Contact

Head of Department: Ms N. Dean

n.dean@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk

English Department Learning Journey

Powerful Knowledge

Powerful Knowledge in English is understanding that all texts you read or write have a wider message and that these messages are universal and formed over many years.

Curriculum Intent

The English curriculum at The Kingsway School is designed with a thematic approach, providing students with a challenging, diverse curriculum that embeds and develops conceptual level thinking throughout. Our commitment is to inspire our students to use their study of writing and texts as a stimulus to question and explore big ideas and societal issues in the world around them, fostering a natural curiosity and love of the subject. Our curriculum provides students with a diverse knowledge base, accessed through a range of texts that mirror the diversity of our school community, and a rich source of cultural capital that goes beyond the texts that they study and equips them with powerful knowledge they can use in later life.

Across Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4, students encounter: a play, a novel, a Shakespeare text, a literary genre, a style of writing, a poetry anthology, and a range of non-fiction texts, exposing them to a full breadth of literary forms. In addition, English throughout all stages builds on prior knowledge and skills, allowing for continuous revisiting and mastery of core content and skills in each year, with the aim of preparing our students with a multitude of transferable skills for their futures beyond The Kingsway School.

Our dedication and passion lies within using the study of English to support the personal development of our students, equipping them with an ability to not only achieve their full potential but also to understand, engage with, and challenge the world around them.


Key Stage 3

The curriculum experience at Key Stage 3 is underpinned by our thematic approach, where each year group has a ‘big conceptual question’, with all texts and writing styles linked to exploring this question. This enables our students to revise and revisit similar universal themes, deepen their understanding of them, and develop their inquiry minds.

Year 7 and 8 run as a ‘two year course’ that builds on from knowledge and skills taught at KS2, nurturing these to evolve them into core essential knowledge and skills required for the eventual study of GCSE. Our assessment approach is designed in a cumulative format, so each skill is delivered progressively throughout Year 7 and then revisited in Year 8, enabling the mastery of these skills. Year 9 builds on Years 7 & 8, with a cumulative format of teaching and assessment, to deepen our students’ essential knowledge and allow them to transition smoothly into their GCSE course.

Year 7: Myths and Magic
The Girl of Ink and Stars (Novel)
Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror (Novel) (Gothic Literature)
Greek Mythology (Creative Writing)
The Tempest (Shakespeare)
Revision and Intervention (Creative Writing & The Tempest)
Myths and Magic Poetry Anthology and Learning Review

Year 8: Conflict and Identity
Noughts and Crosses (play)
The Hunger Games (Novel) (Dystopian Literature)
Aristotelian Triad (Non-Fiction Writing)
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
Revision and Intervention (Non-Fiction Writing & Romeo and Juliet)
Conflict and Identity Poetry Anthology and Learning Review

Year 9: Power and Society
Blood Brothers (Play)
Animal Farm (Novel)
Disney (Persuasive Writing)
Hamlet (Shakespeare)
Revision and Intervention (Persuasive Writing & Hamlet)
Powerful Women Anthology and Learning Review

Key Stage 4

Similarly to Key Stage 3, our KS4 curriculum is underpinned by our thematic approach, where both year groups have a ‘big conceptual question’ that allows our students to make connections and use set texts to explore important and wider ideas in society. Students follow the AQA specification and sit both English Language and English Literature at the end of the course. Our commitment to Key Stage 4 students is to not only prepare them for the requirements of their GCSE examinations but to also equip them with knowledge and skills to use in later life.

Year 10: Social Justice
Language Paper 1
A Christmas Carol (Novel)
An Inspector Calls (Play)
Revision and Intervention
Spoken Language
Unseen Poetry

Year 11: Power and Conflict
Macbeth (Shakespeare)
Language Paper 2
Power and Conflict Poetry
Revision and Intervention