English
Dear student,
We are very much looking forward to you joining Sheffield Hallam this September for our Initial Teacher Education course in Secondary English. The English curriculum at Sheffield Hallam will support you to think deeply about the aims and purposes of the subject and to explore a range of research-informed pedagogies which characterise effective English teaching. We pride ourselves on the strong alliances we have with our partnership schools, all of which offer the opportunity to work with outstanding teachers who are dedicated to the development of high-quality reflective practitioners.
We are optimistic that your cohort will be another high quality one and one that will make a major contribution to English teaching in our schools across the region.
This is an intensive year, and you will each enter the course with different strengths and areas to develop. In order to prepare you for the course we are recommending some summer reading.
Best wishes,
Deb Niven Malcolm Lomax Helen Fox-White
The Secondary English Team
Key Preparations/Readings:
Below are some recommended texts that provide an overview of subject pedagogy within English and underpin the subject specific curriculum. Additional links to literature are provided on the schedule below and on the online reading list.
- Bleiman, B. (2020). What matters in English Teaching. English & Media Centre.
- Watson, A. & Newman, R. (2022). A Practical Guide to Teaching English in the Secondary School.
- Davison, J. & Daly, C. (2019). Learning to Teach English in the Secondary School: a companion to school experience.
- Green, A. (2011). Becoming a Reflective English Teacher. Open University Press.
- Bryer, T., Pitfield, M., & Coles, J. (2023). Drama at the Heart of English: Transforming practice in secondary schools.
Ofsted research review series: English was published in 2022. This is useful document to explore to provide you with an overview of thinking around curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. This document can be accessed here. Following this publication, a separate subject report for English was published in 2024. This document can be accessed here.
Link to subject and subject association websites:
The National Association for Teachers of English (NATE) is a professional organisation dedicated to sharing and disseminating good practice in English. We strongly recommend that you become a member of NATE to develop your subject knowledge and pedagogy and ensure that you keep up to date with current theory and practice relating to English teaching.
NATE offers £1 a month membership whilst you are on our course. Members will receive copies of the Teaching English magazine and the English in Education journal as well as regular newsletters. We will enrol you at the beginning of the course but please take the time to look at their website.
Other sites of interest;
https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/
https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/
National Literacy Trust | UK Literacy Charity
BookTrust | Getting children reading
Curriculum and Key Specifications:
National Curriculum Programmes of Study: This is the document that sets out the ambition of the KS3 national curriculum in England. You should familiarise yourself with this document.
AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel, Eduqas are the four awarding bodies in England for GCSE and A Levels. Different schools teach different awarding body specifications. You may wish to look at one of the specifications to help develop your understanding of GCSE and A Level content. The DfE (2014) KS4 subject content, aims and learning objectives for GCSE can be found here. All awarding body specifications were developed from this document for first teaching from 2016.
In order to keep up to date with developments in education we recommend that you read the TES (Times Educational Supplement- www.tes.co.uk) and the Guardian Education supplement (www.theguardian.com/education).
Preliminary Subject Knowledge Audit:
After reading through the curriculum and key specifications above, identify the following:
Three key areas in which you feel confident / have substantial experience.
Three key areas where you feel less confident / lack experience.