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» The English Department Team
» Curriculum Intent
The English Team
Curriculum Leader
Ms M Paskell mpaskell@thacademy.me
Teachers of English
- Mrs P Blackstock-Barnaby
- Miss C Clayton
- Mr R Cooper
- Mrs B Davis-Royal
- Ms N Doyle
- Mr R Duhaney
- Mr G Gibson
- Ms S James
- Mrs E Jefford
- Miss E Kitter
- Ms M Paskell
- Ms E Walker
Curriculum intent
COGNITION CURRICULUM
Our over-riding aim is to ensure that each student, whatever their ability, should reach their full potential and aim to develop all the skills that make up our AVA curriculum. Developing students’ English and Literacy skills is, of course, fundamental to unlocking their potential across the Core and Culture curriculums and beyond into the world of work. The English Department strives to foster a positive attitude towards English by presenting it as an interesting, creative, challenging and useful subject – and this is where the Cognition curriculum supports this aspiration.
Students will become fluent, independent and critical readers of all kinds of texts (resilience), who question and reflect on what they have read (recall and reflectiveness) and who enjoy reading for pleasure. Students will study a variety of texts to explore language and meaning, to acquire information (resourcefulness), gain further insight into their own and other cultures, and to extend their personal and social awareness (reciprocation).
Students will become confident, articulate writers who understand that writing is a means of learning, shaping experience, exploring ideas and language, and expressing ideas and feelings (reciprocation). Students will be able to write for a variety of purposes and audiences (resourcefulness) and will learn to appreciate the benefits of drafting, redrafting and proof-reading (resilience).
Students will recognise the power of talk as a means of exploring language and ideas, persuading, and gaining confidence (resilience). Students will learn to be good listeners, able to appreciate the views of others as well as articulating their own (reciprocation).
CULTURE CURRICULUM
Students will become fluent, independent and critical readers of all kinds of texts who question and reflect on what they have read and who enjoy reading for pleasure. Students will study a variety of texts to explore language and meaning, to acquire information, gain further insight into their own and other cultures, and to extend their personal and social awareness. Within the scope of the Culture curriculum, students will watch live theatre, have opportunities to hear from authors about their work and consider the Christian context (or other) (Collective worship) in which texts were written and read. Extracurricular opportunities abound in English, from after school clubs that focus on Literature through film, book groups and reading clubs to remote learning activities and competitions that allow students to push their English beyond the confines of what is covered in the classroom.
CORE CURRICULUM
Reading is the foundation of learning at Aylesbury Vale Academy; it provides our students with an essential life skill that they need succeed in their future life. We endeavour to provide outstanding reading experiences that will support personal development, build character and expand cultural capital.
Teaching students to become fluent readers with skills of comprehension, inference, and summary is prioritised along with expanding their vocabulary and life experiences through texts. But we also want students to enjoy reading; reading for pleasure is as important as reading to learn. Therefore, reading is not just the bedrock of the academic curriculum, but also a crucial part of our work on students’ personal development. To this end, our reading curriculum is structured around six core principles:
- Supporting Staff in having the skills and knowledge they need to teach students to become successful readers.
- Teaching the Reading Curriculum at every opportunity by ensuring that each Phase, Key Stage and Curriculum Area makes use of the same approach.
- Focusing on entitlement – every student deserves the chance to become a successful reader through a variety of different opportunities.
- Creating an inspiring environment for reading; this includes classroom and corridor displays, the libraries and virtual/online platforms.
- Targeting resources to ensure that a range of reading material is available to suit all tastes and abilities.
- Rewarding reading – both at school and through communications home to engage parents with the success students are having with reading.
We are committed to raising standards of literacy for all: the development of literacy skills is central to a young person’s life chances. Literacy is viewed as the three separate but interlinking strands of reading, writing and oracy; success in these three areas will allow pupils to unlock their potential.
Literacy should be promoted throughout all areas of the curriculum in a consistent and efficient manner. Quality first teaching and teaching of literacy go hand in hand and this should be tailored to students’ specific needs. We aim to ensure that:
- Enhancing students’ language will enhance their subject learning
- All subjects make a specific contribution to developing students’ literacy skills
- All teaching contributes to students’ development of language as oracy, listening, reading and writing
- Reading helps students to learn beyond their immediate experience
- Writing helps students to sustain and order thought
- Language helps students to reflect, revise and evaluate what they do, and on the things others have said, written or done.
At many points during the English curriculum, references to other strands of the Core curriculum will be made, whether it be links to harmful relationships and mental health (PSHE), analysis of rhythm and meter in poetry (Numeracy and Music) or connecting a text to its various contexts (History, Geography, MFL to name a few).
Careers in the Curriculum
Lessons are occasionally linked to careers in an explicit way, where the transferable skills developed are connected with areas of employment such as law, politics, media, leadership and management, publishing and marketing. More frequently, lessons are linked to careers in a more implicit way; students work towards becoming better citizens, embracing the British Values.