English

The English Faculty at Ridgeway Academy deliver an engaging, varied and challenging curriculum that is designed to inspire, build on students’ cultural capital and support them to reach their full potential. We aim to foster a love of reading and literature and provide opportunities for students to develop skills in media throughout their time at Ridgeway Academy.

The curriculum is designed to broaden and enhance students’ knowledge and understanding of the world through the study of a wide range of literature, including texts in a range of forms, and from a range of genres, authors and eras. We also aim to ensure that, through the study of language and literature, students leave Ridgeway with the confidence to develop and share informed opinions through writing, reading and speaking.

Our curriculum allows students to build on their previous year’s learning and ensures that all students are challenged and motivated. Our curriculum study at Key Stage Three and Four offers opportunities for students to experience other GCSE and A Level qualification offered at Ridgeway including GCSE media studies, A Level English Literature and A Level Media Studies.

Welcome to the English Department – Subject Leader: Miss E Gray

Key Stage 3

Students complete a variety of reading, writing and speaking and listening tasks whilst studying texts that relate to a range of themes.

In Year 7, students develop and enhance skills learned at Key Stage 2 through the study of:

• Identity
• Dystopia
• Rebellion

In Year 8, students will build on their previous knowledge through the study of:

• Heroes
• Villains
• Outsiders

In Year 9, students continue to study a wide range of texts with some focus on the skills required at GCSE. Units of study include:

• Diversity
• Introduction to Media
• Relationships
• Crime

Students are taught through a wide range of learning activities, ensuring they are accessible and stimulating.

Y7 English Rationale and Overview 2024-2025

Y8 English Rationale and Overview 2024-2025

Y9 English Rationale and Overview 2024-2025

Key Stage 4

At Key Stage 4 students follow the AQA specification for English Language and English Literature.  All students have the opportunity to study both English Literature and English Language at GCSE.

Students will study a number of set texts at GCSE including:

• An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley
• Shakespeare’s Macbeth
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
• An anthology of 15 poems linked by the central theme of Power and Conflict

Students will also have the opportunity to present on a topic of their choice and are awarded an endorsement for Spoken Language as part of the English Language GCSE qualification.

Year 10 English Language RA Curriculum Map 2024-25

Year 10 English Literature RA Curriculum Map 2024 – 25

Year 11 English Language RA Curriculum Map 2024-25

Year 11 English Literature RA Curriculum Map 2024-25

Year 10 Media Studies Curriculum Rationale and Overview

Year 11 Media Studies Curriculum Rationale and Overview

Media Studies Curriculum Journey

 Key Stage 5

Key Stage 5 students are able to access English Literature and Media Studies at Ridgeway Academy.

In English Literature students study the following elements:

• Drama: Tragedy – Othello, Shakespeare and A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams.
• Prose: Science & Society – Frankenstein, Shelley and The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood.
• Poetry – The Wife of Bath: Prologue and Tale, Chaucer and Poems of the Decade, an anthology of modern poems.

Students also complete NEA, which is an independent study of two texts and a written essay of around 3,000 words.

Our Key Stage 5 curriculum offers opportunity for academic stretch and challenge, independent research and an engaging selection of texts in the subject.

Year 12 English Literature Curriculum Rationale and Overview

Year 12 Media Studies Curriculum Rationale and Overview.docx

Ridgeway Readers

At Ridgeway we recognise the importance of reading and vocabulary acquisition as essential in enhancing students’ understanding of the curriculum in all subjects.  Therefore, we aim to broaden students’ reading horizons by exposing them to a wide range of engaging and interesting texts.

It is an expectation that Key Stage Three students have a reading book with them at all times as students are given time to read during form time and within library lessons.

Students in Year 7 and Year 8 have a fortnightly library lesson where they are encouraged to explore and engage with a variety of texts available within our well-resourced library.

Students in Key Stage 3 are also encouraged to read at home and will be expected to complete a weekly reading journal which will be set via Google Classroom.

In addition, all students in Key Stage 3 complete reading tests at the start and end of the academic year.  This information is shared with teaching staff to help tailor lessons to suit the needs of students in the classroom, and is used to identify students who may benefit from targeted intervention.

At Ridgeway, with support students to become confident readers by:

• Modelling expert reading to students within the classroom.
• Ensuring the purpose of reading is clear to students in every task.
• Practicing reading through research-based strategies such as choral and echo reading.
• Selecting appropriate texts.
• Pre-teaching vocabulary.
• Offering suggestions of books to read.

Students who are identified as developing readers may be offered the following interventions:

• Phonics training.
• Precision teaching – spelling.
• Reading and fluency comprehension lessons.

Ridgeway Reading Strategies