Curriculum aims
Learning and undertaking activities in English contribute to achievement
of the curriculum aims for all young people to become:
- successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve
- confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling
lives
- responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.
The importance of English
English is vital for communicating with others in school and in the wider
world, and is fundamental to learning in all curriculum subjects. In studying
English pupils develop skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing
that they will need to participate in society and employment. Pupils learn
to express themselves creatively and imaginatively and to communicate with
others confidently and effectively. Literature in English is rich and influential.
It reflects the experience of people from many countries and times and contributes
to our sense of cultural identity. Pupils learn to become enthusiastic and
critical readers of stories, poetry and drama as well as non-fiction and
media texts, gaining access to the pleasure and world of knowledge that
reading offers. Looking at the patterns, structures origins and conventions
of English helps pupils understand how language works. Using this understanding,
pupils can choose and adapt what they say and write in different situations
as well as appreciate and interpret the choices
made by other writers and speakers(IE5 consider the influence of circumstances,
beliefs and feelings on decisions and events).
Key concepts
There are a number of key concepts that underpin the study of English.
Pupils need to understand these concepts in order to deepen and broaden
their knowledge, skills and understanding. These essential concepts promote
pupils' progress in speaking and listening, reading and writing.
Competence
- Being clear, coherent and accurate in spoken and written communication.
- Reading and understanding a range of texts, and responding appropriately.
- Demonstrating a secure understanding of the conventions of written language
including grammar, spelling and punctuation.
- Being adaptable in a widening range of familiar and unfamiliar contexts
within the classroom and beyond.
- Making informed choices about effective ways to communicate formally
and informally.
Creativity
- Drawing on a rich experience of language and literature to make fresh
connections between ideas, experiences, texts and words.
- Using inventive approaches to making meaning, taking risks, playing
with language and using it to make new effects.
- Using imagination to convey themes, ideas and arguments, and create
settings, moods and characters.
Cultural understanding
- Gaining a sense of the English literary heritage and engaging
with important texts in it (IE3 explore issues, events or problems from
different perspectives).
- Exploring how ideas, experiences and values
are portrayed differently (IE3 explore issues, events or problems from
different perspectives) in texts from a range of cultures and traditions.
- Understanding how English varies locally
and globally, and how these variations relate to identity and cultural
diversity (IE5 consider the influence of circumstances, beliefs and feelings
on decisions and events).
Critical understanding
- Engaging with ideas and texts, understanding and responding to the main
issues and developing their own views.
- Analysing and evaluating spoken and written
language (IE4 analyse and evaluate information, judging its relevance
and value) to appreciate how meaning is shaped.
Key processes
These are the essential skills and processes in English that pupils need
to learn to make progress.
Speaking and listening
Pupils should be able to:
- present information and points of view clearly and appropriately in
different contexts, adapting talk for a range of purposes and audiences,
including the more formal
- use a range of ways to structure and organise their speech to support
their purposes and guide the listener
- vary vocabulary, structures and grammar to convey meaning, including
speaking standard English fluently
- engage an audience, using a range of techniques to explore, enrich and
explain their ideas
- listen and respond constructively to others, taking different views
into account and modifying their own views in the light of what others
say
- understand explicit and implicit meanings
- make different kinds of relevant contributions in groups, responding
appropriately to others, proposing ideas and asking questions
- take different roles in the organisation, planning and sustaining of
talk in groups
- sift, summarise and use the most important
points (IE4 analyse and evaluate information, judging its relevance and
value)
- use different dramatic approaches to explore
ideas, texts and issues (IE3 explore issues, events or problems from different
perspectives)
- use different dramatic techniques to convey action, character, atmosphere
and tension
- explore the ways that words, actions, sound
and staging combine to create dramatic moments (IE3 explore issues, events
or problems from different perspectives).
