We believe in offering a broad and balanced English curriculum at King Edward VI Balaam Wood Academy which is interesting, relevant, challenging and diverse, to give our pupils the knowledge, skills and confidence to achieve their full potential.
- Our curriculum meets the needs of learners and effectively prepares them for the next stage in their educational journey.
- Our curriculum is coherently sequenced to enable learners to use their deep knowledge to make progress because they know more and remember more.
- Our curriculum provides opportunities for pupils to make knowledge and skills links across the curriculum and links to the real world that will positively shape their life experience.
We will:
- Provide an English curriculum that delivers the National Curriculum in each key stage, building upon previous learning and extending pupils’ current knowledge and understanding.
- Endeavour to enable our pupils to appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage.
- Use a range of teaching strategies and tailor our curriculum to the needs of different groups of pupils to give them the confidence to actively, collaboratively and independently apply their developing English abilities and skills.
- Enable pupils to acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
- Enable pupils to read easily, fluently and with good understanding; to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information, through regular reading opportunities.
- Enable pupils to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
- Inspire, encourage and enable pupils to use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas; to enable pupils to be competent in the arts of speaking and listening; making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
- Provide opportunities for pupils to work independently, directing pupils to develop, define and refine their learning through independent home learning research and a range of reading and writing activities.
- Offer a range of additional support and guidance through master classes and remote learning opportunities.
