SubjectsDrama

Our Curriculum Intent

Our curriculum has been designed to ensure that all students can:

• become inquisitive and curious learners;

• excel academically;

• form and articulate their ideas maturely and respectfully.

Reading is prioritised within the English Curriculum where students are fully immersed in full texts from year 7 onwards and are encouraged to read critically from the start; making judgments about and asking questions about the texts that they study. Alongside this, our school vision, inspired by John 10:10, is an essential component in the decisions we make for the curriculum, choosing texts and tasks wherever possible that can help to bring the vision to life every day in the classroom.

The curriculum is ambitious and broad ensuring all students have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to move effectively to the next stage of their education. All students will study a range of literature genres: plays (including Shakespeare), poetry, short stories, graphic novels and full novels to improve enjoyment and confidence in reading. We are continuously developing our English curriculum, including through work with our local primary schools, to guarantee that it is relevant, challenging, and inspiring; at present, we have our most diverse curriculum to date including texts from other cultures, classic works from the English Cannon and modern Young Adult fiction. Students will also be exposed to texts with mature and sensitive subject matter that will elicit discussion and promote effective speaking and listening skills to help build confidence in all students regardless of their starting point.

Inclusivity is key in our curriculum design; we intend for all students to be able to access and be challenged by their lessons, regardless of ability or SEND need, to ensure they leave with the knowledge and skills to be able to succeed in life. The chosen topics are adapted throughout KS3, with the top set having a different text to study. The curriculum is adapted and designed to maximise progress for all, offering support and increased independence as appropriate through extension and foundation schemes of work. Due to the lack of tiers in the GCSE examination for English, all students have the potential to achieve highly in the subject and are well prepared for this through KS3 through vigorous and varied assessment.

Implementation

Students are grouped by ability in Year 7 following the completion of their Key Stage 2 Standard Attainment Test and in English we also run a baseline assessment early in Year 7 to ensure that initial set allocation is the most appropriate for each student.

In Key Stage 3, our curriculum is in line with the National Curriculum and is coherently planned and sequenced to allow students to study a broad curriculum in terms of content and skills. It builds on skills and concepts that students learned at KS2 and gives students the knowledge and skills to move to their next steps with confidence. Assessments are carefully planned to be challenging enough to build resilience without disengaging students with SEND and take a range of assorted styles and forms. Regardless of band, all students will study full texts and be assessed at the middle and end of each cycle to ensure close monitoring of progress. Assessments are not only Reading and Writing based but several Speaking and Listening skills are also assessed at KS3 to help promote students’ oracy. All students in KS3 are enrolled on the Accelerated Reader Programme to help close gaps between chronological and reading ages and to inspire a love of reading for all.

In Key Stage 4, all students work on the GCSE content for both English Language and English Literature. Over the course, students will study the Literature texts and the skills needed for English Language, which build on the work done at KS3. Students are assessed regularly through full mock examinations and in-class essays to ensure we always understand where students are and what needs improvement. We run a collaborative programme with Cheltenham College (7UP) which our most promising students participate in throughout year 11 to help secure the top grades.

In Key Stage 5, we offer English Literature and English Language A-levels at present with improving outcomes year after year. In both cases, Year 12 is content-heavy, with Year 13 primarily focusing on coursework and then revision. We also teach retake English Language GCSE for those students in Years 12 and 13 who require it.

Both Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 students have the opportunity for extra-curricular theatre trips to see set texts live and many students accept the opportunity to work with both our students and those from our local primary schools to become reading buddies to aid the development of our younger readers.

As a lead department for literacy and in line with the school’s literacy policy, each SoW allows students to regularly read aloud, write extensively and independently and has a planned example of speaking and listening ranging from drama-based in-role tasks to formal discussion and presentation. Teachers in the department consistently mirror good examples of speaking, listening, reading, and writing to become models for the students. Students have appropriate levels of literacy when they leave for the next stage of their development- be it further education, employment, or training. They understand the requirements for their chosen path and have the knowledge and skills to be successful in it.

Cycles 1 to 3 each have a specific focus for study which could be primarily based on Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. Each scheme of work is skill and content-based and built around the assessment completed in assessment week. Each cycle also has a planned mid-cycle assessment to check progress intermittently during the cycle to help support the ongoing formative assessment within lessons. The final week of each cycle is used to consolidate learning from earlier in the year to help students remember the longer-term content ready for the End of Year Examinations which all year groups are subject to. In the final term of each year, students will complete these examinations which will combine aspects of all the learning completed over the year.

We offer a range of extra-curricular activities in English, some specific to year groups such as Creative Writing and Spoz Poetry Slam for younger years and Debating and Public Speaking for KS4 and KS5. Others including The Carnegie Shadowing Group are open to students in all years and are becoming more popular each year. Year after year, our links with the Cheltenham Literary Festival grow with our students participating in activities such as Battle of the Books and Words that Burn, both of which allow students to perform at the festival itself.

Impact 

The quality of teaching within the department is rated as consistently good and outstanding. We have a consistent approach to learning and assessments throughout the team and work collaboratively to ensure the best practice is shared. We regularly review ourselves and each other against the teaching standards to minimise complacency and instil a culture of consistent improvement.

Assessment is used well in English; our mid and end-of-cycle assessment results are used systematically to check understanding and gaps in knowledge which are then used to inform future teaching helping to maximise progress. GCSE results have improved significantly in recent years and are now in line with National Average. A-level results are also improving, and we are immensely proud of our students who go on to study English or journalism at degree level.