About the programmes of study
Much of the new secondary curriculum for English will be familiar, although there is a new structure for the subject, which is consistent across the curriculum, and a reduction in the degree to which content is prescribed. The common structure presents more opportunities for making links between subjects and so helps to develop more coherent experiences of the curriculum and independent learning.
There are now separate programmes of study for Key Stages 3 and 4. In addition, the previous layout and organisation of the programmes have been altered.
- Key concepts and key processes replace the previous single heading of 'Knowledge, skills and understanding':
- the four key concepts of competence, creativity, cultural understanding and critical understanding are designed to run across both Key Stages 3 and 4, and outline the essential concepts that should underpin the study of English
- the key processes set out the skills and ways of addressing these concepts.
- The previous heading 'Breadth of study' has been replaced by range and content, but fulfils a similar function in setting out the variety and range of activities and source texts or materials encountered.
- A section on curriculum opportunities sets out the ways in which English study can encompass a range of rich experiences within and beyond the classroom, for example via cross-curricular links, visits by professional performers or writers, or experiences of real audiences outside the school.
- Across all areas of the document, the separate sections within Processes and skills have been reduced and conflated in the new programmes so that, for example in Reading, sections such as 'Understanding texts', 'Understanding the author's craft', 'English literary heritage', 'Texts from different cultures and traditions', and so on, have been brought together under the two core headings of Reading for meaning and The author's craft. A similar process has occurred in Speaking and listening, and in Writing. The key intention is to allow greater links between the various aspects of English.
About the programmes of study for English
The key messages to take from the new programmes of study, which will impact on planning in all sections, are:
- the greater attention to creativity across all areas, not limited to what is generally called 'imaginative writing' (i.e. fiction and poetry, in particular) but encompassing problem solving, making connections, playfulness and experimentation in learning, and being open to different and multiple interpretations of texts
- a broader interpretation of culture (not just literary), for example in exploring how technological developments influence, and are influenced by, language forms and processes
- the notion of 'challenge' as pupils progress, both in terms of what they do and what they experience – in other words, an aspirational curriculum
- the idea of pupils developing an independent, individual and critical voice, exemplified by phrases such as 'independent interpretation' in the Reading programme of study for Key Stage 4
- the importance of making links and connections between Speaking and listening, Reading and Writing but also within, between and across texts, ideas and forms
- the idea of texts as broad and wide-ranging, encompassing electronic texts as well as more conventional printed forms, and the new ways of reading and responding to them that may be required (for example in assessing the validity of a web source)
- the importance of taking pupils beyond the 'comfort zone' of what they know or have experienced already, into unfamiliar situations and contexts and taking account of different audiences
- the flexibility of the new programmes (mirrored in the renewed Framework) which will allow departments to plan schemes which integrate the demands of the different aspects of the English curriculum, and thus improve learning and pupils' engagement in the process.
