At Waterside Academy, we recognise that every pupil brings diverse prior experiences in learning English and engaging with the curriculum. Our English curriculum is designed to reflect this diversity, offering multiple opportunities for students to engage with rich texts and varied vocabulary. We aim to inspire a love for studying English, encouraging critical thinking about language and connecting learning to students' lives beyond school. This helps raise aspirations and fosters an understanding of how literature and language shape the world, supporting their transition to further education or employment. 

Our approach is flexible, nurturing pupils' interests while focusing on developing key communication skills. We prioritise oracy, as we believe proficiency in language, vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension is essential for progress in spoken language, reading, and writing. 

Aligned with the national curriculum, we focus on fluency, broad vocabulary, appreciation of literary heritage, clear writing, discussion, and strengthening spoken language across various contexts. 

At Waterside Academy, we offer two curriculums:

1. A textually rich continuity curriculum for learners engaging in our offer for more than 12 weeks.

This curriculum focusses on securing incrementally challenging and high-utility subject knowledge that will enable all learners to get as far as they can go. Our sequencing is thoughtful and connected, ensuring that learners have a rich schema and a deeper understanding of author craft. If learners remain with us until year 11, they are well-prepared for the expectations of KS4 qualifications both personally and academically. If learners return to mainstream, we are confident that the high utility knowledge focused on during their time with us, will lend itself well to any English curriculum offer.

Our Main Curriculum Learning Journey

2. A textually rich 12-week turnaround/re-engagement curriculum to reconnect learners positively to the subject and prepare them for a confident return to a mainstream setting.

In this curriculum, learners benefit from the research-based Faster Reading approach to two highly engaging texts that have natural opportunities for personal growth. They also complete a Knowledge Rich Writers scheme of learning that takes a systematic approach to writing development and ensures every learner can be successful. Learners will complete a meaningful assessment that they can take away. The assessment will demonstrate that learners have improved their vocabulary, topic knowledge and subject terminology alongside their ability to connect and express knowledge and viewpoints. As a result of these improvements, learner confidence is enhanced.

For learners who are identified as having phonics and grapheme-phoneme correspondence needs, we believe the greatest gift we can give them during their short time with us is access to intense intervention with a highly trained professional.

12 Week Roadmap