English Curriculum Intent

‘A word after a word after a word is power.’

Margaret Atwood

At the Suthers School, we aim to create confident communicators, readers, writers and thinkers within our English classrooms. Ensuring a broad range of knowledge and developing identity is pivotal to our curriculum. Through our character-lead educational platform school-wide, we seek to imbue our students with the opportunities to experiment with, and hone their own voices. Learning is purposefully sequenced to build upon what has gone before and to develop common threads throughout the key stages. Students will: experiment with, improve and refine their skills; explicitly be taught the acquisition of vocabulary; explore the interplay between literary and social contexts.

Through English Language we seek to provide our students with the tools necessary for navigating both their GCSE courses and the world beyond. It is our aim to inspire those students who wish to pursue language-based careers, such as writing, journalism, speech therapy, and education. As well as developing respect for the universality that the English Language brings to their wider lives.

In English Literature, we seek to use the rich tapestry of texts studied as vehicles into the minds of others. It is our mission to expose our students to thinking deeply about the picture of humanity painted within the pages, whilst also evaluating the intentions behind a writer’s work. We challenge our students the become the experts from within the subject. Ultimately equipping them with the skills necessary to not only master their examinations, but to have steerage of their own course and ambitions throughout their life time.

Whether through the reading of literature or through the acquisition of linguistic expertise, the study of English equips us with the means by which we can communicate, interpret and imagine. No matter what their starting point, the aim of our curriculum is for it to be accessible and empowering for every student.

Our curriculum is not designed to finish at the end of Year 11, it is crafted to be an integral part of our students as they venture into the world, striving to be the change they wish to see. As Hemmingway aptly said:

‘It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end’.

To access the curriculum plans for each year group, please use the links at the side of this page.

If a year group link is not available you can contact our English Team at contact@suthersschool.co.uk where they will get back to you with further information.

@thesuthersschool