English

Our Curriculum Intent

The English Faculty achieve the Howard’s curriculum intent by:

promoting the positive experiences of reading and writing, providing students with appreciation of the literary canon and the power of language in all its forms
equipping students with the knowledge of how to use language with accuracy, skill and creativity
teaching concepts such as genre, theme, mode, form, register, style, purpose and audience so students can apply this knowledge to critical analysis
developing the communication skills, both written and oral, necessary to thrive in society and the world of work.

Through our broad and inclusive curriculum, students will complete their learning journey equipped with the skills of empathy, creativity and evaluation, founded on analysis and understanding.

Our ambition is for students to be enriched and inspired by the variety of writers they study, including texts by contemporary authors and those celebrated within our literary heritage. We want our students to explore timeless themes and concepts through fiction and non-fiction and aspire to develop critical thinking skills and the confidence to value their own interpretations and judgements. We teach our students to appreciate that every text is created by a writer with a specific purpose, and we aim to equip them with the analytical and evaluative skills to infer and interpret the writers’ intentions.

Equally, students will learn to develop their own language skills and personal voice, so that they are able to write with confidence and intent, as well as verbally communicating their ideas with precision. They will understand how to adapt their written style to suit the purpose and will know how to apply their lexical, grammatical and syntactical understanding and knowledge, both orally and in writing, in order to have an impact on their readers and listeners.