The English Faculty at Emerson Park Academy are an experienced and enthusiastic team. Our primary aims are to ensure that our pupils have the necessary skills to tackle the new and more challenging GCSE examinations and can use the English language with competence and confidence in the world beyond school.  At the same time, we hope to encourage in all pupils a love of reading and an interest in and enjoyment of all types of literature through a broad and enriching curriculum.

Key Stage 3 English

During Year 7 and Year 8, pupils follow a programme of study which develops and enriches previous study at KS2. Our curriculum is designed to allow pupils to read a wide range of engaging fiction and non-fiction texts, allowing opportunities to enhance their ability to infer and deduce using appropriately selected evidence. Pupils also develop their analytical skills by considering the impact of a writer’s choice of vocabulary, imagery and sentence structure. They are encouraged to explore themes and to recognise how texts reflect the social, cultural and historical context in which they were written.

Core literacy skills are embedded at every opportunity in writing schemes, allowing pupils to improve their control and accuracy at sentence, paragraph and whole text level. An emphasis on writing using Standard English is promoted and pupils will learn to write in a range of styles. They will have opportunities to produce original descriptive writing including short stories and formal texts such as informative articles. Pupils are taught to tailor their writing for audience and purpose and to develop sophistication in their writing.

During Year 9, our aim is to start to provide pupils with the necessary skills for undertaking the new and more challenging GCSE English Language and Literature examinations. The Year 9 curriculum aims to introduce pupils to a greater range of classic literature including novels, short stories and plays.  In the final term, we begin our study of poems from the AQA GCSE English Literature Anthology. Greater emphasis is placed on enhancing pupils’ analytical skills and beginning to compare writers’ methods.

Pupils will continue to focus on the quality of their writing. They will begin to study the techniques of persuasion; exploring a range of renowned speeches before going on to write and perform their own persuasive arguments.

Key Stage 4 English

During Year 10 and 11, pupils at Emerson Park Academy are prepared for the AQA English Language and English Literature GCSE examinations. This course introduces them to a variety of writers as well as giving them confidence in their own written and spoken communications.

• All pupils develop skills in reading and responding to a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts and writing for a variety of purposes.

• They continue to study classic and contemporary novels, plays by Shakespeare and other writers as well as heritage and modern poetry.

• Speaking and listening skills are developed through debating and presenting projects in preparation for their spoken language unit.

 

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