Our pupils are very special. They come to our school in East London from all over the world, some as recently as last week, and speak over 65 languages between them. They are bright, articulate, and incredibly motivated to create a space for themselves in the world from what may sometimes look from the outside to be difficult starting points.

At the end of last year when we were asked to consider what our ‘intent’ was for our subject, we asked ourselves what we thought we wanted our pupils to get out of studying English in our school. None of us said that we wanted them to be able to ‘explode quotations’ or ‘use PETER effectively in extended writing’, or any of the other criteria that has come to define what successful English work looks like; our aspirations lay in something less tangible. We knew that we were getting results, pupils were making progress within the parameters of grades and levels, but we were worried that we weren’t doing enough to support independence, thoughtfulness and critical engagement with literature specifically and English generally. We wanted pupils to be able to use books to speak to their own experiences and ideas and use this to help them articulate it for themselves.

It was from this desire to ‘reclaim our subject’ that we began to seek out alternative ways of teaching English, which led us to the work that the EMC are doing on critical literacy. This, we thought, was what we were aiming for – not studying about a text but engaging with a text.

We have twelve Year 9 classes, who are taught in mixed ability groups. We have begun teaching theme In The Sea There Are Crocodiles following the model piloted by Mayfield. Our hope is that the lessons we learn about how to promote critical literacy and deep engagement with texts can then be increasingly employed with other year groups, so that by the time our current Year 7 pupils reach Key Stage 4, it will be deeply embedded within their understanding of learning as a process which is not done to them but is owned by them.

With this new way of teaching, teachers have spent a lot of time reading the blog, going over intended learning schemes, conversing with Lucy (the creator of this style of teaching from EMC) and working with Ms Mellies, a teacher at KCS that has done a lot of research into this project. This style promotes autonomy of learning and control of the lesson so all teachers are teaching very differently and respond to pupil voices. It is because of this that no directed lessons or homework is set ahead of time, but that it is set as lessons progress.

Students will still complete weekly assessment and have detailed lessons so please ensure that your child catches up with their learning following any absences.

Book summary and questions we had whilst we were reading