Whatever the nature of the local community, students are growing up in a wider multicultural and multiracial society where they are subject to various attitudes towards minority groups, and also certain images of these groups portrayed by the media. The school’s Equality Objectives should be read in conjunction with the wider school policies.
Good schools go beyond a commitment to academic excellence; they aim to educate the whole person through holistic development and extra-curricular endeavours. At Humphrey Perkins School we endorse that aim in the knowledge that if we provide a good quality and exciting academic education, taking a close interest in each individual with the highest standard of teaching, we will produce well-rounded students; able and eager to fulfill their potential in all aspects of life.
We believe that all young people will respond to challenge as long as that challenge is relevant to their individual needs and aspirations. So we have developed a curriculum that meets the needs, sparks the imagination, and brings the best out of each individual student according to his or her ambition, aspirations, ability, interests and learning styles.
We aim to stimulate, motivate and cultivate intellectual curiosity, develop our students awareness and understanding as well as leadership and communication skills. We want all our students to be good citizens as well as good companions and to have fun! We encourage and expect high standards of behaviour and presentation and nurture strong character values.
There is a focused commitment on 'Teaching and Learning' and we are proud of what we do. There is an emphasis on mutual support through which we develop our shared professionalism. We are reflective and adaptive in our practice. We are happy to try out new ideas, because we want to ensure that every student succeeds.
Celebrating genuine success is an important aspect of building self confidence and developing a sense of pride and ambition. There are many ways in which we highlight achievement, from HP Award badges in assembly to photos around the site. All students are expected to celebrate the success of others.
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English opens up your child to the whole curriculum and develops both sides of their brain. Being literate and articulate will help your child be a success throughout their lives.
English teachers at Humphrey Perkins want our students to be: knowledgeable, resilient, articulate and empathic.
We are acutely aware that the local context has historically allowed students to have low, or unrealistic, aspirations which is why we unashamedly teach ambitiously challenging texts. All students, regardless of prior attainment, are exposed to the ambitious challenge and rigour of canonical texts in preparation for the prescribed GCSE content.
Our curriculum, is grounded in English Literature, because we believe that it is through secure foundational literary knowledge and experience that children develop the skills and the references to become instinctive readers and writers. Evidence demonstrates that treating thinking skills as abstract from content leads to students writing thin, superficial responses and that by grounding skill in relevant and enriching knowledge, students will become scholarly and confident. Our curriculum reflects this approach to education. Our curriculum is built on the understanding that skills are domain specific and are therefore limited without subject-specific, broad, secure knowledge foundations. Our curriculum ensures that by the time children begin Key Stage 4 (in Year 10), they have been taught two full novels, 3 full plays (including a Shakespearean tragedy and comedy), the canonical, and influential contemporary poets, classical Greek and Anglo- Saxon epic narratives, and 6 complete short stories/novellas by canonical 19th century writers. At Key Stage 4, we expect that students can build on the knowledge content of Key Stage 3 and develop their ability to produce original, precise and analytical writing. The 5-year curriculum is sequenced in order to enhance the retrieval and interleaving strategies advocated by the Learning Scientists.
Each year, students are exposed to high-quality texts that not only allows them to deepen their understanding of writers’ craft, but enhances their understanding of historical contexts and a variety of SMSC issues. Many students at Humphrey Perkins have a limited cultural capital and require the opportunity to experience more diversity in order to take their place in the wider world. The choice of texts allows students to develop their own viewpoints on the world and form evaluative and considered responses to issues that are just as prevalent in the modern day as they were in the respective contextual settings. Not only do we strive for students to achieve their potential in terms of academic performance measures, we aim for students to move on to Higher Education and employment as informed and articulate young people. We aim to encourage our students to be passionate and confident about their studies in English, and will retain the powerful knowledge they learn for the rest of their lives.
Please see our department documentation which details our curriculum intent and schemes of work.