English
Students will develop their own speech and writing through discussions, presentations and roleplays, as well as learning to communicate within different writing genres to present their beliefs and opinions. Our curriculum is used to empower young people, whatever their starting point. Acquiring and controlling their language to discover the potential power behind their words is key for all students, to access language and succeed in whatever field they choose, as well as the key to understanding each other and the world around them.
In line with the KSHS Curriculum Intent and the full National Curriculum, the fostering of a love of learning is encompassed in the choice of texts we study with our students; this is an inspiring widespread selection where we explore different time periods and literary movements, cultures and beliefs and lifestyles in diverse backgrounds. We encourage pupils to read for enjoyment and for challenge, and, through reading with a critical eye, to improve their literacy skills, gain an understanding of cultural capitalism and to use this as a key to access other subjects and the wider world. By presenting young minds with a wide and ambitious set of texts and giving them the tools to access literal and layered meaning through strategies of universal learning, they will understand what makes those texts compelling, and they will aspire to compose their own stories with confidence.
Our texts are chosen with moral messages to show the importance of social tolerance and of being kind and aware of other lifestyles and cultures, which is in line with promoting the school’s ethos of charity and community. Our choice of texts at all key stages recap, recall and build on prior knowledge, but with the connection of the importance of social and ethical responsibility explored through themes of class divide, abuse of power, gender boundaries and inequality which are interweaved throughout, and which become more multifaceted along the way. At the heart of all our texts are the lessons about the consequences for those that create chaos or harm to others and to teach resilience to the influence of others.
