English Curriculum

Intent of English

The study of English is the core of academic progress, since confident literacy is a key component to a life of success and fulfilment, helping to provide long-lasting opportunities in the adult world. In addition, it is the access ‘medium’ for most other subjects and is key to success in the entire examination system.

The overarching intent is to promote high standards of literacy by equipping students with the knowledge and skill, so they have a strong command of the spoken and written word. We aim to develop a love of literature in many forms through widespread reading for challenge and enjoyment.

By studying a range of literature and non-fiction writing, students will develop a reflective appreciation of their world and its history, map its social movements and cultural landscapes, whilst developing their skills of comprehension, analysis, and evaluation.

The vision of our English curriculum is to turn our students into literary explorers, not only confident in their own English literary heritage, but also eager to learn about other cultures, voices and experiences beyond their own rural Suffolk setting.

Reading at KS3 leading to Literature and Language at KS4 and 5

Students will commence their reading journey in Key Stage 3 by exploring a rich and diverse range of literature which allows students to increase their cultural capital, while concurrently developing their skills of comprehension, analysis and evaluation. These skills help to form a solid foundation for both GCSE and A Level English Literature learning.

Across all key stages, our students study a wide range of 19th, 20th and 21st century texts. In Key Stage 3, our students are immersed in a variety of literary heritage plays and poetry from writers like Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Owen to broader explorations of genre traditions in the Gothic. Students also explore modern and culturally diverse classics by writers like Gratz, Gaiman and Steinbeck, in order to gain the cultural capital necessary to succeed as they move through the college.

At Key Stage 3, students will also develop their love of reading for pleasure by regularly reading popular best sellers to establish a reading culture. Our English satellite texts, which serve to complement the teaching of our main texts, also expose our learners to further ideas and viewpoints to help shape them into more rounded readers and young people.

At Key Stage 4, students will study writers like Dickens from the 19th Century, a Shakespeare play, and Power and Conflict poetry. Key Stage 5 Literature exposes students to thought provoking and challenging texts that will allow them to question social preconceptions. At these higher levels of study, students are taught to consider the intent behind works of literature and the messages that authors are able to instil in their writing. For example, the Gothic genre thread that runs through Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 is developed at Key Stage 5 through the study of writers like Stoker, Walpole, and Carter, while the threads of Identity and Relationships culminate in the study of Rossetti’s poetry and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.

Writing at KS3 and 4, leading to English Literature and English Language at KS5

Students will learn to see themselves as imaginative and articulate writers. Throughout Key Stage 3 and GCSE study, students will acquire the breadth of vocabulary and command of language necessary to describe their world in its richest sense. Since it is important to articulate our experiences in life, students will learn to write in different forms and from different perspectives across their seven year journey.

In Key Stage 3, students will learn to develop their own authorial voice by writing short stories, descriptive passages and polemic pieces. Students will also learn writing craft by editing, redrafting and writing commentaries in order to develop the determination and reflective skills it takes to refine a piece of writing. Students will also engage in weekly home learning tasks dedicated to vocabulary accumulation to continually build upon and stretch their lexicon.

At Key Stage 4, students will develop their own unique authorial voice further by looking at more sophisticated style models from the modern media and will explore how extended metaphors, figurative language and plot twists can enhance the structure of their writing, as well as its language. This culminates in Key Stage 5 as an optional piece of original writing at either English Language A Level or English Literature A Level, where students will emulate forms and writers they have studied, along with an accompanying commentary detailing their linguistic choices.

Threads of powerful knowledge in English

English involves a set of general themes that provide the basis for:

Becoming a writer - whether academic, transactional, or creative (including technical accuracy),

Literary Heritage- Literary genres (e.g. Gothic) and writers (Shakespeare, Shelley, etc) that will inform students understanding of GCSE and A Level texts,

Conflict - exploring diversity of perspectives on conflict,

Identity - in terms of gender, race, nationality, religion, etc.

Relationships - exploring human interaction along with the complexities and subtleties of emotion that comes with it,
Immersive reading - developing a love and appreciation for different types of reading and the skills of inference, analysis, and evaluation that come with this.

These threads are also underpinned within the thematic approach this subject takes when mapping out the curriculum journey for our learners.

At Key Stage 3, our students explore themes of growing up, different worlds, journeys, tyrants and treachery, friendship and tragedy to name but a few. All designed to ensure that as our young people grow and develop, the themes they encounter support them becoming more mature and reflective individuals.

Cultural reading and enrichment in English

Home learning in English focuses on vocabulary building and development. We believe it is important for our young people to enter into the wider world with the ability to express themselves both articulately and fluently.

Enrichment is offered through termly creative writing competitions (open to all year groups), giving students the opportunity to express themselves through their written medium of choice and the chance to become a published author.

Depending on availability, the department also runs trips to the theatre to see any productions relevant to the curriculum and invites in external companies to run English ‘Mastery’ workshops where relevant.

Thurston Community College