Our vision is to promote an enjoyable, dynamic and vibrant approach to learning and we want our teaching to inspire students to become resilient learners with a keen focus on excellence. Our curriculum is set up to allow students to progress with the relevant skills through carefully chosen texts that build upon one another, and we use a range of strategies to develop key literacy skills throughout. As a result, students’ aspirations are supported through challenging texts with complex themes.

Throughout their time at Rossington All Saints, students study a range of different text types to give a broad range of ways writers tackle themes and ideas through texts. The main text studied are:

· Year 7 – Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo, Boy by Roald Dahl, and The Tempest by William Shakespeare.

· Year 8 – Lord of the Flies by William Golding, I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Simon Stephens.

· Year 9 – The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, and Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

· Y10 and 11 – A range of texts covering prose, plays, and poems in English Literature, and both fiction and non-fiction extracts in English Language. Our main Literature texts are Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Blood Brothers by Willy Russell, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and the Eduqas Anthology of Poetry.

The English department’s aim is for students to be able to articulate a range of ideas surrounding different texts that are carefully chosen to inspire and challenge students, whilst further developing their social, moral, spiritual and cultural understanding of the world around them. This promotes our community ethos through understanding and empathy of others.

In terms of KS3, we offer our younger students a number of different opportunities to engage and develop their reading and comprehension strategies. Students are provided dedicated opportunities to utilise our Learning Resource Centre and library to develop their enjoyment of reading, as well as being offered chance to involve themselves with our Reading Routes initiative. The aim of the support we place in KS3 is to build resilience, allowing students to become confident and independent learners.

Additionally, within our KS3 curriculum, there has been a complete overhaul of the texts studied by our students. Students are exposed to texts from both a fiction and non-fiction perspective and, our students are being exposed to books, autobiographies and poems from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. This is all done to enrich students’ understanding of the wider society in which they live in and beyond. The texts have also been carefully chosen to provide challenge in terms of content and structure. To ensure

that students take in and comprehend the range of materials we put in front of them, we embed several different reading strategies daily into lessons. This teaches students how to navigate through what some people may consider to be ‘thorny’ texts and grapple with challenging vocabulary and themes, as well as decoding more challenging ideas.

Writing is also a vital aspect of our curriculum and students practise different styles of writing, both fictional and non-fictional, with a variety of forms, for different audiences and to achieve a range of purposes. Writing technically is also a focus, with literacy style activities embedded throughout the schemes of learning. Further support is given in terms of spelling, punctuation and grammar throughout form learning time, knowledge organisers and academy displays across the academy – such as weekly Grammar Time activities, Word of the Week to develop students’ vocabulary and Fix It Now foci to allow students to address errors within their writing.

We also advocate the importance of learning outside the classroom, and this can be seen in the enrichment opportunities we offer our students at KS3. Students get the opportunity to meet authors, watch productions at the theatre, visit and be visited by number of different speakers who want to enrich students’ understanding of the wider environmental and social world.

The English department also offer time, after the academy day finishes, for students to go to the LRC to further enrich their reading or to work on their knowledge organisers allowing them to further develop a greater understanding of the topics they are studying with our dedicated librarian.

By the time students enter Year 11, they will have developed the knowledge and skills required to tackle more complex texts and we promote students’ aspirations through a range of extension challenges and extended learning opportunities. Through this additional learning, excellence can be achieved and accessed by all. By adopting this approach, students have excelled in their GCSE examinations with students achieving well above their expected progress on average in English Language and Literature.

Students also have an opportunity at KS4 within enrichment time to have an additional hour of English between the hours of 14:30 and 15:30.

Our English Curriculum Intent Statement can be found in the related documents section at the bottom of this page.

Community: In English students will work together to understand how texts are shaped and crafted. Throughout the curriculum there are also many opportunities to work collaboratively and be guided to work as part of a team, having a common goal to solve problems together.

Aspiration: In English students are encouraged to continually reflect on their work through peer, self and teacher assessment, improving and re-drafting work in order to aspire to have the best quality work they can. We also read a variety of texts from aspirational authors. For example, Malala Yousafzai, Roald Dahl and Greta Thunberg. 

Resilience: Throughout their journey in English, student work on their writing resilience and are encouraged to expand and develop ideas through essay style questions and feedback on their own ideas. Students are also encouraged to work through difficult texts that have been carefully chosen to stretch and challenge them.

Excellence: Within English, students are encouraged to strive for excellence through extension challenges embedded throughout their learning. Through the contexts of the texts studied, students understand the importance of the wider world and the impact of excellence.

This course will provide a foundation for a variety of progression routes. Virtually all 6th form courses and employers require a GCSE in English and this course would provide access to Level 3 courses. Good English qualifications are also sought after when applying to university.

KS4 Qualification name: English Literature, English Language

Exam board: Eduqas

Language: 2 Papers (Paper 1=40%, Paper 2= 60 %)

Literature: 2 Papers (Paper 1= 40%, Paper 2= 60 %)

Both GCSE’S will be assessed 100% through examinations.

Link to Exam board specifications:

Literature Specification https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/english-language/gcse/eduqas-gcse-english-language-from-2015-e.pdf

Language Specifications https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/english-language/gcse/eduqas-gcse-english-language-from-2015-e.pdf

· Year 7 enrichment project: exploring adaptations in term 1

· Year 7 enrichment project: product design and marketing term 2

· Year 7 enrichment project: poetry competition in term 3

· Year 8 enrichment project: creating your own island society in term 1

· Year 8 enrichment: guest speaker in term 2

· Year 8 enrichment project: poetry competition in term 3

· Year 9 enrichment project: literary screening and flash fiction competition in term 1

· Year 9 enrichment project: slam poetry competition in term 2

· Year 9 enrichment project: literary screening in term 3

· Actor’s company performances (Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet 2019-2020)

· Theatre trips to see key literature performances (A Christmas Carol and Private Peaceful 2019-2020)

· Talks from local authors

· World book day fancy dress with WBD focused enrichment lessons.

· GCSE Pod battle

· After school treasure hunts (quotation hunts and spelling hunts)

· Rossington Gazette club

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize

https://members.gcsepod.com/login?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmembers.gcsepod.com%2Fpupils%2Fdashboard

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_41.htm