English

Our collective departmental vision for English at Gravesend Grammar School is focused on a shared desire to raise the achievement of all pupils, at each of the Key Stages, through a consistent, progressive yet reiterative curriculum that enables pupils to grow personally and academically through an improved understanding of language and literature, shared culture and the wider world in which we live. At the centre of this philosophy is the pupil. We aspire to make every lesson, for every pupil, engaging and challenging thereby allowing each pupil to enjoy their own personal growth and development through stimulation, enhanced knowledge and awareness and, ultimately, increased self-esteem. We wish to create a culture of seeking mastery amongst our students as well as challenging our students to grow as independent learners.

With our shared vision in mind, we, as a department, are constantly striving to improve all aspects of English teaching. We understand the need to create a linked-up curriculum that moves students through a coherent journey of skills and texts from Y7 to Y11 and then launching them onwards into Y12/13. Schemes of Work are reviewed and rewritten regularly. The purpose is to ensure that lessons in all of the Key Stages are up-to-date, thematic, enquiry-focused, skills-based, consistent and differentiated (by ability and learning style). We believe that pupils make progress in English by using active learning strategies which are challenging but accessible. We understand the need to challenge our students and strive to do so with our text choices and the subjects we challenge students to both write about and present in speaking activities.

Communication is at the centre of all our lives. The English Department is committed to building an English classroom that will produce young people who can articulate their ideas well; verbally and in writing. We understand that literature offers students the opportunity to understand themselves by examining the world around them. For this reason, we are able to make every branch of literature meaningful; we study vocabulary to become better articulators; we study grammar to become more efficient writers; we study literature to understand how authors use words and sentences to create meaning. At all levels, the English Department is looking to make English teaching a meaningful process, one that will encourage lifelong learning and appreciation for the written word. The English Department must take a lead role in fostering Communication for Meaning skills across the entire school and a lead role in demonstrating what is meant by writing fluency and technical accuracy.

At Keystage 3 we want:

· Everything we do at KS3 to link or progress into a skill/assessment activity at KS4

· Progression needs to be made clear to teachers/students

. To aim for 2-levels of progress over the Keystage

· More opportunity for stretch/challenge

· To remember that reading is important - Accelerated Reader

· To help students to explore a range of writing genres: letters,reports,paragraph

structures, essay skills,sentence structures,etc

· To remind students that texts are important: GCSE requires Poetry (modern/heritage),

Modern Drama, Shakespeare, Modern novel & ‘culture’ novel

To never forget that an enjoyment of English is most important

At Keystage 4 we want:

To have the freedom to teach topics that are not in the exam

To provide students opportunities to learn outside of lessons

To continue to encourage a love of reading and writing

To foster fluency, precision and technical accuracy in both writing and speech

To challenge students to aim higher and attain top grades

To create potential A-Level students

To ensure that no student gets left behind

At Keystage 5 we want:

To provide opportunities for students to work independently

To provide opportunities to learn outside of the classroom

To encourage a love of literature and encourage students to read widely

To introduce a university inspired, seminar-style of learning

To challenge students to produce excellent (60/60) coursework responses

To encourage students to continue their English education at top UK universities