The English team at Barnwood Park strives to develop a lasting love of English in all our students, supporting each of them to become enthusiastic readers and confident and effective communicators through both written and spoken forms.

Our relevant, inspiring and challenging curriculum ensures that our students develop life-long skills for learning and work whilst also fostering the academic skills required in further and higher education. Our curriculum has been developed in line with the English Language and Literature Key Stage Three and GCSE frameworks and incorporates ‘real-life’ learning projects to prepare our students for their GCSE examinations and their future careers.

Key Stage 3 English: (Year 7, 8 and 9) allows students to develop their key literacy skills whilst also broadening their knowledge of significant authors, poets and playwrights in modern culture and in our literary heritage. Our creative and inspiring projects immerse our students in relevant and realistic situations where they will find themselves as journalists and authors as well as preparing them for the challenges of the GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature courses. Units of study within Key Stage 3 include poetry through time, the study of 19thCentury fiction, dystopian fiction and a variety of Shakespeare’s plays.

Towards the end of Year 9 we begin to introduce one of the set texts studied at GCSE to ensure a smooth transition into the next stage of learning. 

Key Stage 4 English: All students study GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature and will study a range of fiction and non-fiction texts from our literary heritage. In English Literature students will study Macbeth, A Christmas Carol and An Inspector Calls along with an anthology of poetry. In English Language students are supported to explore and demonstrate the craft of writing through the analysis of varied, challenging and relevant extracts from the 19thto the 21stcenturies. 

At the end of the course, students sit four examinations which will allow them to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills in response to unseen passages of literary texts, non-fiction texts and poetry. Students are not permitted to have copies of the studied texts in the examinations for English Literature.

Through our broad and challenging curriculum, Barnwood Park’s English team build knowledge and skills for every student’s educational journey providing rich, deep learning in preparation for every individual’s future career.