“To cultivate understanding, knowledge, and appreciation of both the English language and its literature, allowing students to develop their English language skills both creatively and critically, giving students the opportunity to not only make the most of the world they inhabit, but also to explore other worlds and cultures.”
Year 7
During Y7 pupils will read a variety of poetry, prose, and drama texts by a range of modern and classic writers including Shakespeare and 19th Century prose authors.
Term 1 |
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In the first term, Y7 students study 20th century literature and Animal Farm , introducing the skills of inference and deduction, unpicking the language effects, and exploring the significance of a text’s social and historical context. |
| Homework: All key stage 3 pupils are expected to keep a reading journal, logging their extra-curricular reading. Students are expected to read for at least an hour a week and complete activities based on their reading. Once a cycle, these reading journals will be discussed with their teacher during a library lesson where they can exchange books, seek guidance on their reading and discuss their reading with their teacher and peers. |
Term 2 |
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Students will undertake a mystery literature unit. They will explore a range of extracts and short stories within the genre, such as Sherlock Holmes and ‘Whodunnit’ plays, and use this knowledge to craft their own mystery writing. |
| Homework: All key stage 3 pupils are expected to keep a reading journal, logging their extra-curricular reading. Students are expected to read for at least an hour a week and complete activities based on their reading. Once a cycle, these reading journals will be discussed with their teacher during a library lesson where they can exchange books, seek guidance on their reading and discuss their reading with their teacher and peers. |
Term 3 |
| Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream or The Merchant of Venice. Year 7 students will study one of Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy plays, exploring The Bard’s crafting of themes, characters, language and structure. Learning of social and historical context will inform the students’ understanding of Shakespeare’s skill and the ways in which audiences have engaged with, and enjoyed, his play for centuries. |
| Homework: All key stage 3 pupils are expected to keep a reading journal, logging their extra-curricular reading. Students are expected to read for at least an hour a week and complete activities based on their reading. Once a cycle, these reading journals will be discussed with their teacher during a library lesson where they can exchange books, seek guidance on their reading and discuss their reading with their teacher and peers. |
Year 8
Year 8 English is structured thematically: beginning with myths and legends (classic and modern); moving through to a class novel (usually Lord of the Flies or Oliver Twist) culminating in a linguistic study of accent and dialect; and poetry from a diverse range of voices.
Term 1 |
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Pupils will start this term by studying a sample of tales from Old English and Beowulf, to ballads such as The Lady of Shallot; finishing with modern adaptations of classic fairy tales and urban myths and legends. Alongside these classic tales students will be introduced to areas of literary criticism such as narrative theory and feminist criticism to open up new areas for interpretation. This unit is designed to combine classic fiction with non fiction, as ‘myths and legends’ emerges as a label by which to study modern day media, fake news and bias. Students will learn how to read the media responsibly; how to challenge and scrutinise bias to seek the truth. |
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Homework: All key stage 3 pupils are expected to keep a reading journal, logging their extra-curricular reading. Students are expected to read for at least an hour a week and complete activities based on their reading. Once a cycle, these reading journals will be discussed with their teacher during a library lesson where they can exchange books, seek guidance on their reading and discuss their reading with their teacher and peers. In year 8, students will be encouraged to read around their English studies, seeking texts that inform and extend their class learning, for example a novel by a neurodivergent author to support their study of Other Voices Poetry, or another novel by William Golding to inform their understanding of writer’s craft in Lord of the Flies. |
Term 2 |
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Students will begin this term with an in-depth study of a prose text, building on the key skills developed in Year 7: inference and deduction; analysis and evaluation; and exploration of the novel as a product of its social and historical context. The novel of study will be Lord of the Flies by William Golding or Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Students will learn to prepare an extended, essay style response to a creative text, and to write in the style of the chosen author. |
