them in being better able to deliberately modify language choices in their own writing.  

​

By the end of Year 9, all students will have experienced writing for a range of audiences.  The units are designed to build upon the contexts and empowering knowledge taught in KS3, as students grapple with notions of power and conflict, morality and righteousness and society and social class. In language lessons, students are taught to read and think actively and critically through exposure to texts from a wealth of writers from different backgrounds and experiences. They learn to problem solve in response to unseen texts, whilst simultaneously developing their self-expression in writing and discussion 

​

Structure of English lessons 

​

Lessons are planned backwards from end of unit assessments. Teachers, together with leaders, engage in writing the final outcomes and from there, unpick the key skills and knowledge required to be taught in order for students to be successful. All students work to the same learning objective every lesson. Learning activities are then planned according to how best to achieve the learning objective of the lesson, culminating in a lesson outcome through which students evidence their progress in achieving the LO. All English lessons begin with a Do Now, accessible to all students, either requiring them to retrieve prior knowledge or generate ideas to prepare them for their learning ahead. Subsequently, lessons typically follow a an I-do, we-do, you do model, with students and teachers working together to actively read, answer questions, unpick models and plan written responses before independently consolidating their learning in an Exit Ticket. Teachers plan for the fact that some students will need more scaffolding; others will require a greater challenge. Students learn in a carefully planned seating plan and teachers have a data-driven well-worn path around the room to assess students’ knowledge and understanding quickly and adapt teaching effectively at point of learning and/or misconception using over-the-shoulder feedback to students or live class re-teaching. Students are expected to learn from their teammates, as much as from their teacher through paired turn and talks.  

​

Oracy is an important skill in all subjects and to meet our intent to create confident speakers, students are taught to speak in full sentences.  Sentence stems are displayed and modelled in supporting students to articulacy respond and ask questions.

​

Carefully crafted habits for discussion enable our students to share their thinking, build on each other’s and act as a team and family. We aim to meet the academic needs of all learners every lesson through differentiated questioning and resources as well as through additional support from peers or additional adults. Becoming readers students read for pleasure every day.  Students benefit from hearing their favourite stories read to them regularly by their peers and class teachers. Students are also expected to build their reading skills at home every night. Students are increasingly encouraged to read for pleasure on the subjects they enjoy. We celebrate reading successes at every opportunity, in class libraries and displays, through Reading Ambassador leadership roles, in reading competitions and events and through partnership with as many external reading organisations as we can maintain and yearly book week extravaganzas, where students are immersed in dressing up, drama, author meetings and theatre trips.  

 

Qualifications 

​

All our year 9, 10 and 11 students can work towards Entry Level English. Many of our students take a Functional Skills course that tests their reading, writing and speaking and listening.  Functional Skills in English allows students to develop their written work, reading and spoken language. It is the equivalent of part of a GCSE at Levels 1 and 2.  

  

Many of our Key Stage 4 students also take GCSE English Language.  We currently use the WJEC (EDUQAS) examination board. 

​

Enrichment and cross curricular links 

 

We believe in providing multisensory and experiential learning opportunities for our students.  The ability to make connections involves a process of connecting prior knowledge to new knowledge and experiences. This process allows students to relate what they read, see, do, and experience to themselves, to the world around them and/or to other things they have read, seen, or experienced previously. This includes connecting subject areas with personal development.  Students engage with drama and music, linking the magic of theatre through visits to the Theatre Royal in Plymouth and accessing Shakespeare and seminal literature experiences such as Of Mice and Men.  Students also engage with Duke of Edinburgh awards, developing their ‘soft’ skills of communication, teamwork and leadership.  These character skills are embedded across the school using Skills Builder.  This framework provides a toolkit to build the essential skills for students to thrive and achieve beyond the school gates with the soft skills needed for internships, apprenticeships, employment and workplace interviews.   To prepare for adulthood, all our Year 10 and 11 students also take part in our ‘You’re Hired’ programme where students have the choice of 3 different real job applications and write a letter of application during English lessons where they are given guidance and advice.  Two students are then chosen to be interviewed for each job, and these are conducted by our Careers specialists within school where feedback is given about interview skills and performance.  The winners are then presented with a prize each.  We do this to build the confidence of our students as well as enabling them to learn resilience, presentation, body language as well as practising formal letter writing they have already learned in their English lessons. 

​

Lunch and after school clubs 

​

At lunch time we offer a range of clubs including a drop in English club for students to bring homework or explore their personal interests. A Dungeons and Dragons club that not only engages students in their own interests but also develops their speech and language, soft skills and drama.  A homework club is also offered for our yr 10 and 11 students to focus on functional skills and GCSE preparation. 

 

Subject Specific CPD  

​

• Weekly professional development sessions which typically involve engaging with academic research, analysing model practice, implementing new skills into future learning 

• Weekly English department meetings to review student progress, consistency standards, planning and adaptations – these also provide time for English specific CPD such as colourful semantics, RWI and dual coding  

• Weekly preparation sessions to prepare for successfully planned and delivered lessons  

• Half termly line management meetings that review planning and pupil work and offer coaching on drop in feedback 

• Drop ins, partner teaching and regular observations and feedback- as part of school coaching 

 

Impact: how do we know what students have learnt and how well they have learnt it?  

​

Summative Assessment  

​

Students are assessed every half term on the skills and content they have learnt across the half-termly unit using the school's stages assessment tool. Feedback lessons on summative assessments are planned into lessons, giving students opportunity to reflect upon their successes and improve their areas for development. Teachers’ reflections on their students’ written and quantitative outcomes at the end of each unit form the basis for their adaptations for their MTPs in the subsequent unit.  

​

Students use the star testing tool on Accelerated reader to determine their reading age.  This too supports teachers and students to select the appropriate book for reading, ensuring there is a level of challenge. Students are also tested once per term using the ‘Schonell’ tests that enable us to calculate a spelling age. 

 

In RWI/phonics, children are assessed every 6 weeks. This data is used to inform Phonics groupings, 1:1 tutoring and further interventions.  

 

Formative Assessment  

​

We have developed our own stages of progression for reading, writing and speaking and listening.  These drive the progress towards summative end of unit assessments where students show off their mastery of the form in writing and speaking and listening. Students EHCP termly targets are also assessed each lesson and clearly recorded alongside their individual stages target.  Students display clear ownership over their work, responding to oral feedback given in class and marking outside of class, which students are expected to respond to. In reading, students respond to retrieval and inference questions alongside developing extended reading responses in the form of critical essays which include text-based evidence to support their responses. These assessments help teachers identify which pillar is their area of development.  Cold call questioning plays an important role in checking for understanding during guided reading. We use intentional monitoring to provide in-lesson feedback on student work and students engage in knowledge and technical quizzes. In KS4 feedback on checkpoints becomes more nuanced and personalised and students are encouraged to use specific feedback to think critically and metacognitively about their own writing. 

​

Termly student reviews with leaders monitor the quality of student work, the extent to which learning is being effectively facilitated and the consistency with which feedback is being given and acted upon. Ultimately, our aims are long term, and the impact we wish to see goes beyond our assessment outcomes, it is shown in who our students are when they leave us and what they are ready to achieve in their lives. Our curriculum aims to prepare students for success at college, apprenticeships and beyond. We keep in contact with many past students and their families and can see the life changing impact of what we teach our students when we hear about their success beyond Brook Green. 

 

​

​

​