In line with the QCA framework of personal, learning and thinking skills our intention is to ensure that our teaching fosters: independent enquiry, creative thinking, reflective learning, team work, self-management and effective participation. We work to ensure that students become readers “for the joy of it” (Cressida Cowell, children’s laureate, 2019) and have a genuine desire to enjoy the great literature the English language has to offer.

Key Stage 3 - We secure progression by consolidating, developing, and extending understanding, in reading, writing, and speaking and listening. The aim is that the layering of knowledge and concepts are secure so that pupils make progress in the curriculum from their starting points. The overarching intention is that pupils study a curriculum that is rich, broad and deep and which plays to the considerable strengths of the teachers within the Department. Teachers foster a love of learning in English and curiosity about language and literature. The use of core texts with supporting suggested satellite texts (across a range of modes) is designed to enrich students’ cultural capital, exposing them to aspects of art, science, history, philosophy, anthropology etc. We feel that this is one of our key strengths of the provision we offer.

Key Stage 4- To be able to understand and critically evaluate texts; make an informed personal and conceptual response, and write accurately, fluently, effectively and at length. Also for students to be able to speak confidently and effectively and respond in a critical and sensitive way to the ideas of others.

A-Level- To encourage learners to develop their interest in and enjoyment of literature and literary studies and particularly in the following ways:

• To read widely and independently both set texts and others

• To engage critically and creatively with a substantial body of texts and ways of responding to them

• To develop and effectively apply their knowledge of literary analysis and evaluation in writing

• To explore the contexts of the texts

At each Key Stage there is a programme of study shared by all classes so that for each half term, there is a clear topic and assessment point. Each topic has a corresponding scheme of work. At Key Stage 3, learners are assessed on reading, writing, and speaking and listening twice, over the course of each year. Thus there are clear methods to check what pupils know, can do and understand so that the right work is taught and informs teaching. Evidence is that within the framework of the curriculum outline, teachers are able to adapt/react to the needs of the individual learners throughout their time here.

At both Key Stage 3 & 4 the curriculum has been designed to focus on reading a wide range of high-quality, challenging, classic literature and extended literary non-fiction, e.g. essays, reviews and journalism. The range includes: a Shakespeare play every year in Years 7, 8 and 9, and a single Shakespeare play in Key Stage 4, prose; fiction and non-fiction from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, poetry since 1789, including representative Romantic poetry, and the opportunity to choose and read books independently for challenge, interest and enjoyment.

The curriculum is designed to be ambitious and reflect the subject knowledge and expertise of the teachers who deliver it. It considers the sequence of content necessary for pupils to make progress by increasing the challenge and sophistication of both the materials studied as well as the pedagogy.

Students arrive in Year 7 with relatively highly developed levels of English skills in Reading and Writing. Tiffin is a highly selective school with a multi-cultural ethos. To reflect this, the English schemes of work are designed to incorporate a variety of texts and perspectives designed to engage all students whilst developing their cultural capital.

The content of the curriculum (as well as the nature of the subject itself) allows a broad range of issues, perspectives, and ideas to be addressed and challenged.

For more detail please visit the parts of the site specific to each year or Key stage.