The English Department at Outwood Academy Brumby is a friendly and welcoming team made up of 7 teachers and three one-to-one tutors.
The department is comprised of a mix of experienced staff and more recent entrants to the profession, and staff in the team put the attainment of students at the heart of their discussions and all they do.
There are many opportunities for staff to develop and a range of career opportunities within the school and the trust, making the English Department at Outwood Academy Brumby a fantastic place to start or continue your career.
Teaching takes place in the department's seven classrooms with every teacher having their own dedicated room.
Every classroom has a visualiser and these are used extensively by the team.
Some classrooms have large television screens and others interactive whiteboards.
There is a library with a wide range of fiction to support students' reading needs which is run by a full-time enthusiastic librarian.The curriculum has been redesigned for knowledge to be developed almost fully through the study of texts, and there has been great investment in new books.
Chosen novels, poetry and plays are culturally interesting, ambitious and engaging, including Ghost Boys taught in Year 7 and Gracefully Grayson in Year 8.
Alongside a range of contemporary fiction, pupils are also exposed to a range of older classic literature including The Water Babies in Year 7, Macbeth in Year 8, and Of Mice and Men in Year 9.There is a strong whole-school literacy strategy which aims to ensure that all students can gain the educational and personal benefits of reading.
This includes reading in form time, Accelerated Reader and a variety of reading interventions for readers who are not yet proficient.
The specialist literacy teaching assistants use the Ruth Miskin phonics programme to support emergent readers.
As in all OGAT secondary academies, the department prepares students for Eduqas GCSE English Language and English Literature qualifications.
The programme of study is fully resourced with high-quality materials produced by staff across the trust who know this specification well.
We aim to make all our teachers 'experts' in preparing students for GCSE examinations, using our thorough and systematic methods devised over many years.
We have the benefit of support from the trust's team of expert English directors, who provide support, materials, advice, coaching and who model and team-teach in lessons alongside us to develop our expertise.