| Homework: All key stage 3 pupils are expected to keep a reading journal, logging their extra-curricular reading. Students are expected to read for at least an hour a week and complete activities based on their reading. Once a cycle, these reading journals will be discussed with their teacher during a library lesson where they can exchange books, seek guidance on their reading and discuss their reading with their teacher and peers. In year 8, students will be encouraged to read around their English studies, seeking texts that inform and extend their class learning, for example a novel by a neurodivergent author to support their study of Other Voices Poetry, or another novel by William Golding to inform their understanding of writer’s craft in Lord of the Flies. |
Term 3 |
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This module is titled ‘Diverse Voices’ and begins with ‘an exploration of my idiolect’ – a linguistic study of influences on language and dialect and how personal voices are expressed through our literature. Students will study a range of poetry and short texts from diverse voices, alongside learning how to craft their own poetry to express their own unique voice and experience. |
| Homework: All key stage 3 pupils are expected to keep a reading journal, logging their extra-curricular reading. Students are expected to read for at least an hour a week and complete activities based on their reading. Once a cycle, these reading journals will be discussed with their teacher during a library lesson where they can exchange books, seek guidance on their reading and discuss their reading with their teacher and peers. In year 8, students will be encouraged to read around their English studies, seeking texts that inform and extend their class learning, for example a novel by a neurodivergent author to support their study of Other Voices Poetry, or another novel by William Golding to inform their understanding of writer’s craft in Lord of the Flies. |
Year 9
Term 1 |
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Students will study a demanding and engaging prose text such as The Hunger Games or Maggot Moon. This will allow them to develop more sophisticated analysis and discussion skills in preparation for the GCSE year. This Dystopian Worlds unit requires that students read widely: suggested texts range from Orwell’s 1984, Golding’s Lord of the Flies, O Brien’s Z for Zachariah and Ness’ More Than This. This enables students to place literature in context, as well as practise the key skills of comparison and critique. |
| Homework: All key stage 3 pupils are expected to keep a reading journal, logging their extra-curricular reading. Students are expected to read for at least an hour a week and complete activities based on their reading. Once a cycle, these reading journals will be discussed with their teacher during a library lesson where they can exchange books, seek guidance on their reading and discuss their reading with their teacher and peers. In year 9 students will be encouraged to read more sophisticated novels that will prepare them for study at GCSE level; novels studied at GCSE level include texts such as Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird and Pigeon English. |
Term 2 |
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In the second, students will study Shakespeare’s The Tempest in a course of study that mirrors key aspects of the GCSE examinations. Analysis and evaluation skills which underpin both GCSE Language and Literature will be explicitly taught and developed, as will the study of the play as a product of its social and historical context. As year 9 students, more complicated themes such as colonialism and racism can be explored and criticised through their study. |
| Homework: All key stage 3 pupils are expected to keep a reading journal, logging their extra-curricular reading. Students are expected to read for at least an hour a week and complete activities based on their reading. Once a cycle, these reading journals will be discussed with their teacher during a library lesson where they can exchange books, seek guidance on their reading and discuss their reading with their teacher and peers. In year 9 students will be encouraged to read more sophisticated novels that will prepare them for study at GCSE level; novels studied at GCSE level include texts such as Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird and Pigeon English. |
Term 3 |
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This unit explores the gothic genre through a prose study of The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. This unit provides a grounding for the GCSE literature exam, as well as GCSE English Language paper 2 which uses nineteenth-century non-fiction extracts as its base. Pupils will complete a closed book response to a GCSE examination style question which will prepare them for GCSE style examinations. |
| Homework: All key stage 3 pupils are expected to keep a reading journal, logging their extra-curricular reading. Students are expected to read for at least an hour a week and complete activities based on their reading. Once a cycle, these reading journals will be discussed with their teacher during a library lesson where they can exchange books, seek guidance on their reading and discuss their reading with their teacher and peers. In year 9 students will be encouraged to read more sophisticated novels that will prepare them for study at GCSE level; novels studied at GCSE level include texts such as Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird and Pigeon English. |
Year 10
Please note that the current Year 10 are undertaking the first year of the new GCSE: alphabetic grades are no longer used for English, students will be awarded a number from 1-9 at the end of the course, with 9 being the highest grade achievable (equivalent to an A*).
