English Department Curriculum Journey 2023 - 2024
At Montgomery we strive to instil an enjoyment and love for reading in our students as reading matters at Montgomery. In English lessons, students explore a wide range of both nonfiction and fiction texts, participate in role-plays, analysis, prediction work and comparisons alongside a wealth of other activities in order to engage with texts from a wide range of historical periods.
The department aims to provide students with access to texts from across the ages, widening their cultural knowledge by exploring contexts as they do so. This will also allow students to both understand and critique a wide variety of ideas and perspectives, allowing for cross-curricular links and helping to develop their academic progress across the academy. Furthermore, a culturally rich breadth of texts fosters an appreciation of British culture and identity as students strive to find their place within society.
We encourage students who require additional reading intervention to participate in the Accelerated Reader programme and once they have finished a text, students complete quizzes in order to record their understanding of the texts read and teaching staff will then provide recommendations of what to read next. All year groups have access to the library in order to borrow books as required, as well as access our online eLibrary via the school website.
Students’ study of authorial craft will develop the foundations built throughout Key Stage 2, with their studies influenced by the Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 National Curriculum. Across their English curriculum journey, students will study and revisit authorial intent, writer’s craft and technical accuracy. The knowledge and understanding gained from these three areas will then provide students with the skills they need in order to produce their own purposeful extended writing.
Becoming debaters, persuaders, advisers and entertainers, students will write for a number of different purposes, not only to equip them for their GCSEs, but also for the rest of their lives. Included at various intervals on their English curriculum journey, students will be asked to write speeches, letters, articles, leaflets, essays, descriptions and narratives, taking into consideration a variety of different audiences and situations, and therefore learning to adapt and extend their language and vocabulary appropriately.
Whilst increasing their confidence in writing, students will in turn become more confident working and debating with the peers in their class. Students will learn to manipulate the spoken word to fit a number of different purposes, in both formal and informal settings.
As our pupils enter into Key Stage 4, they will continue to study many well-loved classics, as well as emerging literature, to support them in their journey of critical thinking. Amongst these, our pupils will read for meaning the following texts: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, An Inspector Calls, A Christmas Carol and an anthology of Poetry linking to power and conflict. The messages of these texts transcend time and therefore provide our students with relevant and moral messages. Our pupils will also study a myriad of fiction and nonfiction texts to solidify their knowledge and skills which we foster in Key Stage 3: authorial craft, the writer’s intent and technical accuracy.
Outside of lessons, we also run poetry, writing and reviewing competitions. We arrange trips to theatres, in-house performances and visits from authors and poets to conduct workshops with select students in order to deepen their cultural capital. Homework is set weekly, aiming to give students the opportunity to learn the core knowledge encountered in class, practise skills of reading and writing and improve their spelling, punctuation and grammar.
