English at RPA

"I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine."

Emily Dickinson

English at Richmond Park Academy

RPA English fosters social equality and opportunity through erudition in the art of verbal and written communication and world of literature. We craft intellectually demanding lessons allowing students to explore key ideas, diverse voices and styles of literature through the ages so they understand the impact of modern culture and are able to analyse language and its impact. Students experience a range of texts, deconstruct them for layers of meaning and analyse them to develop their own writing style while engaging with arising ethical principles and the writers’ contexts. Our curriculum journey is mapped with logical links to build key skills including recall, inference, deduction and contextualised analysis.

Who's who in the team

Ms M Money - Teacher of English and Achievement Director English Faculty

Ms E Jacka - Teacher of English and Second in charge/KS3 Coordinator English Faculty

Ms E Belejova - Teacher of English and EAL Coordinator

Mr J Charlton - Teacher of English and Subject Lead A Level Government & Politics

Ms C Worthington - Teacher of English and Head of Year 7

Ms F Hachich - Teacher of English

Ms P Johal - Assistant Principal and Teacher of English

Ms Z Lindsey - Teacher of English and Head of Year 7

Ms L Oglesby - Teacher of English

We believe the skills students learn in English are crucial to success at school and in future life. The aim of the English department is to work successfully as a team to create and deliver a stimulating, varied and challenging curriculum for all our students. We want our students to enjoy their lessons, and we aim to create an environment which will foster a love of literature, debate and discussion.

We work closely with the librarian to promote reading through the Accelerated Reading Programme; we know that able readers tend to be high achievers. Therefore, as English teachers, we give independent reading a high profile and monitor student participation in the scheme.

We have a wide stock of texts to engage our readers and continue to review and update this at KS3. At GCSE our students are encouraged to purchase their own texts to annotate and make notes in preparation for terminal exams.

Key Stage 3

Year 7 to 9 are taught in mixed ability groups. Text choices and approaches to learning are designed to build core skills that will be eventually examined at Key stage 4. The curriculum has recently been re-worked to ensure that the tenets of 'Exploration', 'Experience' and 'Ethical Principles' form the basis of how content is delivered and that the texts covered are diverse and culturally rich. We track students across the key stage against the AET 'age-related expectations' to ensure progress in reading and writing.

Year 7

In Year 7 students have four 80-minute lessons over the weekly timetable. Some classes may have two teachers for English. The curriculum is divided into thematic ‘units’, offering opportunities for different genres of reading and writing for a range of purposes. The curriculum covers:

Year 8

Year 8 students currently have four 80-minute lessons each week. Text choices offer suitable challenge and scope for wider reading and development with an increasing emphasis on the writer's craft:

Year 9

Year 9 students also have four 80-minute lessons each week. The curriculum has been planned to challenge students in the lead up to GCSE both in terms of the Literature and Language AQA specifications. Their assessments at this point will be GCSE style.

All Key Stage 3 classes spend one of their weekly lessons in either the library, in support of our Accelerated Reader Programme, or in class for either Creative Writing or Let's Think In English, developing engagement, inference and oracy through group work on texts.

Key Stage 4

Year 10

At Richmond Park Academy our students follow the AQA specification for English Language and Literature. They obtain two equally weighted, separate GCSEs in these subjects but study them together in a combined curriculum, with four 80-minute lessons over the two weeks.

Year 11

Our current Year 11 students are completing the final year of the two-year GCSE course for AQA English Language and Literature. GCSE English language is assessed by two exams and GCSE English Literature also has two papers. The students complete their Literature set texts this year reading:

KS5 at RPA allows students to take their appreciation of Literature further, exploring critical perspectives to texts and drilling down into the complexities of Tragedy and Social and Political protest writing.

What we do when

Year 7

A Christmas Carol (Victorian Gothic, 19th Century text), Myths & Legends and Dystopian Fiction (Class text: The Hunger Games)

Year 8

Gothic Literature, Shakespeare’s Villains and Villainous Monologues (Poetry) and The Hate U Give (Class text)

Year 9

American Literature (Class text: Of Mice and Men and assorted American extracts and poetry), Short Stories and Romeo & Juliet (Tragedy)

Year 10

An Inspector Calls (Modern text), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (19th Century text) and Power and Conflict Anthology Poetry

Year 11

The Tragedy of Macbeth (Shakespeare), reteach of Year 10 texts, creative writing skills, unseen poetry practice and exam skills/ practice

Year 12

Tragedy (Shakespeare’s Othello, Keats’ poems and Miller’s Death of a Salesman)

Year 13

Political and Social Protest Writing (Atwood’s The Handmaid’s tale, Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience and Hosseini’s The Kite Runner) There is a Non- Examination coursework component where students explore critical lenses to texts of their choice. 

Please see the KS3 and 4 overviews for further information below

Who to contact

Marisa Money - Achievement Director English Faculty - mmoney@richmondparkacademy.org

Future Careers