Kenton College Preparatory School
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The subject of English is vital to development in all subjects, an essential skill for adult life as well as being a source of life-long pleasure. We aim to give our pupils an appreciation of the range of uses of the English language, pleasure in its richness and diversity, and the ability to communicate effectively in both speech and writing.
English
Junior
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In the Kenton Junior school, our English curriculum aims for all children to be able to read and write fluently, whilst nurturing and promoting children’s creativity and imagination. With fluent and confident literacy skills, all children should feel confident in communicating their thoughts and ideas both in writing and reading.
Through daily English and guided reading lessons, we expose children to a wide range of genres in order to open up a world of reading skills. Through exciting and engaging texts, children develop their word recognition, vocabulary and comprehension skills to allow for fluent, expressive reading. In addition, we use a range of activities to support children’s comprehension skills to ensure deeper understanding of what they are reading.
At Kenton, we seek to offer as many meaningful writing activities as possible across the curriculum. Through engaging stimuli, the children are encouraged to use their own creativity and imagination, alongside their phonetic, spelling and grammar knowledge, to create detailed and well thought out pieces of writing, alongside developing an expansive knowledge of the features of different genres. Our aim is to allow children to feel proud of their accomplishments, celebrate their writing and to continue their life-long love of literature.
Senior
The broad English curriculum at Kenton focuses on igniting creativity in writing, as well as developing the pupils’ grammar, spelling and punctuation skills. The English teachers are passionate about their subject and have a wealth of experience; this ensures that our pupils are well prepared for their Common Entrance or Scholarship exams to their chosen senior school.
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In their English lessons, the pupils study prose, poetry, playscripts and non-fiction from a range of cultures and periods of history. Our aim is to broaden their understanding of the wider world and to instill a lifelong love of literature and language. Reading is very important to pupils at Kenton, and they are guided to make enjoyable and challenging choices by their English teachers and the Librarian in Kenton’s stimulating library, which is bursting at the seams with wonderful books for all ages.
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As well as celebrating our pupils’ ability to use ambitious vocabulary and to write in original and imaginative ways, we also champion the importance of being able to speak in public with expression, passion and confidence. Therefore, the pupils are given ample opportunities to develop their public speaking skills in the form of debates, dramatic readings, TedX style public speaking competitions, poetry recitation and drama competitions. These speaking and listening experiences mean that our pupils leave Kenton as confident, successful and empowered individuals.
