english

The English Department supports the school’s mission to create learners who are happy, successful and well-prepared for adult life, by providing the communication skills and cultural capital that will enable Hugh Christie students to become literate, independent professionals in the future. Further, we equip students to continue the study of English in their future lives. 

We are inclusive and informed by the IB Middle Years Programme philosophy: to develop ‘inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better world.’ We believe that we achieve this through providing learners, through a broad and balanced curriculum, with vocabulary, rich texts and the opportunities to develop their critical skills along with their empathy. 

In English, we read with our heads and our hearts, master our language and harness the power of words.

The English Department aims to empower every student to read with fluency, accuracy and emotion. We will help you develop into curious and critical thinkers, who can listen deeply and empathise with others. We will help you learn to appreciate the power of words to enable you to articulate your ideas and share your voices.

Over your time at Leigh Academy Hugh Christie, we will help you to broaden your knowledge and mastery of the English language and delve into a wealth of literature and stories from the past and present that will teach you about what it means to be human and how to express yourself. We will equip you with the cultural literacy you need to make sense of challenging texts and the complex world around you. We will show you how the stories and ideas from the past have influenced and inspired many of today’s ideas and references.

As a team, we will passionately, strategically and collaboratively work to support every student to develop the English skills and knowledge they need for life.”

All students study the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum in English. During Key Stage 3, we aim to both revisit, and develop, the skills learnt at Key Stage 2. In doing this, we cover a broad range of texts that will begin to prepare students for the requirements of GCSE once they are in Year 10. The mastery of literacy and vocabulary remains at the heart of the Key Stage 3 English curriculum. All students study a range of prose, poetry, drama and non-fiction texts, as well having regular library lessons.

The Key Stage 4 curriculum is split into separate English Literature and English Language lessons. This is to focus thoroughly on the different skills and requirements of each paper. All students are entered for both Literature and Language at the end of Year 11. Our current set texts are: ‘Macbeth’, ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘An Inspector Calls’ and the AQA Poetry Anthology: Power and Conflict cluster. A number of staff within the department are GCSE Examiners and run masterclasses to support students with exam skills.

The English Department is passionate about Literature and its potential to help us understand and improve both ourselves and the world around us. We offer AQA A Level English Literature at Key Stage 5. This course continues to build on the skills from GCSE Literature, but with a greater focus on literary criticism and academic writing. There are two exam papers and an independent coursework unit which allow students to plan, research and compare texts of their choice.

Students in Years 7-9 follow the IB Middle Years Programme Language and Literature course, whilst meeting the requirements of the National Curriculum. Learners develop skills in analysis, exploring how writers use language and structure effectively, and making links between texts and their contexts; this allows them to understand social and cultural diversity. Our students justify their opinions and ideas using relevant terminology, guiding them towards advocating for themselves and others in the future. These students connect and evaluate texts and ideas, fostering higher level thinking skills. Our KS3 students learn how to organise and support their ideas, and practise producing texts for different audiences, vital skills for later education and in the workplace. We explicitly teach students how to speak and write accurately, setting them up for working in formal contexts. We encourage wider reading and written accuracy through dedicated Library and literacy lessons. Through KS3, we prepare students for the rigour of KS4, where they study prose, poetry, writings from the nineteenth century and Shakespeare. 

Students in Year 10 and 11 undergo robust GCSE courses, in which they study high quality and challenging texts from a range of genres, building on the critical and compositional skills that they have used at KS3. Students learn how to write clearly, competently and impactfully under time pressure – a key capability for later education and in the workplace. Overall, we develop learners’ abilities and resilience whatever their starting point. Reading and writing independently is an essential and a unique process to every child or young person, and our curriculum aims to support every student in reading and writing successfully.

All students complete AQA GCSE English Language (8700) and AQA GCSE English Literature (8702). Our current set texts are: ‘Macbeth’, ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘An Inspector Calls’ and the AQA Poetry Anthology: Power and Conflict cluster. A number of staff within the department are GCSE Examiners, and we provide support sessions and masterclasses for students.

English Literature at Key Stage 5 continues to build on the skills from GCSE Literature, but with a greater focus on literary criticism and academic writing. There are two exam papers and an independent coursework unit which allow students to plan, research and compare texts of their choice.