Our curriculum intent applies to all our young people, regardless of background, gender, sexual orientation or ability. As a school, and department, we are absolutely committed that the opportunities we plan for and implement ensure that each student can reach and exceed their potential. 

At Wyvern Academy, we believe in striving for excellence in all that we do. Therefore, we embrace English as a subject that combines academic knowledge with application of skills, as well as strengthening social and emotional skills to inspire our students to be compassionate and responsible citizens. The department motto is: ‘Write like a reader and read like a writer’ – as we believe that building a writing culture is essential to developing literacy and critical skills to aid the next stage of our students’ education as well as the wider world.

Our specialist English teachers are passionate about the subject they teach, resulting in our students developing a love of reading and writing. We advocate fluency and reading for pleasure through exposure to a wide range of Literature texts, to reflect on their own responses, critically evaluating the big ideas and challenging concepts within texts. Harnessing their creativity and technical knowledge from KS2, students will engage with our English Learning Journey following a spiral approach. Through this, students continuously revisit and extend their critical skills and knowledge throughout their school career. For example in Year 7 students study ‘Different Voices’ to show the perspectives of marginalised members of society to build empathy and challenge stereotypes of race, gender and poverty. Furthermore, in year 8 we give students the tools to voice their opinions in ‘The Art of Rhetoric’ by using non-fiction texts, past and present to hone their oral skills and craft persuasive speeches. In addition to this, in Year 9, students study ‘Breaking Barriers’ which looks at social media and how language is used to challenge and tackle bias and misinformation in the media.

All students at Wyvern Academy are, without exception, entitled to a world-class education that is holistic, ambitious and aspirational by covering different aspects of the subject to open the world to them through the exploration of texts from different genres, periods of history and through both fiction and non-fiction texts. By placing Literacy at the heart of English lessons and building a passion for lifelong learning, Wyvern Academy is committed to providing a quality education for all students regardless of background or ability. We are responsible for ensuring our young people are confident to pursue ambitious next steps in their education, employment or training which will support their future learning, career and life journey.

Knowledge and skills:

Through our curriculum, students:

• Develop pupil comprehension of language with accurate knowledge and application of literary terminology. Students will be able to identify key words / techniques within texts and understand how they are used to influence the reader and the effect of individual words or phrases.
• Understand and use the power of written and spoken language, to inspire and manipulate, by reflecting critically and evaluating authorial intentions, identifying bias. By exploring that texts are written by writers and that authors have bias and texts are products of the context in which they were produced.
• Learn about the world around them (past and present) through exposure to a range of high quality Literature texts from different time periods / genres and tracing ideas and concepts such as authorial intent (Big Ideas) such as: Power and Conflict, Violence, Life and Death etc.
• By examining the specific purposes behind texts – propaganda posters and poetry, war poetry etc. as well as non-fiction texts with a viewpoint, students will interpret the connection of context and bias.
• Develop confidence in communication skills and have opportunity to critically question and debate authorial viewpoints and perspectives through class discussions and debating big questions such as prejudice, poverty, class, gender, inequality etc.
• Develop a love of reading and the skills to read fluently, having opportunity to explore wider significant and exclusive texts in English.  Are able to value the choices of language and structure that a writer makes, and offer a personal evaluation as a reader of how they are meant to feel. This will ensure that students are able to make recommendations of books or texts to peers
• Develop how to write effectively for different purposes and audiences and in different forms through adapting style, tone and register appropriately. Students will know that writing can take different forms and can be identified by the different conventions they adhere to e.g. narrative, play script, a newspaper article, a leaflet.
• Write accurately and purposefully, in an academic register when required, using a full range of sentence forms, punctuation, and structural and grammatical features, effectively for preparation in the next stage of our students’ education.