In Kinver’s English department, we pride ourselves on teaching engaging lessons that nurture a love of literature and a confidence with the English language. Our curriculum is planned to explore poetry, prose and drama from Shakespeare’s era to the present day. We choose texts with interesting themes and exciting plots to broaden students’ minds!

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Students also read challenging non-fiction and develop their own creative voices through crafting written pieces, engaging in group discussions, delivering presentations and exploring drama activities. We support our formal curriculum with enriching extra-curricular opportunities – ranging from public speaking to theatre trips to creative writing competitions and drama performances.

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Literacy has a high profile across our whole school curriculum. Each half term, students at Kinver are introduced to a list of ambitious vocabulary. We support and challenge our students to enjoy learning new words and use a more mature lexis both verbally and in their written work. Students have risen to the challenge of this ambitious vocabulary initiative by applying words such as ‘catalyst’, ‘hierarchy’ and ‘tyranny’ into their work across a wide range of subjects.

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Academic Year 2020-21 Ambitious Vocabulary:  

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Spelling, punctuation and grammar skills are reinforced during tutor time, particularly at KS3, where forms complete a range of short, fun activities and games on key SPaG skills. We know that literacy is a shared responsibility; our students understand that literacy skills are applicable to all of their subjects and life beyond the school environment.

 

This academic year we launched a new Invictus wide online programme called ‘Reading Rewards’ in which students can: see what books staff are reading, see which books teachers recommend for them to read, track the number of pages they have read and complete a range of engaging challenges for points and prizes! This has been an excellent addition to the variety of reading programmes that are already embedded into our curriculum, such as Accelerated Reader. 

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Further to this, we are excited to be launching our very own vocabulary testing and monitoring system in September so watch this space!

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