English
Curriculum Intent
The English Department at New Forest Academy strives to foster a love of language and literature through a varied and exciting mixture of texts and creative writing. Students learn how to enjoy, explore, analyse, and synthesise a wide variety of texts, both modern and from the literary canon. We aim to nurture critical thinking and allow students to see how language and literature help both to shape and portray the world in which we live. We also want students to be enriched and inspired by the writers they study, which is why we have recently developed the curriculum to include a novel penned by a previous student of the school Alex Bell.
Students learn how to develop their own written voice, whilst still learning the necessary skills within grammatical and technical structures. We encourage students to use a wide variety of vocabulary in order to most effectively and efficiently manipulate language to create meaning in both fiction and non-fiction writing. Through reading and analysing a wide variety of texts, students learn powerful ways to ensure that their expression and tone can be matched to audience and purpose. We encourage creativity and imagination throughout the curriculum to help students to gain a creative flair in a wide variety of styles.
Throughout the course, students will learn how poetry can, so beautifully, elegantly and succinctly, convey such depth. Students will read poetry from a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds and appreciate how structure and language can be so skillfully manipulated in order to create meaning.
Through the study of Shakespeare, which is interwoven throughout the course, students learn to reflect on the cultural significance of the works, the challenging nature of the language he used, as well as the universal themes expressed in his writing.
Embedded throughout the curriculum, students learn to appreciate the power of spoken language and through discussion, group work and even through formal presentations, students learn the importance of rhetoric and discover how to express themselves thoughtfully, freely and openly.
We provide regular and effective feedback to our students in order to help them to excel. We allow students time and the means with which to effectively edit and make improvements to their own work and to each others’.
Our five year plan will give you an overview of the course with hyperlinks to more detailed medium term plans which will demonstrate how key skills are being taught.
Please click on the document links below to view our Curriculum Maps for English.