English
The English Department at Churchdown School Academy is a friendly, inclusive and high achieving department housed in a purpose-built block. We currently have eleven full time members of teaching staff and two part time member of teaching staff.
English has a unique place within the curriculum because it encourages students to explore ideas about humanity and society through the texts we study. We place equal emphasis on all of the curriculum sub-strands and spend time equipping students with the skills they need to be able to read, write and communicate orally to a high standard which will set them up to be successful later on in life in whichever path they choose to take.
We are proud of all of our students and take great care to nurture individuals whether this be through small and intensive catch-up groups, or through challenging our most able through a range of challenging texts and theories. We offer both GCSE Language and Literature courses (AQA) and teach English Literature Specification B (AQA) in the sixth form.
KS3 Overview
In years 7, 8 and 9 students are encouraged to develop their reading and writing skills by accessing a wide range of texts. There is also a focus on the knowledge needed within the study of English; students are encouraged to build a strong foundation of knowledge in order to be properly prepared to undertake their English GCSEs. The course is set up thematically, and students’ learning is interleaved to encourage their skills and knowledge to build over the three years.
In Year 7, we begin by building on the knowledge provided at Key Stage 1 and 2, with a focus on the core principles of language and texts. We look to fiction extracts as a way to explore the concept of power, before challenging students with a text of literary significance: Animal Farm. This is the first text encountered by students and is designed to set a precedent for our Key Stage 3 curriculum: one that is rigorous, offers cultural capital, and engages students in deeper thinking about the world around them. Students then explore the concept of identity through poetry and they learn to develop a voice in their own writing. Finally, students explore the concept of morality and students study Sherlock Holmes and look at Shakespeare’s infamous villains. This Shakespeare study provides the contextual foundations for a long-term understanding of Shakespeare, a thread throughout our curriculum that continues until year 13.
In Year 8 students begin with the concept of conflict, where they study the modern YA novel Long Way Down and read WWI poetry. Next, pupils explore justice and freedom from Jacobean England, to 19th century Britain and the modern day. Here they encounter Charles Dickens and his literary significance. Throughout year 8, students’ foundational knowledge continues to build as they learn key contextual information alongside how narratives work within literature.
In Year 9 students continue to use literature to understand the world around them, and we begin with looking at the concept of prejudice. Students study Ruta Sepetys' Salt to the Sea', a Historical Fiction text that explores prejudice in depth. Here we begin to weave together the previously taught knowledge of year 7 and year 8 and build students’ knowledge of how society works. We then look at the concept of gender, exploring relationships from Shakespeare with a text study of Romeo and Juliet. We then seek modern interpretations of gender in poetry and non-fiction in order to present pupils to present their views about gender in the modern world. Their KS3 journey ends with our first GCSE text, An Inspector Calls, exploring its key theme of responsibility. We end Key Stage 3 with a solid foundation of knowledge and critical exploration of important concepts.
We strongly believe as a department that a challenging and dynamic Key Stage 3 is crucial in ensuring that students are not only prepared for their GCSE study, but are also set up for a lifelong love of Literature.
KS4 Overview
The English Department enters all students for:
English Language (AQA)
and
English Literature (AQA)
The English Language GCSE is comprised of two papers which assess a range of reading and writing skills where reading and writing are worth the same amount of marks. There is also a non-examined assessment for Spoken Language which is a separate endorsement.
The English Literature GCSE requires pupils to study a cluster of poems (we currently offer the conflict and power cluster), the modern play ‘An Inspector Calls’ , the nineteenth century novel ‘A Christmas Carol’ and the Shakespeare play ‘Macbeth’.
In order to ensure that students remember all of these texts by the end of Year 11, we spend a long term studying and annotating the texts, and interleave within the study of GCSE English Literature the necessary skills for the GCSE in English Language. We study the 15 poems in clusters across Year 10 and in the first term of Year 11. By the Christmas of Year 11 we have covered all the course content for Literature, and from that point onwards we focus on developing the analytical skills needed for both GCSEs.
We use knowledge organisers to create the core of students’ revision and independent study. Students are also encouraged to re-read their texts after they study them to develop a more detailed understanding of the characters and themes the writers are exploring. In addition to this, we offer a range of intervention and revision opportunities across Year 11 to ensure students are best prepared for their GCSE examinations.
Students sit four papers for their exams at the end of Year 11. They are:
- GCSE English Literature Paper 1 – 1 hour 45 minutes.
‘Macbeth’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’ – 64 marks.
