English Curriculum Statement of Intent, Implementation and Impact
Intent:
At Walton-le-Dale High School, the English curriculum is designed as a seamless river of learning. It is not a series of disconnected lakes, but a continuous flow where knowledge and skills gather breadth and depth as students progress across key stages. We anchor our study in timeless texts. These are curated to serve three purposes: to offer mirrors through recognisable settings and characters where students find a sense of belonging; to explore our shared literary heritage and provide windows into other cultures and to allow students to excel in their study of English literature and command of English language beyond the school gates.
At the heart of our intent is that we need to move beyond surface-level plot to explore six core concepts: texts as intentional constructs; patterns (linguistic and structural); the influence of historical and social context; the power of texts to influence the reader; the role of the reader in creating meaning and interpretation; and the evolution and significance of the English Literary Canon.
We prioritize knowledge of authorial intention and historical context, ensuring students have the cultural capital to navigate complex narratives. This is balanced with the rigorous development of Reading, Writing, and Oracy as interconnected disciplines.
Implementation:
The idea of a flow of learning dictates our pedagogy: a curriculum that varies in pace to allow for immersion in complex ideas while maintaining a steady momentum toward mastery.
Key Stage 3:
- Students engage with three timeless texts per academic year. This allows for slow looking and conceptual mastery.
- Writing and non-fiction tasks are tributaries that feed from the core text, allowing students to respond to themes surrounding texts.
- Dedicated oracy is used as a tool for high-level thinking. Students learn to articulate interpretations before committing them to paper.
- Parallel to the core curriculum, Reading for Pleasure texts are taught alongside timeless texts to broaden horizons, ensuring the river of their reading experience widens beyond the classroom canon.
Key Stage 4:
- Students follow the Eduqas English language specification and work through a booklet curriculum to hone skills in skimming and scanning, retrieval and interpretation, evaluation and comparison and creative and transactional writing.
- In addition to reading and writing, students complete their spoken language non exam assessment on issues arising from the Literature curriculum.
- In English literature, students study: A Christmas Carol, Romeo and Juliet, A Taste of Honey and the Worlds and Lives poetry anthology from the AQA specification.
- Students build on key knowledge and concepts from KS3 to acquire breadth and depth of understanding of the texts studied and the societies they are written in.
Impact:
- Belong: By choosing texts with relatable characters, students can see themselves in the ongoing flow of the English literary tradition. Students can express themselves effectively in written and spoken word in a range of real life and imagined contexts.
- Explore: Through the study of diverse cultures, students develop empathy for those with different lived experience to them. Students grow in confidence to explore increasingly difficult subject matter.
- Excel: Students possess a rich schema of historical contexts and authorial intentions, allowing them to access GCSE content with confidence and thrive in society as critical readers, accurate writers and effective communicators.
Curriculum Flow
Staff Details
- Mrs Carr – Curriculum Leader of English Department
- Miss Allen – Assistant Curriculum Leader of English
- Mr Gardner – Teacher of English and SENCO
- Mrs Gonzalez – Teacher of English
- Miss Fielding – Teacher of English
- Mrs Cox – Teacher of English
