Curriculum Intent
1. Curriculum Design
- The ‘formal’ curriculum for English at Chailey School is designed to guide students to read, write and speak fluently in order to communicate and participate effectively with the world around them. As English underpins the entire curriculum, our aim is to instil a love of reading and all learning to support students to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.
- Key Stage 3 spans three years and Key Stage 4 spans two years
- To ensure that students from all backgrounds are able to access our curriculum we adopt:
Mixed ability classes; varied approaches to learning with appropriate differentiation – speaking, listening, reading, writing (different ways into texts); faster read approaches to texts; dyslexia-friendly classroom strategies; personalised homework; intervention as required.
2. Coherence and continuity
- The intent of the curriculum in English aligns with the overall curriculum intent of Chailey School
- By the end of Key Stage 3, students are expected to have developed cultural literacy which allows them to appreciate key issues in society such as power, oppression and gender. They should be able to discuss a range of ideas about texts and writer’s purposes, reading with enjoyment, fluency and understanding and be able to express themselves through their writing with accuracy and creativity.
- By the end of Key Stage 4, students who take the subject at GCSE level build upon their skills at KS3 and are also expected to conceptualise texts through synthesis with their cultural literacy and be able to use inference, analysis and discussion to explore varying perspectives.
- To achieve this, the curriculum in English follows a coherent sequence of lessons – knowledge, skills and understanding will be built on and applied in a cumulative manner.
- Testing of knowledge, skills and understanding, and effective feedback will support this through a formative and summative assessment for each unit of learning. There are opportunities for students to respond to feedback to make good progress.
3. The ‘Informal’ curriculum
- English contributes much to the school’s ‘informal’ curriculum – the experience and opportunity for students in English is not just about set of exam results.
- Key opportunities for this in Read for Good, Spelling Bee, Hooton Cup, creative writing competitions, poetry competitions, Southern Schools Book Award, Up for Debate, Literacy Ambassadors, whole school literacy days, public speaking ESU competitions, author visits, theatre trips and more.
4. Building character and values in the curriculum
- All subjects at Chailey School contribute towards building the character and values of its young people.
- This is achieved through our varied approaches to lessons in order to cultivate acceptance, kindness, creativity, compassion, curiosity, support and tolerance of others and diversity, self-confidence and self-respect, resilience, global and environmental awareness, independ
Skillswise - BBC Teach |
AQA – education charity providing GCSEs, A-levels and support |
Englishbiz - GCSE English and English Literature Revision Guides |
Oracy at Chailey School