Our Curriculum Themes - an Overview

The connections within a curriculum commonly show themselves in the vocabulary used to describe
new concepts through metaphors and explicit comparisons. For students to acquire the vocabulary that
underpins all learning, they must experience it in a variety of contexts. Using Coxhead’s Academic Word
Listi and a list of the 2000 most commonly used words in the English languageii, we have collated around
345 ‘tier two’ words that are likely to inform the connections between various aspects of the curriculum
and that are less likely to arise in children’s day-to-day experiences. The words in red are among the
most commonly used words in written and spoken English.

Full list
abandon, abstract, absolutely, access, accompany, accurate, achieve, acquire, adaptation, advantage,
affect, aid, alter, alternative, analysis, announce, annual, anticipate, appearance, appreciation,
approach, appropriate, area, assessment, association, assume, assumption, atmosphere, attached,
attained, attitudes, attract, audience, authority, automatic, available, aware, basic, benefit, bond, brief,
budget, capable, category, cease, channel, circumstances, civil, clarity, code, collapse, combine,
comment, commit, common, communication, community, compare, complex, component, conceived,
concept, conclusion, condition, confirmed, confined, conflict, conscious, consequences, consider,
consistent, constant, construction, contact, context, contract, contrast, contribution, control,
controversial, converted, convinced, co-operation, core, couple, create, crucial, cultural, cycle, data,
debate, decline, definite, definition demonstrate, deny, design, despite, detect, develop, device,
dimension, discrimination, display, distorted, distribute, diversity, document, dominant, draft, duration,
dynamic, economy, efficient, eliminate, emerged, emphasis, enable, encounter, energy, enhanced,
ensure, entire, environment, equipment, error, establish, estimate, ethical, evaluation, eventually,
evidence, evolution, examine, example, exceed, exchange, excluded, exhibit, exist, expansion,
experience, expert, exploitation, external, extract, factor, familiar, features, file, final, flexibility, focus,
format, foundation, framework, frequent, furthermore, generated, global, goals, government,
guarantee, hierarchy, highlighted, identical, identified, ignored, image, impact, imposed, incident,
indicate, individual, inferred, influence, initial, innovation, input, insert, insight, instruction, intelligence,
intensity, intention, interaction, internal, international, investigate, involved, isolated, issues,
justification, label, layer, limit, link, literature, location, logic, maintain, major, market, maximum, media,
medium, mental, method, migration, military, minimum, monitoring, motivation, national, necessary,
negotiation, neutral, nevertheless, nonetheless, object, objective, obtained, obvious, occur, odd, option,
organise, outcomes, overall, overcome, overseas, period, persistent, perspective, phase, phenomenon
philosophy, physical, political, popular, positive, possession, potential, precise, predicted, previous,
principle, prior, priority, procedure, process, prohibited, propose, prospect, public, published, pursue,
quotation, random, reaction, recognise, recovery, refine, region, rejected, related, release, reluctant,
removed, represent, required, research, reserve, resources, response, restore, retained, revealed,
reverse, revision, revolution, rigid, role, route, schedule, scheme, section, security, select, sensitive,
separate, sequence, series, severe, shift, signal, significant, similar, site, society, solely, source, specific,
stability, standard, strategies, structure, style, subsequent, substitution, sufficient, suitable, summary,
supply, support, survive, sustainable, symbol, system, target, technique, technology, temporary, tension,
text, theme, theory, traditional, transfer, transform, transport, transition, trend, trigger, typical,
underlying, unique, united, variation, via, visible, visual, volume, voluntary, whereas
i
https://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist
ii
https://www.wordfrequency.info/compare_bnc.asp
https://corpus.byu.edu/coca/compare-bnc.asp
https://www.lextutor.ca/freq/lists_download/longman_3000_list.pdf