Reading
Reading for meaning
Pupils should be able to:
- extract and interpret information (IE4 analyse
and evaluate information, judging its relevance and value), events,
main points and ideas from texts
- infer and deduce meanings recognising the writers' intentions
- understand how meaning is constructed within
sentences and across texts as a whole (IE4 analyse and evaluate information,
judging its relevance and value)
- select and compare information from different texts
- assess the usefulness of texts, sift the
relevant from the irrelevant and distinguish between fact and opinion
(IE4 analyse and evaluate information, judging its relevance and value)
- recognise and discuss different interpretations of texts, justifying
their own views on what they read and see, and supporting them with evidence
(IE6 support conclusions, using reasoned argument and evidence)
- understand how audiences and readers choose and respond to texts
- understand how the nature and purpose of
texts influences the selection of content and its meanings (IE5 consider
the influence of circumstances, beliefs and feelings on decisions and
events)
- understand how meaning is created through the combination of words,
images and sounds in multi-modal texts.
The author's craft
Pupils should be able to understand and comment on:
- how texts are crafted to shape meaning and produce particular effects
- how writers structure and organise different
texts, including non-linear and multi-modal (IE4 analyse and evaluate
information, judging its relevance and value)
- how writers' uses of language and rhetorical,
grammatical and literary features influence the reader (IE4 analyse and
evaluate information, judging its relevance and value)
- how writers present ideas and issues (IE5
consider the influence of circumstances, beliefs and feelings on decisions
and events) to have an impact on the reader
- how form, layout and presentation contribute to effect
- how themes are explored in different texts
(IE3 explore issues, events or problems form different perspectives).
Writing
Composition
Pupils should be able to:
- write clearly and coherently, including an appropriate level of detail
- write imaginatively, creatively and thoughtfully, producing texts that
interest and engage the reader
- generate and harness new ideas and develop them in their writing
- adapt style and language appropriately for a range of forms, purposes
and readers
- maintain consistent points of view in fiction and non-fiction writing
- use imaginative vocabulary and varied linguistic and literary techniques
to achieve particular effects
- structure their writing to support the purpose of the task and guide
the reader
- use clearly demarcated paragraphs to organise meaning
- use complex sentences to extend, link and develop ideas
- vary sentence structure, for interest, effect and subtleties of meaning
- consider what the reader needs to know and include relevant details
- use formal and impersonal language and concise expression
- develop logical arguments and cite evidence
(IE6 support conclusions, using reasoned arguments and evidence)
- use persuasive techniques and rhetorical devices
- form their own view, taking into account
a range of evidence and opinions (IE6 support conclusions, using reasoned
arguments and evidence)
- present material clearly, using appropriate layout, illustrations and
organisation
- use planning, drafting, editing, proofreading and self-evaluation to
shape and craft their writing for maximum effect
- summarise and take notes
- write legibly, with fluency and, when required, speed.
Technical accuracy
Pupils should be able to:
- use the conventions of standard English effectively
- use grammar accurately in a variety of sentence types, including subject-verb
agreement and correct and consistent use of tense
- signal sentence structure by the effective use of the full range of
punctuation marks to clarify meaning
- spell correctly, increasing their knowledge of regular patterns of spelling,
word families, roots of words and derivations, including prefixes, suffixes,
inflections.
Range and content
This section outlines the breadth of the subject on which teachers should
draw when teaching the key concepts and key processes.
The study of English should enable pupils to apply their knowledge, skills
and understanding to relevant real world situations
Language structure and variation
The study of English should include, across speaking and listening, reading
and writing:
- the principles of sentence grammar and whole-text cohesion, and the
use of this knowledge in their writing
- variations in written standard English and
how it differs from spoken language (IE3 explore issues, events or problems
from different perspectives)
- the significance of standard English as the main language of public
communication nationally and globally
- influences on spoken and written language,
including the impact of technology (IE4 analyse and evaluate information,
judging its relevance and value).
Speaking and listening
The range of speaking and listening activities should include:
- prepared, formal presentations and debates
- informal group or pair discussions
- individual and group improvisation and performance
- devising, scripting and performing plays.
The range of purposes for speaking and listening should include describing,
instructing, narrating, explaining, justifying, persuading, entertaining,
hypothesising, and exploring, shaping and expressing ideas, feelings and
opinions.
