Curriculum | Intent

The English curriculum at Co-op Academy Florence MacWilliams exposes students to the very best that has been thought and said across the literary canon and beyond. It broadens students’ horizons by taking them beyond their lived experiences and encourages them to read, understand and question the world around them. By engaging with ideas and perspectives, students will become articulate, reflective and responsible citizens who understand the power of their voice to influence and advocate for themselves and others. 

Our curriculum is:

• Ambitious and knowledge-rich to ensure that all students, regardless of background or starting point, have access to a broad and challenging curriculum that enables them to know more, do more and remember more.
• Carefully sequenced so that new learning builds upon prior knowledge. This knowledge is broken down into steps which ensures that we approach knowledge at its most granular level. Components are then taught as small steps to allow students to achieve mastery, and become experts in English.
• Underpinned by cognitive science and recognises the importance of working memory, cognitive load theory, retrieval practice and interleaving. This ensures that students develop strong, long-term memories and can apply their knowledge with increasing fluency, confidence and independence. 
• The vehicle through which students acquire and deepen both substantive and conceptual knowledge to understand how meaning is constructed, interpreted and shaped across texts. 
• Inclusive of texts which are both part of the canon and anti-canon to expose students to diverse texts alongside the more traditional, seminal works of literature. This balanced approach enables students to study a range of voices, perspectives and experiences to foster critical thinking and the ability to understand how literature both reflects and challenges society across different times and contexts.
• Designed to ensure that 100% of students are able to achieve at least a grade 4 and above in their English GCSE.