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Learning at Crawshaw Academy

English

Crawshaw - Library - 2023Our English curriculum at Crawshaw is designed to empower our students by teaching them to write and speak with fluency and purpose, developing fundamental skills and knowledge that have intrinsic value to their lives.

Our curriculum is broad and balanced, engendering an enjoyment of reading across a range of forms, styles, genres and time periods.

Our aim is to promote high standards of language and literacy, and to broaden our students’ horizons so they can become thoughtful, perceptive and confident young people.

We challenge them to:

  • Think critically with measured analysis and evaluation
  • write fluently with thought and purpose
  • appreciate other views and perspectives, as well as recognising reflections of their own
  • speak confidently about their opinions and ideas
  • develop creativity, empathy and personal growth
  • grasp opportunities to enjoy our subject beyond the classroom.

With this focus, we encourage our students to become articulate, emotionally intelligent and open-minded individuals, ready to make a positive contribution to the wider community.


Head of Faculty:

  • Mrs E Button and John Tompkinson  (Joint Faculty Leaders)

Programme Leader:

  • Mr T. Knight

Subject Teachers:

  • Ms F Roe

  • Miss L Presswell

  • Miss A McCarthy Jackson

  • Dr S Lambert

  • Miss E Hodgson Thomson


Curriculum overview including links to exam board specifications

Key Stage 3

Each class has 7 periods of English across a fortnight timetable in Years 7 and 8, increasing to 8 in Year 9. We work hard to foster a love of reading during Key Stage 3, with one session each week taking place in the LRC. In addition, we carefully select our key texts to ensure students are engaged as well as challenged. Learners in Year 7, 8 and 9 are taught in mixed ability sets. Regular monitoring of progress occurs during the year using common assessments for each topic and external national assessments. Our Year 9 curriculum is a transition year to GCSE – we do not teach the texts of the GCSE course but focus on preparing learners by ensuring skills and knowledge required for success at GCSE are embedded.

Learners receive homework regularly with Homework Takeaways set for each topic we study. This allows learners to choose the types of homework which they will enjoy completing and which will be the most beneficial for them. In addition, learners also improve their vocabulary and reading by following the Bedrock Mapper Learning programme. This website helps learners to learn very important academic vocabulary. As learners progresses through the curriculum, they will study hundreds of words, whilst reading fiction and non-fiction texts regularly. For more information, visit: https://www.bedrocklearning.org. Finally, all learners are expected to have a reading book with them every day in school and be reading for at least 1 hour each week.

KS3 Visual Curriculum Map 2022

Key Stage 4

Learners are placed in mixed ability classes. Our Key Stage 4 learners pursue the AQA qualifications.  Our teaching time is 9 hours per fortnight in Year 10 and 8 hours per fortnight in Year 11 to deliver the English Literature and English Language GCSEs. A small number of selected learners also undertake the Step Up to English qualifications to ensure that all learners attain at least one qualification in English.

The English Language course consists of 2 papers taken at the end of the two years assessing learners’ ability to read and respond to both fiction and non-fiction texts and their ability to write to describe and to express an opinion. In addition, there is a Spoken Language presentation which is assessed by the class teacher.

The English Literature course consists of 2 papers taken at the end of the course. These provide learners the opportunity to show their understanding of a Modern Text, a Shakespearean tragedy, a 19th century novel and Poetry that they have studied from an anthology and ones that they have not seen before.

The link to the AQA website can be found here.

Learners continue to receive homework with Homework Takeaways set for each topic. In addition, learners are provided with log-ins to enable them to access resources developed by Seneca Learning and Century Tech. There are also study guides provided by York Notes and CGP. Finally, there is a lot of support on a variety of websites – BBC Bitesize and Mr Bruff lectures and YouTube videos are often popular with learners.7

Year 10 Course Outline 2022-23

Year 11 Course Outline 2022-23

Media Studies

Our Curriculum Intent

Our Media Studies curriculum is designed to encourage our students to become perceptive, critical thinkers. They develop an awareness that a medium is a form of communication that is carefully constructed to deliver a particular message, and are encouraged to seek reasons for such constructions.

