English Language & Literature

“Handle them carefully, for words have the power to change the world.”

Curriculum Aims

Our students are exposed to a broad, vibrant and challenging range of texts that promotes a love of our subject, fosters academic success and equips them for real life.

We intend to develop students’ knowledge by engaging with the richness of our British heritage (local and national) and global cultures, by offering many and varied opportunities to address real-life issues, highlighting links between subjects, and by giving learners experience of an extensive array of literary genres. Highlighting our cultural capital is especially important for leaners, our intention being that they grow as curious and ambitious young people.

We aim to nurture our students’ skills in reading, writing and oracy for both academic success and in preparation for a successful life beyond Wade Deacon. Indeed, our intention is that Literacy is at the heart of our curriculum.

The curriculum design purposely integrates a wide range of challenging real-life issues so that students become considerate and mature individuals who can successfully and sensitively articulate their own opinions and be considerate of other people’s. The curriculum also empowers students to use language, in all its transactional forms, to become active, eloquent and effective citizens.

The English curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced towards the cumulative growth of skills; this allows students to build on successes, supported by a constantly evolving and challenging skillset. This is typified in Key Stage 3, where students are exposed to writing triplets that become progressively more complex and wide ranging. Likewise, the sequencing of texts and topics poses students increasing levels of challenge. In Key Stage 4, the curriculum features the interleaving of English Literature and English Language elements; our intention with this approach is to allow students to keep in regular touch with the many different modules involved, eradicating long periods of time away from certain topics, subsequently promoting familiarity and sticky learning. We feel this approach prepares students well for the significant demands of revision and the rigours of final examinations.

We recognise that the English curriculum is one major piece in the jigsaw of our whole-school curriculum and we actively encourage students to forge tangible links with other subjects in each module we teach. Our intention is to encourage students to appreciate the transferability of subject-specific knowledge and skills, and to utilise these to their advantage.

Our Curriculum Journey - English Language & Literature

How to support your child in English

• Read with them. Read anything and read often!
• Encourage a love of our subject! Don’t let them spend hours thinking they have to analyse everything. They don’t. Enjoy it!
• Promote the value of making mistakes and editing work – the very best writers do this.
• Chat about characters in texts and the writers they have discovered.
• Learn key quotations together.

What our students say

Our students love...

“the freedom we are given”, “learning about different cultures”

“the complexity of some of the activities” and “debating - because it’s cool.”

“English teachers who unlock your creativity.”

“the fact that there is always something new and exciting to learn.”

“the opportunity to get creative and let your imagination run wild!”