Curriculum statement – English

‘Confident in God’s love for us, we commit ourselves to His service’

“Curiosity is the engine of achievement.” 

-Ken Robinson

Aims

We want students at TSHLC to love learning. We offer them a powerful knowledge rich curriculum across the 5 years. The English curriculum allows our pupils not only to excel in their exams but also prepares them for a life-long love of learning.

From year 7 they experience a rich and stimulating knowledge curriculum offering both breadth and depth where the aim is to inspire. As such, we offer a curriculum which is not only enriching but that seeks to stretch, challenge and engender ambition in all our pupils. Through the study of our bespoke curriculum our pupils will gain the knowledge and cultural capital to succeed in life. The curriculum is coherently designed and sequenced to build on the knowledge learnt in Key Stage 3 to help facilitate a deeper more meaningful understanding of the subject at Key Stage 4. Through our regular library lessons in years 7,8 and 9 we also actively encourage all to foster a deep and meaningful love of reading for pleasure that continues for the rest of their lives. We also offer a wide range of extra curricula activities including theatre trips, poetry competitions, debating competitions and a wide range of national competitions.

We have had a particular focus on curriculum review, design, and development over the past few years. We believe our curriculum delivers the best that has been thought and said, reflecting our research rich school.

Key Stage Three

Year 7 and 8 Key Stage 3 classes are taught in mixed ability form groups, with a maximum of 30 students. In Year 9 the cohort is taught in mixed ability groups of 30 students, but from a mixture of tutor groups.

Across Key Stage 3, students study Language and Literature to underpin the skills needed at Key Stage 4:

• Narrative Writing
• Pre 19th Century Literature
• 20th Century novel
• 20th Century Drama
• Shakespeare (x 3 plays at KS3)
• Poetry from a wide selection of the Literary canon and modern poets
• Non-Fiction - Transactional writing and Comprehension

Key Stage Four

Students study EDEXCEL GCSE English Language and English Literature In Years 10 and 11 classes are reduced to approximately 24 students. Each class has a separate English Language and English Literature teacher.

Throughout Year 10 and 11, students do timed practices and checkpoint assessments to enable the faculty to monitor progress and further support our students.