English Intent Statement
It is our intent to deliver a broad, balanced and diverse curriculum that generates a love for English at Lees Brook Academy. We strive to develop articulate, confident and accurate communicators who will achieve academically and have the skills to thrive beyond Lees Brook. Students will become competent and fluent readers with the ability to infer, analyse and evaluate ideas effectively. Students will become skilled and accomplished writers able to achieve a variety of purpose and effects. Students will develop into eloquent, coherent and expressive speakers enabling them to advance confidently in the world of work and in society in general. It is our vision that students will also become inquisitive and empathetic thinkers.
Our curriculum is designed around building the knowledge and skills that enable students to master their craft. Throughout the curriculum they will build cultural capital by reading a variety of ambitious and challenging texts. They will also be explicitly taught grammar, vocabulary and academic writing skills as part of a specialised unit allowing them to write accurately, decisively and make strategic choices to achieve a purpose.
As part of the curriculum we embed reading lessons at KS3 which explicitly teach reading strategies to enable students to decode texts, infer meaning and enjoy what they read. It is of vital importance that we develop our readers with the skills to understand the world around them.
Our curriculum carefully correlates with the national curriculum and is designed around knowledge domains and key concepts. These exist from Y7 through to Y11 and begins when we deliver our transition unit that builds on existing knowledge and skills from primary school and gives students a foundation for the knowledge that they will build throughout the key stages. Students will study a range of texts from the literary heritage and also from contemporary writers. As students flourish through the schemes of work they will have built and secured deep knowledge and mastered skills to give them the best opportunity to achieve and attain in their GCSE courses.
As part of our commitment to nurturing a love for English through lessons we also offer a range of extra-curricular activities such as creative writing, debating society and a student book club. These continue to foster a love for the subject and allow students to enjoy the subject out of the classroom. We also offer a variety of trips such as theatre visits, tours and listening to authors.
As students exit the curriculum it is our desire that they pursue English not only academically or in industry, but as a cherished part of their lives.