Term 1 |
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We deliver a ‘Taster Unit’ introducing students to the structure of the exam-only GCSE course, focusing specifically on the reading and writing skills required in Paper 1 of the English Language exam paper. |
Term 2 |
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This is followed by an in-depth study of the first literature prose text: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Students will need to know this text thoroughly for the Year 11 exam. |
Term 3 |
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In this term, students will complete a module in advanced writing skills to help prepare them for the two English Language papers: sentence and paragraph structures, figurative and rhetorical techniques. This will be underpinned with spelling, grammar and punctuation revision to ensure students achieve their full potential. This will be complemented by practising comparison and evaluation skills: applying them to non-fiction texts in preparation for English Language Paper 2. During this term, students will consolidate their study of the Power and Conflict poetry cluster (English Literature Paper 2) so by the end of Year 10 they will have studied 4-6 poems from the cluster. Further into the summer term, students will prepare for their mock exams and will consolidate their learning from across the year: revision activities, summarising and addressing targets from their portfolio of exam skills and techniques. |
Year 11
Term 1 |
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Students will study a Shakespeare play. This year (2017-2018) will be Romeo and Juliet. This is one of the set texts in the literature exams. As the exam questions are extract-based, students must be prepared to respond to any passage from the play: this requires regular application of analysis skills and an excellent working knowledge of the themes and ideas in the text. After half-term, the skill focus is making comparisons between texts.
English Language exam skills: preparing students for the reading and writing sections of the exam papers – analysing fiction (paper 1) and non-fiction (paper 2) in the first sections of each exam paper; also writing creatively (paper 1) and discursively (paper 2).
A mock for Paper 2 (non-fiction) in English Language and revision for the 19th century text and Shakespeare (Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Romeo and Juliet) will take students up to the Christmas holidays.
Throughout the school year, students will prepare for the literature poetry exam on ‘Poetry Fridays’: covering a selection of modern and established poetry exploring the interrelated themes of power and conflict; building on the foundation from Year 10. |
Term 2 |
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Students will study a modern text: either An Inspector Calls or Lord of the Flies. This is the final text that students will study for the literature exams. Waiting until the penultimate term means the text is fresh in their minds for the upcoming exams. They need to be prepared to answer questions on the themes, ideas, language and structural effects. For more able students: identifying and commenting on patterns in the presentation (motifs, contrasts etc.) are key skills for this term. As above, Poetry Fridays will continue in this term |
Term 3 |
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Exam revision and preparation for all four exams. Homework will focus on consolidation and revision of key skills and texts. |
Key Stage 5 |
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AS and A2 level English builds on the analysis and argument skills of GCSE: giving students the breadth and depth of a range of world and classical literatures. English Literature is a well-respected traditional academic and, as such, is seen as a desirable qualification for progression to university and within most careers: after all, communication is key in every walk of life. |
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At AS Level, we study a range of texts within the tragedy genre at Year 12, including Shakespeare, modern texts and American writing: drama, prose and poetry are all covered in depth. Further, an extensive wider reading component ensures students have a good grasp of literary tradition. Students are entered for two exam papers at the end of the Year 12 (which can complete the AS qualification if desired). |
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Year 13 (A2 Level) builds on the skills developed in Year 12. Students can choose to study crime writing or political writing for their examined topics: three texts within the chosen genre are studied in depth, leading to two examination papers. Students then have more freedom to pursue independent study and texts of their choice in the coursework component, which is supervised by the teacher in negotiation with the student’s own interests. Finally, unseen extracts are used in the examination to test a student’s analysis, evaluation and inference skills. |