Students are given an extract from the text and a question. They are expected to link their ideas to the knowledge of the whole text.
- GCSE English Literature Paper 2 – 2 hours 15 minutes.
‘An Inspector Calls’, Power and Conflict poetry cluster and unseen poetry – 96 marks.
Students are given two choices of questions for ‘An Inspector Calls’ and then must analyse the text entirely from memory. Students will be given one poem from the 15 studied and be asked to compare it to another poem they have studied. Finally, they will be given an unseen poem to analyse, and then a second unseen poem to compare to the first.
- GCSE English Language Paper 1 – 1 hour 45 minutes.
Students will be given an unseen fiction source. They will be asked four questions of increasing difficulty on the source, totalling 40 marks. They then must complete a piece of creative fiction writing for a further 40 marks.
- GCSE English Language Paper 2 – 1 hour 45 minutes.
Students will be given two unseen non-fiction sources. They will be asked four questions of increasing difficulty on the sources, including comparing them, totalling 40 marks. They then must complete a piece of viewpoint non-fiction writing for a further 40 marks.
KS5 Overview
English Literature Specification B. Exam Board: AQA
Students have two teachers at Key Stage 5, and each one is responsible for a single genre. This enables students to study the genre and its idiosyncrasies with one individual (reducing cognitive load and allowing depth of discussion without students confusing the two strands of the course).
The tragedy teacher begins the course by exploring the features of the genre, before opening with Othello. It is important that students encounter their tragic texts chronologically so they can more clearly make connections with how the genre has developed over time. This play accounts for 2/3 of their terminal examination, and so considerable time is spent reading, understanding and engaging with the play through the lens of the tragic genre. Students then encounter the first of their Keats poetry: Isabella which follows an archetypal tragic victim and La Belle Dame Sans Merci where the morality of the central characters is more ambivalent. Students then read Death of a Salesman before returning to more of Keats’ poems, Lamia and Eve of St Agnes.
By the end of Year 12, students have studied their core texts, and so Year 13 begins with the taught section of the NEA, alongside preparation for their independent NEA. Students are encouraged to engage with critical theory and explore texts from critical perspectives, building upon the skills they have learnt in applying both genres in Year 12. Students are able to select their own text for the independent coursework, and this offers students an opportunity to engage in a wide range of literature.
The crime teacher begins with an exploration of the crime genre with a focus on the unseen crime extract students will analyse in the exam. Here is a chance to expose students to a range of crime writing from Sherlock Holmes to the Golden era of crime, then moving to the modern age of crime and the hard-boiled detectives and psychological thrillers. This exposes students to the various tropes of the genre and works as a way in to the genre as a whole, before studying the poems of Crabbe, Wilde and Browning, which also allow an exploration of criminality in literature. The course is dominated by the teaching of Oliver Twist, where students encounter many crime tropes and explore how crime is a part of the context of the text, and sometimes even the writer’s intentions. By early Year 13 students explore McEwan’s Atonement, and the psychological impact of a moral crime, and the guilt it induces. This is the final core text, and the remainder of the course allows students to connect the texts together, explore the writers in detail, and truly understand how the genre works.
Extra Curricular Opportunities
We run a very successful Book Club which requires a a small subscription from parents in order for students to read 6 books across the year and attend a book club where they discuss the book with the teacher and their peers. Book has grown year-on-year for the past 4 years. We currently have just over 15% of our whole school signed up to Book Club. We launch this every September and it runs through to July. This is open to all years.
We currently offer our KS4 and 5 students the opportunity to attend catch-up, revision and intervention sessions at lunch time and after school. Our sixth form students are also afforded the opportunity to work with a member of staff in their study periods to extend their in-class provision by arrangement with the teacher and student.
We run our English house event which is a highlight of the English calendar where students from all year groups are given the opportunity to compete in the highly competitive and prestigious spelling bee! We run homework clubs for all students to ensure that students have space and support to complete their homework.
Students are encouraged to use the school library to read regularly at home. Reading for 20 minutes per day is crucial to students’ understanding of vocabulary, punctuation, and sentence structure. It will help them in their GCSEs not only in English but in all of the subjects they choose to study. We currently use Sparx Reader as way to ensure all our students are reading weekly.
Next steps or Where the subject leads
As a subject, English is a vital stepping stone for any career path or next steps in education.
English equips our students with the ability to communicate effectively both through written and spoken modes and prepares them with lifelong skills such as CV and letter writing skills.
Useful Links
http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/
http://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/51-websites-that-help-you-to-improve-writing-skills-in-english/