English Curriculum

In the English department, we teach a wide range of texts to provide our pupils with a challenging curriculum that will suit their needs for KS4 and beyond.

The City of Peterborough Academy strives to provide an outstanding learning experience for every single one of our pupils; an experience that will provide them with essential, functional English skills to empower them in employment, support their social communication skills, and enable them to engage with the world as global citizens. We also hope to foster a love of language and literature that will create lifelong learners.

English is accepted as a fundamentally important area of study. As a department, we encourage our pupils to recognise the crucial impact of communication, written or spoken, through focused, innovative and inspiring teaching.

In Year 7, students will read a novel that stretches their ability in the subject. Students also study a play, whether that is Shakespeare or an appropriate alternative. Finally, students will begin to explore poetry through a novel. All of these are taught alongside the fundamentals of reading and write through English Language skills.

Year 8 pupils begin the academic year by studying a different novel from Year 7 that further supports them in stretching their understanding in English Literature. This is followed by the study of Othello to deepen their understanding of Shakespeare. Finally, students explore poetry specifically those that are linked to conflict. Again, all of these are taught alongside the fundamentals of reading and write through English Language skills

Pupils will go on to study two GCSEs: English Language and English Literature. They will study these in English lessons together and not as separate subjects, as the skills required for the two GCSEs are often overlapped. The pupils are studying the AQA course which will test them upon a range of skills. During this course pupils will study a Shakespeare play, a modern text, a 19^th century text and an anthology of poems. Whilst studying all these modules, pupils will be studying English Language skills focussing on developing their writing for a specific audience (both fiction and non-fiction) as well as analysing a writer’s viewpoint and perspective via non-fiction and literary non-fiction. Students are also assessed on their speaking and listening skills on the course.

English Staff