About English


English Curriculum Intent: Understanding English’s Curriculum DREAM 

Purpose: This document sets out how the English Department approaches Curriculum Intent at Eaton Bank Academy. 

Design  How have you designed your curriculum to be broad, balanced and ambitious? 
The KS3 curriculum draws on a broad and exciting selection of text types ranging from Victorian novels, through modern film and performance poetry to contemporary speeches.  All units are grounded in real world contexts that allow students to develop a greater understanding of the world they are growing up in.   

 

Our KS3 Book Club fosters a love of reading for pleasure and promotes important thinking and discussion of world issues, building students’ cultural capital and wider worldliness. Our KS3 curriculum is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills that will unlock success at the next stage of their learning journey. 

 

At KS4 students study both English Language and English Literature.  This broad curriculum encompasses nineteenth century fiction and non fiction, Shakespeare, Modern plays and poetry as well as units of work to develop students’ imaginative and transactional writing skills. Opportunities to study these subjects extends to Key Stage 5, whilst the Curriculum is designed to allow students to seamlessly transition throughout each key stage. 

Rationale  What is the rationale behind your curriculum design and ordering of content over time? 
Throughout all key stages, we aim to deliver, a high-quality, knowledge rich curriculum in which: 

 

  • Knowledge is delineated carefully, taught explicitly, and placed forensically to build over time 
  • Skills are taught deliberately and practised repeatedly as ‘know how’ 
  • Learning is assessed habitually, so as to be securely learned 
  • Pedagogy is designed to encode learning well. 
Equality  How is your curriculum accessible and purposeful for all students, including SEND, Disadvantaged and Higher Ability Learners? 
We believe that all students deserve access to a rich and demanding curriculum.  The methodical approach of our curriculum design and sequencing means that new knowledge is always laid onto secure foundations: students are able to draw on prior learning in order to ‘unlock’ bigger ideas as they progress.   

 

Excellent teaching by passionate subject experts across the department allows all students to flourish in a safe and purposeful learning environment. This is further supported by the use of student workbooks, which ensure that the curriculum is accessible and purposeful for all students. 

 

The English department provides dedicated and specialist on-going support for those students with SEND.  We aim to diagnose gaps in core literacy knowledge and address these directly through a carefully differentiated curriculum. 

Aims, Vision & Values  What is the aim of your curriculum and how does this support the aims and values of the school? 
The study of English is key to our personal growth and, through the development of effective written and spoken communication, it is the foundation for all our learning and for our understanding of the world around us.  The English Team are critically aware of the role they play in the developing literacy of our students.  We have planned an Eaton Bank English Curriculum that forges a continual interplay between the three areas of literacy: operational, cultural and critical. 

 

The study of English allows learners to be submerged in a vast array of texts that will challenge, inspire and excite them.  The curriculum offers a platform to a wide range of voices and experiences across different genders, cultures, religions, races and ethnicities.   

 

We aim to provide the students with the tools and knowledge needed to appreciate the beauty of language through exploration of the writer’s craft, whilst also supporting students in the discovery of their own voices. In turn this looks to inspire a love of reading and writing, which is beneficial across the school and supports the school’s values.    

Misconceptions  How do you address misconceptions in your subject to support students’ learning? 
Potential for misconception is built into planning and addressed through skilful questioning, modelling and carefully managed discussion.  All lessons are framed by a learning question meaning students are clear about the aim of the lesson.  Moreover, units of work are enhanced by pre-planned student workbooks in which we share the curriculum with learners, allowing them to look backwards or forwards in their learning journey. 

 

We also aim to make students problem solvers and as such build into our curriculum strategies to decode unknown and unfamiliar words by drawing on their existing knowledge of our language. These strategies help to form a basis for decoding vocabulary across the wider school curriculum. 

 

Importantly through a wide and inclusive study of Literature, we aim to address misconceptions about unfamiliar people and their lives and always hope to prove that there is always more that unites us than divides us, further expanding students’ cultural and societal understanding. 

 

English Curriculum Map


Meet the Teachers


Ms Lewis

Ms Davies

Mr Jenkins

Mrs Knott

Miss Parker

Miss Podmore