Curriculum planning in English
English as a subject occupies a unique and central place in the whole school curriculum, covering as it does both access to a literary heritage and the exploration and creation of current reading, writing and discourse. It is a subject of both knowledge and understanding, driven by the crucially important choice of texts. It forces students to put themselves in the position of people beyond their everyday scope and be empathetic, develop cultural capital and develop social, moral, emotional and critical thinking within a curriculum that is explicitly designed to see students grapping with increasingly mature and challenging themes and ideas.
The aim of English as a subject is to send students out into the world equipped for their next steps: they should be able to read, comprehend and interrogate the wealth of reading material required for life, work and further study with comprehension; they should be able to express their thoughts and opinions with confidence and fluency, both in speech and writing, to a level of competency that will enable them to flourish personally, academically and professionally; their talent and creativity should be nurtured and they should be empowered by their education in English to join in with the cultural world around them.