English

Team Leader: Miss F Galtrey – fgaltrey@nullkettlethorpe.wakefield.sch.uk

English is a crucial subject for young people; whether we look at it spiritually, morally, culturally or academically, it a cornerstone of any child’s education. Meaningfully encountering stories that are crucial to our own (and others’) cultural heritage, as well as studying historical and contemporary fiction, non fiction and poetry helps young people to become aware, outward looking and – above all – decent citizens. This is what drives our team to deliver to the very best of their ability every day. At Kettlethorpe High School, we believe that every child has the right to be taught essential skills that will support them to access the curriculum across the school. We are incredibly proud of our curriculum; during its design, we thought deeply about what we wanted to achieve, and used the considerable wealth of experience across the team to help us to achieve our goal. As we see it, the aims of the subject are:

  • to teach pupils to be confident readers
  • to develop pupils’ ability in writing for a variety of purposes and audiences
  • to teach pupils about different cultures, societies, morals and values
  • to teach pupils to write confidently, and to be able to proof read to ensure writing is technically accurate
  • for pupils to be able to express their ideas clearly and precisely
  • for pupils to have opportunities to express themselves creatively.

Our pupils are encouraged to read for pleasure in order to perfect their reading skills, and they are continually supported in decoding language, exploring the meanings created by writers and giving personal and critical opinions. When pupils write, they are explicitly taught technical accuracy and how to ensure writing is aimed at the correct audience and has purpose (as well as a degree of formality).

The English department prides itself on providing engaging enrichment and intervention opportunities, in both KS3 and KS4. These opportunities run at various points during the year including: paired reading groups, theatre trips, in-school workshops, World Book Day and Readathon. We also have an extensive extra-curricular programme, we have a number of reading clubs, a school newspaper and we also offer a number of out of school excursions each year. Not only do these opportunities give pupils the chance to engage with a text they are studying, but they are also great opportunities to develop personal, social and communication skills.

Curriculum Overview