1. English Subject Knowledge Audit
Initial Subject Knowledge Audit
Create a document using the following template. Copy elements from the left hand
column and paste into the appropriate RAG column. As the year progresses, you should
be moving elements from left to right, and recording in the right hand column evidence
of your subject knowledge development.
English
Basic
awareness Improving
knowledge
Secure (but not
necessarily expert)
knowledge
Date and
relevant
action,
experience,
reading or
other
Curriculum
Frameworks
National Curriculum
for English
National
Curriculum for
English
GCSE specifications
from more than one
board, in English,
English Language and
English Literature
GCSE
specifications
from more than
one board, in
English, English
Language and
English
Literature
Areas of Study:
Writing
Use of talk to prompt
writing, creative
writing prompts,
treatment of writing
as process, editing,
Use of talk to
prompt writing,
creative writing
prompts,
treatment of
writing as
process,
editing,

2. Reading
phonics, skimming,
scanning,
phonics,
skimming,
scanning,
Speaking and
Listening
Group work (different
structures), roleplay,
presentation, public
speaking,
Group work
(different
structures), role
play, presentation,
public speaking,
Linguistic/ literary
devices
metaphor, simile,
rhetorical questions,
alliteration,
assonance,
onomatopoeia,
juxtaposition,
oxymoron, etc
metaphor, simile,
rhetorical
questions,
alliteration,
assonance,
onomatopoeia,
juxtaposition,
oxymoron, etc
English literary
heritage (pre-
twentieth century)
Shakespeare e.g.
Macbeth etc including
contextual knowledge
about his time and
society, and
Elizabethan theatre
performance.
Shakespeare e.g.
Othello, Romeo &
Juliet, A
Midsummer’s Night
Dream including
contextual
knowledge about
his time and
society, and
Elizabethan theatre
performance.
e.g.
Other Renaissance
playwrights;
Romantics; Gothic;
Restoration Comedy;
Chaucer; Austen;
Hardy; Eliot; Dickens;
Brontës; etc.
Other Renaissance
playwrights;
Romantics; Gothic;
Restoration
Comedy; Chaucer;
Austen; Hardy;
Eliot; Dickens;
Brontës; etc.
English literary
heritage (twentieth
century) e.g. First
World War Poetry;
Golding; Steinbeck;
First World War
Poetry;
Golding;
Steinbeck;
Plath;

3. Plath; Pinter etc
Contemporary
Writers e.g.
Morpurgo, Duffy,
Armitage, Heaney,
Syal, etc
Morpurgo,
Duffy,
Armitage,
Heaney
Writers
representing
cultures and
traditions other
than White British
e.g. Agard,
Zephaniah, Syal, Toni
Morrison, Maya
Angelou, Chinua
Achebe, Peter Carey,
etc etc!
Behn,
Zephaniah,
Collins,
KS3 novelists e.g.
Morpurgo, Pullman,
Sachar, Gleitzman,
Blackman etc.
Morpurgo,
Pullman,
Sachar,
Gleitzman,
Blackman
etc.
Morpurgo,
Collins, Almond,
KS3 plays e.g.
versions of Dracula,
Our Day Out etc.
e.g. versions of
Dracula,
Language
• Word classes
Word classes
• Sentence Types
Sentence Types
• Sentence parsing
(syntax)
Sentence
parsing
(syntax)
• Clauses
Clauses
• Tenses
Tenses
Punctuation Punctuation
Other topics used
to teach English
e.g. Greek myths
e.g. Greek
myths
Greek
Mythology,
Ballads

4. Spoken Language
Study (GCSE)
• variations of usage
in both spoken and
written language.
• variations of
usage in both
spoken and
written
language.
• how geographical,
social, personal and
historical variation
shape and change
forms and meanings
in language.
• how
geographical,
social, personal
and historical
variation shape
and change
forms and
meanings in
language.
• frameworks for the
study of language,
e.g. pragmatics, face
theory, semantics.
•
frameworks
for the study
of language,
e.g.
pragmatics,
face theory,
semantics.
Post 16 (English/
English with Drama
Specialists only):
N/A
Skills and
understanding
specific to English
Literature teaching
• how texts relate to
the contexts in which
they were written,
including the
importance of cultural
and historical
influences on texts
and the relevance of
the author’s life and
his/her other works;
• the significance of
literary traditions,
periods and
movements in relation
to texts studied;
• the ways in which
texts have been
interpreted and
valued by different
N/A

5. readers at different
times, acknowledging
that interpretation of
literary texts can
depend on a reader’s
assumptions and
stance;
• the connections and
comparisons between
texts and how texts
relate to one another
Range could include:
• Shakespeare
• texts published
before 1900
• texts of sufficient
substance and quality
to merit serious
consideration, and
written originally in
English
• texts published
before 1770 (pre-
Romantic),
• texts covering
prose, poetry and
drama.
Skills and
understanding
specific to English
Language teaching
• frameworks for the
systematic study of
the structure of
language, including
phonology, lexis,
grammar, semantics
and pragmatics;
• variations of usage
in both spoken and
written language
• frameworks for
elucidating the
structure of language,
• variations in
language according to
mode (speech and
writing) and context;
• the application and
usefulness, of
N/A

6. different linguistic
frameworks for the
description and
analysis of speech
and writing;
• how geographical,
social, personal and
historical variation
shape and change
forms and meanings
in language.

7. different linguistic
frameworks for the
description and
analysis of speech
and writing;
• how geographical,
social, personal and
historical variation
shape and change
forms and meanings
in language.