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English

Curriculum Intent – English 

“Excellent Experience = Excellent Outcomes” 

“Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river.” Virginna Woolf 

Powerful Knowledge

With passion we can inspire our students’ love of literature and the study of language.  We encourage their personal expression through exposing students to a range of literature across the centuries and understanding of contextual relationships between the writers’ and the life in which they are writing.

Our powerful knowledge will:

  • Inspire a passion for English and encourage personal expression and intellectual playfulness in seeing many different perspectives of a writer’s work.
  • Build on what students have learnt at Key Stage 2 and add depth, quality and richness to their knowledge and understanding through the explicit teaching of meta-thinking and analysing skills so knowledge is retained to the long-term working memory.
  • Organically build a deepening cultural capital and word richness through critical, enquiry-based approaches to the study of writers from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and traditions.
  • Develop fluent, confident, critical, and skilful readers who read widely and love reading.
  • Experience and appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage by reading a wide range of challenging texts, both canonised and non-canonised and adopt enquiry-based learning approaches in researching the contextual, social, and historical connections and influences of these writers.
  • Create opportunities to write clearly, accurately, and coherently for a range of audiences and purposes using a wide range of grammatical and linguistic conventions, and not being afraid to think in a revolutionary approach to bending the rules of writing in an intellectually playful ways as in the form of poetry and creative writing.
  • Enable students to understand writers’ intent and explore different viewpoints.
  • Self-regulate their own attainment and progress by regularly reflecting on the misconceptions in their own reading and writing and critically think about how their work can further excel.
  • Enable students to possess a strong exam stamina and exam resilience, reflecting on their own learning through carefully sequenced strategy planning in the run up to Red Zones, extended reading and writing assessments and KS4 examinations.
  • Acquire and build a wide and ambitious vocabulary enabling them to communicate in a range of formal and informal contexts with confidence and become literate for life.
  • Provide opportunities for speaking and listening and developing their intellectual confidence so that effective talk is an integral part of effective learning including discussion, debate, and formal presentations. Students will use High Performance Learning analysing skills in creativity and intellectual confidence to establish and reinforce these key skills through self-regulation.

 Developing the knowledge to understand the complexities of the cannon of literature which is embedded throughout our curriculum from KS3 through to KS4 and encourages leaners to be able to explore the world in which we live and how our world is shaped by our literary heritage as part of the ‘Communication Strand' in the academy.

Curriculum Features

At Leeds East Academy our intention is for students ‘Everyone Exceptional’. In English, our curriculum is designed to provide students with a fantastic experiences that led to excellent outcomes.  Building knowledge and understanding of language and literature through our curriculum will enable us to create a solid foundation for learning. In line with the national curriculum, we believe that English and English literature have a pre-eminent place in education and in society, preparing students to succeed at school and in life. In Language, we are learning and judging the language of humans and intention behind language use and in Literature, we are observing humanity – which allows our students to develop an understanding of the way the world works through a culturally and historically diverse range of viewpoints and naturally allows flexible and fluent thinking skills as part of High Performance Learning through the application of the Advanced Cognitive Performance Characteristics of creativity.

Our curriculum introduces learners to the overarching theme of ‘Good vs Evil’ in Year 7, where we study a range of texts across the centuries which have been chosen to be reflective of individuals in our world. We then develop our investigation of what it means to be human in Year 8 looking at the idea of ‘Control and Freedom’ and how these themes feature in all works of literature, before embarking on a deeper study of ‘Identity and Society’ in Year 9. Our KS3 curriculum is sequenced, so that all learners can comment effectively on the intention of a writer and develop their own skills in crafting successful writing.  The knowledge acquired and skills developed in KS3, guide students towards their GCSE studies in both Language and Literature, where learners become critical thinkers and explore the idea of how ‘Power and Conflict’ is a driving force within us all.

Our goal is to develop highly effective readers, writers and communicators who can make a positive contribution to society and live fulfilling lives.  We seek to develop a love of literature that enables students to connect spiritually, emotionally, culturally, and socially to the world we live in and beyond their experience where they develop their own unique character and voice and are best prepared for any career as accomplished speakers, readers, and writers in the modern world.

Cross Curricular & Wider Experiences

Cultural understanding is paramount to the understanding of English and experiences will be enhanced in several ways through in school and out of school experiences. Theatre trips and in school theatre performance will support students understanding of set plays and texts and enable characters to come alive from the page as students can develop a deeper interaction with the works they are studying. 

Visiting guest poets and authors visit school with a focus on developing oracy and confidence in the spoken word, which have direct links to drama and music.

In English there are vital links with History and understanding the contextual settings in which writers write for example in Elizabethan or Victorian eras and how these times shape our world.  Links with drama are clear in character motivations and recognition or the identity of being human. There are also key crossovers with sociology and psychology, which students many study at a later level, which are seen in English as we study characters motivation and analyse the language they use.

Through reflective practice of learner own actions and performance we intend to instil values in students that will encourage them to be well rounded confident individuals in society and to empower them to chase their career aspirations and to develop into thoughtful and caring individuals who will in turn, pass these values on in the future.

For further information regarding the English offer at Leeds East Academy, please contact Mr Verity - verity.l@whiteroseacademies.org 

Curriculum Journey - Key Stage 3

KS3 Curriculum Overview English - Curriculum Journey 

Curriculum Journey - Key Stage 4

KS4 Curriculum Overview English - Curriculum Journey