English at Co-op Academy Leeds has undergone some innovative and exciting transformation over the last two years.

Our curriculum is inspired by the National Curriculum, Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction and our experience serving our diverse and unique community. It is primarily a knowledge based curriculum, encapsulating assessment for learning, direct instruction in SPaG and vocabulary and a focus on reading development. We aim to ensure it is broad, balanced, supportive and engaging and we personalise our learning to the varying needs of our students.

In following the National Curriculum, we deliver reading from the canon (including extracts from Dickens’ novels, Macbeth, a range of Romantic poetry) as well as from a diverse diaspora of writers (including poetry from different cultures) to mirror the diversity within society and within our school community. We are flexible in our approaches, embedding quality English oracy techniques to empower our students, either through strategic interventions such as Talk 4 Writing or through supportive frameworks drawn from Voice21. Our relentless yet supportive focus on written accuracy is a key to enable our students to become impressive, effective communicators that have ambitious choices in their future education, training or employment. 

We aim to foster a love of English within and outside lessons as well as critical, enquiring minds who can respond analytically and evaluatively to what they read and who can express themselves eloquently and independently in both spoken and written form. We strive to capitalise on local and national opportunities, driven through our library provision, of celebration days, such as National Poetry Day and World Book Day, as well as open up local and national writing competitions, and participating in Leeds Book Awards and the Carnegie Medal. Where possible, we endeavour to invite in current writers of repute for seminars and workshops. Extra-curricular provision includes a public speaking club, a Stories from Around the World club and a calligraphy club. We would also anticipate opportunities for potential theatre visits in the local area,

All of our curriculum teaching at KS3 prepares students for the demands of their KS4 courses, where we offer EDUQAS GCSE English Language or EDUQAS ELC (depending on their rate of progress from their starting points) and AQA English Literature.

At KS4, the vast majority of students study to sit the EDUQAS GCSE English Language examination in the summer of Year 11, with a minority of new-to- English students sitting the EDUQAS Entry Level Certificate instead. The decision between the two EDUQAS offers is made during the KS4 course to accommodate the specific needs that some of our EAL or SEND students have. This is done in ample time for exam preparation. EDUQAS English Language was selected for the straightforward nature of the reading questions and the more structured, shorter time frame of the writing tasks.

All students also study AQA GCSE English Literature. The course requires the study of 15 Power and Conflict poems by a diverse range of poets;  Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. Studying English literature allows students to develop their analytical and evaluative skills as well as enriching students’ cultural understanding by introducing them to texts from our literary heritage as well as a variety of other cultures. Further to the texts required by the exam board, students also study a wealth of supplementary texts and material, in particular a range of poetry to prepare them for the unseen poetry section of their literature examination.

Our curriculum is guided by the examination requirements but not narrowed by them, in keeping with our key belief that cultural capital is English. We maintain the knowledge based curriculum we start with at KS3 as well as a systematic approach to assessment for learning and direct instruction in SPaG and vocabulary. We continue to develop approaches to and confidence in reading for meaning and analysis and we foster a sense of confidence in our learners so that they can become confident, effective communicators.

We believe that an interleaved approach is the most conducive for rapid progress through both GCSEs that are offered although the weight tends towards the AQA Literature in year 10. To that end, we incorporate non-fiction texts, often showcasing the diverse diaspora of writers, that sit alongside the literature texts as part of our cultural capital exposure and to develop contextual awareness of the texts. 

We aim to be consistent in our approaches embedding quality English oracy techniques to empower our students, either through strategic interventions such as Talk 4 Writing or through supportive frameworks drawn from Voice21. Our focus on written accuracy is a key tool to enable our students to become impressive, effective communicators and have choices for their future education, training or employment.

We aim to foster enjoyment within English lessons as well as critical, enquiring minds who can respond analytically and evaluatively to what they read and who can express themselves eloquently and independently in both spoken and written form. We strive to capitalise on local and national opportunities, driven through our library provision, of celebration days, such as National Poetry Day and World Book Day, as well as open up local and national writing competitions, and participating in Leeds Book Awards and the Carnegie Medal. Where possible, we endeavour to invite in current writers of repute for seminars and workshops. Extra-curricular provision includes a public speaking club, a Stories from Around the World club and a calligraphy club and we regularly provide opportunities to visit the theatre.