Our aim is to promote confident, reasoned thinking in our students and to develop in them an ability to challenge the representations that they see around themselves. We expose them to a wide range of media forms from both the past and present. By discussing these, we encourage them to acknowledge the perspectives of others, form their own views about the representations in particular media texts, consider the reasons for such representations and reach conclusions about how these reflect our ever-changing society.

We challenge our students to articulate these ideas in writing that is fluent, informed and purposefully structured, and that makes reference to the key concepts underlying the subject. In addition to analysis and evaluation, we encourage our students to develop their creative, visual skills by giving them the opportunity to produce media texts of their own.

 Our focus on careers and enrichment activities creates a link between the classroom and the world beyond, and allows our students to recognise how their acquired skills can be transferred to the workplace. Our curriculum is one that is highly relevant and thought-provoking, and one that aims to broaden our students’ horizons.


Do you enjoy engaging with the media, questioning what you see and hear, and analysing the ways in which people, places and issues are represented? Do you ever wonder why a media product may be so appealing to its audience? Then Media Studies could be for you!

GCSE Media is a highly popular course at Crawshaw – our students comment that it is varied, engaging and most importantly to them, it is relevant. Media Studies can pave the way for a wide range of careers including journalism, advertising and marketing, publishing, social media and events management, TV/radio production, teaching/lecturing, public relations, ICT, web content management and writing. 

GCSE Media Studies is currently offered to students in Year 9 (one class) and to students in Years 10 and 11 (two classes in each year).  Our learners are placed in mixed ability groups, are taught for 4 to 5 hours a fortnight and have access to the editing software installed on our iPads and computers.

Students in Years 10 and 11 follow the Eduqas Media Studies course which is linear, and covers a huge range of media forms including Television, Music Videos, Film, Advertising, Magazines, Newspapers, Radio and Video Games. In addition to the two examinations at the end of Year 11, our students have the opportunity to design a DVD cover and a film poster (NEA) which count for 30% of their final grades.

Our Year 9 students are introduced to the key concepts and theories underlying the subject and again learn about a wide range of topics from soap operas to Bond movies. Year 9 students have the opportunity to show off their creative skills, creating storyboards, posters, trailers and advertisements.

Learners receive regular homework involving independent research, design work and exam practice. Their teachers may also set them a Seneca Learning assignment to complete. Students in Years 10 and 11 are given Enrichment Booklets for each topic covered – these include tasks to supplement their current learning in the classroom and to embed previously taught content. Finally, extra support can be gained from the BBC GCSE Bitesize website.

The Media department is keen that students experience the media world outside of the school gates and to date, our students have taken part in an IntoFilm Film Festival, have visited Emmerdale Studios and have participated in an Animation workshop with Pudsey Library. Students in Year 8 have also had the opportunity to attend a fortnightly Film Club during which they have been allowed to watch and discuss movies of their choice.

Media Curriculum Map Year 9

Media Curriculum Map Year 10

Media Curriculum Map Year 11


The link to the Eduqas website can be found here –

http://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/media-studies/gcse/


Extra-Curricular

We believe it is important to try to engender an enjoyment of all aspects of Literacy through English and we look for opportunities for learners to develop these skills in competitions and trips and visits. For example, in recent years, we arranged for Theatre Trips to The Globe Theatre in London to see Macbeth, An Inspector Calls, Romeo and Juliet, a visit to Poetry Live and the Into Film Festival, a performance of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the BBC School Report and our learners participated in the Ilkley Festival Poetry Slam (narrowly missing out on retaining our crown from 2018.) Students across Key Stages are invited to be a part of the Crawshaw News Team, learning key skills for critical questioning and writing informatively about Crawshaw News, as well as discussing national and international issues which affect young people today. We encourage as many learners as possible to take part in all the opportunities we offer.


Homework Spring Term 2023

Yr 7 Face Our Day Out Takeaway Homework 2022-23

Yr 8 Macbeth Takeaway Homework 2022-23

Yr 9 Great Expectations Takeaway Homework 2022-23

Yr 10 AIC Takeaway Homework 2022-23

Crawshaw Academy is part of Red Kite Learning Trust, a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales with company number 7523507, registered office address: Red Kite Office, Pannal Ash Road, Harrogate, HG2 9PH

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