Reading
The texts chosen should be:
- of high quality, among the best of their type, that will encourage pupils
to appreciate their characteristics and how, in
some cases, they have influenced culture and thinking (IE5 consider the
influence of circumstances , beliefs and feelings on decisions and events)
- interesting and engaging, allowing pupils
to explore their present situation or move beyond to experience different
times, cultures, viewpoints and situations (IE3 explore issues, events
or problems from different perspectives
- challenging, using language imaginatively to create new meanings and
effects, encouraging pupils to try such writing for themselves.
The range of literature studied should include:
- stories, poetry and drama drawn from different historical times, including
contemporary writers
- texts that enable pupils to understand the appeal and importance over
time of texts from the English literary heritage.
The range of texts studied should include works by the following pre-twentieth
century writers: Jane Austen, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Blake,
Charlotte Brönte, Robert Burns, Geoffrey Chaucer, Kate Chopin, John Clare,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Eliot,
Thomas Gray, Thomas Hardy, John Keats, John Masefield, Alexander Pope,
Christina Rossetti, William Shakespeare (sonnets), Mary Shelley, Robert
Louis Stevenson, Jonathan Swift, Alfred Lord Tennyson, HG Wells, Oscar
Wilde, Dorothy Wordsworth and William Wordsworth
- texts that enable pupils to appreciate the qualities and distinctiveness
of texts from different cultures and traditions
- at least one play by Shakespeare.
The range of non-fiction and non-literary texts studied should include:
- forms such as journalism, travel writing, essays, reportage, literary
non-fiction and multi-modal texts including film
- purposes such as to instruct, inform, explain, describe, analyse, review,
discuss and persuade.
Writing
In their writing pupils should:
- develop ideas, themes, imagery, settings and/or characters when writing
to imagine, explore and entertain
- analyse and evaluate subject matter, supporting
views and opinions with evidence (IE6 support conclusions, using reasoned
arguments and evidence)
- present ideas and views logically and persuasively
- explain or describe information and ideas relevantly and clearly.
The forms for such writing should be drawn from different kinds of stories,
poems, play scripts, autobiographies, screenplays, diaries, minutes, accounts,
information leaflets, plans, summaries, brochures, advertisements, editorials,
articles and letters conveying opinions, campaign literature, polemics,
reviews, commentaries, articles, essays and reports.
Curriculum opportunities
During the key stage pupils should be offered the following opportunities
that are integral to their learning and enhance their engagement with the
concepts, processes and content of the subject.
Speaking and listening
The curriculum should provide opportunities for pupils to:
- experiment with a range of approaches, produce different outcomes and
play with language
- engage in specific activities that develop speaking and listening skills
- use speaking and listening to develop their reading and writing
- evaluate and respond constructively to their own and others' performances
- make extended contributions, individually and in groups
- develop speaking and listening skills through work that makes cross-curricular
links with other subjects
- watch live performances in the theatre wherever possible to appreciate
how action, character, atmosphere, tension and themes are conveyed
- participate actively in drama workshops and discuss with actors, playwrights
and directors the impact and meaning of different ways of performing and
staging drama wherever possible
- speak and listen in contexts beyond the classroom.
Reading
The curriculum should provide opportunities for pupils to:
- develop independence in reading
- engage with whole texts for sustained periods
- develop reading skills through work that makes cross-curricular links
with other subjects
- meet and talk with other readers and writers wherever possible
- become involved in events and activities that inspire reading
- discuss reading interests and preferences, and sustain individual reading
for pleasure.
Writing
The curriculum should provide opportunities for pupils to:
- develop independence in writing
- produce extended writing to develop their ideas in depth and detail
- play with language and explore different ways of discovering and shaping
their own meanings
- move beyond their current situation and take on different roles and
viewpoints
- evaluate and respond constructively to their own and others' writing
- draw on their reading and knowledge of linguistic and literary forms
when composing their writing
- develop writing skills through work that makes cross-curricular links
with other subjects
- work in sustained and practical ways with writers where possible to
learn about the art, craft and discipline of writing
- write for contexts and purposes beyond the classroom.
