English

Curriculum Vision:

The Curriculum Vision for English is to empower students with the communication skills needed to navigate the world, and to enable pupils to access the knowledge, skills and cultural capital required for life beyond school. Additionally, to use English as a "mirror and a window" to reflect pupils’ own identities whilst building confidence and resilience.

Intent: What we want to achieve

Literacy for Empowerment and Communication: A focus on functional literacy and oracy to ensure students can articulate their needs, feelings, and opinions respectfully.
Trauma-Informed Engagement: Create a safe, compassionate working environment where pupils can use literature as a tool for emotional regulation and building empathy.
Closing Knowledge Gaps: Provide an ambitious and flexible curriculum that mirrors National Curriculum standards while acknowledging individual starting points, and addressing misunderstandings and gaps in basic skills and knowledge at an age-appropriate level.
Future Readiness: Prepare all pupils for assessments in Entry Level and Functional Skills, and for some, GCSE examinations to enable access to further education, future employment and vocational pathways.

Implementation: How we deliver it

The curriculum is implemented in line with LSEAT principles of strong leadership, high-quality teaching and inclusive practice, and reflects Ofsted’s focus on curriculum quality, coherence and impact.

Relational Pedagogy: Using clear, consistent routines (the ‘BGA Way’) and trauma-informed practices to build trust between pupils and adults before introducing complex tasks.
Scaffolded Learning: Breaking units of work down into smaller, accessible, sequenced steps with "low-stakes" assessments to rebuild academic confidence and prevent cognitive overload.
Interactive Strategies: Developing teaching and learning to move away from passive formulaic teaching towards drama, role-play, and sensory exploration of texts to increase engagement.
Tailored Text Choices: Selecting high-quality, age-appropriate and diverse texts that resonate with the pupils' lived experiences, promoting a genuine connection to reading for pleasure.

Impact: How we measure success

The impact of the curriculum is measured through outcomes, pupil experience and readiness for future pathways.

Holistic Growth: Success is measured through improved engagement with and in lessons, reduction in incidents, and increased self-esteem.
Functional Literacy: Tracked through improvements in reading age, increased confidence in speaking with pupils and staff, and the ability to produce coherent written work for different audiences.
Academic Progression: Evidenced by aspirational target achievement, including Entry Level, Functional Skills and GCSE results that exceed baseline expectations.
Student Agency: Demonstrated through pupil feedback showing increased self-esteem and a belief in their own potential.

Curriculum Overview: Half-Termly Content (Years 7–11)

Year Group

HT1

HT2

HT3

HT4

HT5

HT6

Year 7

Text: Thornhill

Theme: Loneliness

Skill: Diary-writing; Non-chronological reporting

Beginning to address Entry Level 1 needs.

Text: War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

Theme: Social Bonding

Skill: Letters, narrative

Text: ‘The Graveyard Book’

Theme: Friendship and Trust

Skill: Writing to entertain

Text 1: (‘The Graveyard Book’ cont.) ‘The Arrival’ by Shaun Tan

Theme: Migration

Skill: Descriptive writing

Text: Wolf Wilder

Theme: Self-advocacy and leadership,

Skill: Instruction writing

Extended learning

Text: Wild Places

Theme: Conservation

Skill: Biography writing.

Assessment & enrichment

Year 8

Text: Diary of Anne Frank

Skill: creative; autobiographical; non-fiction

Retrieval & progression from Y7

Text: A Christmas Carol

Skill: descriptive writing - Poetry, songs, lyrics.

Begin to address Entry Level 2

Text: Holes by Louis Sachar.

Skill: letter writing

Exploration of viewpoints and perspectives

Text: The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell

Skill: Speaking, Listening and Communicating – discussion and debate.

Text: The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford

Skill: writing for an audience – Children’s Literature

Text: Face by Benjamin Zephaniah

Skill: reading for meaning

Assessment & review

Year 9

Text: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Skill: Retrieval and progression from Y8 and Entry Level 2

Text: Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

Skill: Entry Level 3 information retrieval, basic skills.

Text: DNA by Dennis Kelly

Skill: Language features, author intent; debate and discussion

Core Skills including SPaG, homophones, basic punctuation, sentence types, word classes

Text: Of Mice and Men by R.L. Steinbeck

Skill: Vocabulary development; language in context

SPaG Core Skills

Text: Short stories / excerpts from C19th, C20th, C21st.

Skill: reading for meaning, assessing language.

Assessment & readiness for Functional Skills 1, addressing misunderstandings and misconceptions.

Year 10

Text: Hunger Games by Suzanne Shaw

Skill: reading comprehension, reading for meaning and pleasure

Bridging from Entry Level 3 to Functional Skills 1

Poetry: Wilfred Owen

Text: The Christmas Truce by Carol-Ann Duffy

Skill: language techniques

Text: The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Skill: Creative writing based on picture stimulus

(2027) Text: An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

(2026)

Text: Short Stories by Modern Writers

Core Skills including SPaG, language features, punctuation, paragraphs

(2026) Text: An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

(2027) Text: Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Skill: language in context; inference, character portrayal

Exam skills & practice

(2026) Text: (AIC cont.) Non-fiction excerpts

(2027) Text: Noughts & Crosses

Skill: author bias, information retrieval, writing in context.

Assessment & readiness for Functional Skills 2 and/or GCSE, addressing misunderstandings and misconceptions.

Year 11

Topic: Speeches, non-fiction texts, The Great Poppy Debate.

Skill: Persuasive techniques.

Entry Level exams.

FS Level 2 and GCSE

Text: Half a Man by Michael Morpurgo.

Skill: Language features and literary techniques; using evidence to back up an answer

Text: Great Auk by Jessie Greengrass

Targeted revision & exam preparation for Functional Skills.

GCSE Paper 1 Q1, language analysis.

Core Skills: punctuation, paragraphs, sentence types, SPaG

GCSE Paper 1: Creative Writing from picture stimulus

Functional Skills and GCSE Exam preparation

Topic: Exam preparation: Key words for exam questions, understanding questions, knowing the mark scheme

Topic: Speaking, Listening and Communicating

Final exam revision

GCSE & Functional Skills examinations

Focus: Language for Life