English

English at Bradford Forster Academy

Through teaching with excellence and modelling exemplary behaviour, the English department strives to challenge, motivate and inspire greatness in our students enabling them to become outstanding and ambitious for themselves. We aim to broaden our students’ understanding of the world and their place within it, using novels to engage with contemporary issues: the changing environment and climate, gender equality, marginalisation, discrimination, protest and empowerment. High quality, award-winning, literary fiction and non-fiction as well as poetry and plays meaningfully address gaps in our students’ historical and cultural understanding. Literature builds understanding and empathy, offering students a valuable insight into lives and experiences different to their own. At the same time, we know it is essential for students to see themselves represented in literature so offer texts that put familiar, though sometimes underrepresented, characters centre stage. Our curriculum is designed to develop inquisitive and active readers who question texts and language. We ensure students are familiar with the conventions of common text types and we use these to model what excellent writing looks like. Opportunities to write imaginatively and without feeling self-conscious are woven into our curriculum. As too are opportunities for students to express themselves orally. Our diverse and carefully sequenced KS3 curriculum builds a strong foundation for study at KS4. Our curriculum thoroughly equips students with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to complete rigorous GCSE exams.

In partnership with our strong Christian foundations and high-quality teaching and learning practice, English at Bradford Forster Academy encourages students to become:

Ambitious for themselves.
Academically successful.
Inquisitive and reflective learners.
Active and effective participants.

Confident communicators.
Emotionally resilient.
Inspiring to others.
Culturally and socially aware.

English is sequenced to allow students to build their knowledge and skills over time by:

Exposing students to a wide range of high quality texts from a variety of contexts in order to build cultural capital, broaden their horizons and foster a love of reading and literature and learning for life.
Developing oracy skills to enable students to articulate themselves clearly and precisely, honing skills in presentation and discussion as well as conversational expectations, enabling them to flourish in their chosen post-16 path and beyond.
Preparing students for the wider-world, with a clear understanding of the rhetoric embedded into the world around them; they should have the ability to identify how language is manipulated for purpose to have a specific effect on the reader/audience.
Engaging students at all levels to ensure that they are making good progress and that they have the appropriate qualifications and literacy skills they will need to prosper in later life.

English provides students with opportunities for them to develop the habits and skills needed to succeed in life during and after BFA by:

Promoting the development of student mental health and wellbeing through challenging texts which have relevance to our context.
Developing cultural capital through a plethora of schemes of work and topical do now tasks.
Supporting opportunities to discuss diversity in all its forms through a range of language and literature resources.
Providing students with an insight into how life works and to think critically and constructively to enhance their personal development.
Creating enrichment opportunities where external expertise will enhance the quality of the students educational experience.

In achieving this, we endeavour to support our students in breaking through limited horizons and becoming confident, effective, and employable citizens within the context of the local community of BD4, Bradford and beyond.

English

English at Bradford Forster Academy

Curriculum Plan - English

About BFA

Parents & Carers

Students

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