Divergent thinking<\/li><\/ul>At WPT, the English curriculum is ambitious and designed to inspire a love of reading. We believe that all students deserve the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills which allow them to read with confidence, write skilfully and become expert speakers. In order to do this, we select texts which are challenging for all and provide a rich knowledge base. We believe it is essential for students to read for both knowledge and pleasure. Every student reads a range of exceptional texts during their time at school, and these texts are used as a basis to improve students\u2019 reading, writing and oracy skills.<\/p>
Through these texts, our students develop rich knowledge of themes and concepts which are significant within the literary canon. To help our students develop these key skills, we embedded three core, driving concepts: Power, Relationships and Identity.<\/p>
Each text and topic has been chosen to help explicitly build a rich knowledge base for one of these concepts which we feel is vital in developing our students in English and, importantly, for the wider world.<\/p>
Each year, students will study new texts which build on one of these concepts whilst also retrieving previous knowledge through \u2018flashback\u2019 starters. Importantly, each new scheme also allows students to build on previous knowledge and aid their ability to analyse, evaluate and be divergent thinkers.<\/p>
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INTENTION 3 – Fostering personal attributes<\/h5>
Our English curriculum promotes the skills and attributes our students need in order to develop independence, responsibility, accountability and resilience, as well as becoming subject specialists. We refer to this crucial aspect of our curriculum intent as The English Way and it is embedded in everything we do.<\/p>
The English Way enables us to develop well-rounded individuals ready for the next stage of life after school. It is about embedding employability skills such as resilience, collaboration, communication, aspiration, responsibility, tolerance and respect in order for them to be an active participant in the local community and beyond.<\/p>
We are beginning to embed the English Way within our curriculum. We aim for it to be the language that we speak and key aspects of the English Way are as follows:<\/p>
- We read for pleasure and explore new texts<\/li>
- We adapt our writing style to meet the purpose<\/li>
- We strive to be an expert in characters and theme<\/li>
- We can scan text to quickly gain an overview<\/li>
- We explore texts carefully and search for meanings and ideas<\/li>
- We are imaginative and ambitious writers<\/li>
- We express our ideas in a thoughtful and respectful way<\/li>
- We communicate our ideas and listen to the ideas of others<\/li>
- We consider the techniques writers have used and the effect they have on the reader<\/li>
- We plan, proofread and edit our work carefully<\/li>
- We strive to use sophisticated vocabulary in our writing<\/li><\/ul>
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INTENTION 4 – Enriching student experiences and broadening their horizons<\/h5>
Our intent is that all students have a full understanding of how to develop themselves and we consider our text choices as being at the forefront and enriching students\u2019 experiences. Students are immersed in texts regularly and routinely. Over their time with us, students will read several novels, poems and plays, all of which have been selected to ensure students get the chance to:<\/p>
- Reflect on an important topic or theme<\/li>
- Gain knowledge of canonical texts<\/li>
- Participate in broad cultural conversations that texts often expose<\/li>
- Empathise with characters from different cultures, time periods and positions to themselves<\/li>
- Celebrate the rich literary heritage of Britain and different cultures<\/li>
- Gain a sense of cultural capital on a wide variety of topics<\/li>
- Explore theatre and performances through trips and visits<\/li>
- Celebrate the importance and joy of reading through World Book Day<\/li>
- Connections to other learning facilities in local areas, such as Grimm and Co.<\/li><\/ul>
Beyond this, we provide opportunities in our curriculum such as discussion, debate and evaluation which allow students to develop oracy skills and their ability to express themselves. This is especially evident in writing where we encourage students to have a voice in their writing and feel comfortable expressing their feelings, viewpoints and opinion through a range of text types or discussion.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t