The overall aim of our English curriculum is to expose students to a wide range of texts to promote a love of reading and create students who are able to go out into the world, accessing it, having thoughts about it and being able to articulate it! Our curriculum aims to build resilience and encourage ambition and aspiration through the literature studied and the tasks embedded into the schemes of work. The analytical, evaluative and communication skills that students develop through the subject are invaluable future preparation for students in the wider world.

At Key Stage 3, we aim to transition Year 7 into their secondary school study by building on skills from year 6 and introducing new skills through texts studied. Our 3 year KS3 Curriculum aims to develop appreciation of reading through reading increasingly challenging texts as per the National Curriculum reading intent. It is also about exposing students to a range of themes and concepts which are fundamental to our GCSE texts as well as ensuring a wide range of texts are covered, particularly where the GCSE choice is so limited. At KS4, the curriculum aims to focus students on the exact skills needed for examinations drawing on the wealth of opportunities presented at KS3.

What do we expect students to get from English?

We expect students to get a love of language and reading from English, alongside personal skills such independence, resilience, perseverance and empathy, as well as skills in communicating both speaking and writing.

How does learning develop over the five years?

Year 7: In Year 7 students are taught to consider writer’s craft in a more advanced way than they would have in Primary school. The main concepts within the scheme are characterisation, themes, syntax, deeper inference and understanding of meaning.

Our transition unit includes the reading of mythology from around the world, as mythology not only opens the door to a world of fantasy, but also encompasses essential moral messages. The reading skills and assessments embedded in the transition unit are designed to consolidate those taught and tested at Primary school, which hold the most weighting: words in context, inference and retrieval. Building on from the transition scheme throughout their time in Year 7 students will: develop and strengthen their summary skills; consolidate their understanding of writing a coherent summary; embedding quotations, whilst showing inference and clear explanation. Students will also become more familiar with skills involved when reading and responding to prose, stepping up from comprehension to deeper inference and analysis, focusing on a wide range of diverse texts from Mythology from around the world, through to Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. Students will have had little to no experience of playscripts and Shakespeare’s works, therefore It is important that students experience Shakespeare in KS3 and are confident in exploring and responding by the time they reach GCSE.

In addition to reading the year 7 schemes of work further build on oracy skills, and enhance vocabulary and writing skills learned in KS2.

Year 8:

The Year 8 schemes of work aim to further develop both reading and writing skills taught in Year 7 and introduce writer’s craft in a more advanced way. Students begin to further develop their inference and analysis skills, when reading a wide range of diverse and challenging text types. Through their time in year 8 students will focus on: building skills in writing- students will write an article where they will draw from and build on their learning from year 7, demonstrating their mastery of writing for a specific audience and purpose ; moving students from looking at whole meaning and inference skills in texts to identifying and analysing a range of authors’ deliberate method choices and their effect. Students will further develop their understanding of values and attitudes explored in a number of different extracts, from modern and 19th century texts.

Our Year 8 schemes not only bridge the way to building both writing and analytical skills in order to develop a deeper understanding of the language and techniques required at GCSE level, but also expose our students to a world and culture quite different from their own. They learn about different cultural ideals as well as exploring important themes of Justice/injustice, inequality and discrimination. .

Year 9:

This year marks the end of our students KS3 journey and a final chance to prepare for the rigours of formal GCSE Language and Literature teaching. By the end of this year, students will have been informally introduced to all reading skills required for GCSE and have completed the range of writing foci that underpins the writing required at GCSE. In September, students are introduced to the theme of gothic with a short film module (which also serves as a taster of A Level Film Studies) and then we study the popular text The Woman in Black. After Christmas, students consider ideas about fate, reading Romeo and Juliet. The year concludes with detective fiction and fittingly, a focus on endings. We look at the traditional Sherlock Holmes short story and the postmodern wounded investigator in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Year 10/11:

We teach the entire content required for GCSE Language and Literature during Year 10. Students are gradually introduced to exam questions so that they will have experienced all elements from all 4 exam papers by the end of the year. Our teaching of Literature determines the structure of the year – we begin with A Christmas Carol in the lead up to Christmas, the shorter and more modern An Inspector Calls follows the Christmas break and leads students into the more challenging play, Macbeth. Lastly we teach poetry which works efficiently around other student commitments during the summer term. Language teaching is linked into this structure and clearly signalled to students. Language analysis and creative writing is first encountered at the same time as the genius Charles Dickens, while the more complex comparison of non fiction writers’ perspectives is saved for the poetry module where students are required to compare perspectives of poets. The purpose of Year 11 is to consolidate, to revisit, to revise, to make cognitive links between characters, plot, themes and to practice, practice, practice exam answers.

How is the timetabled curriculum supplemented or enriched by other approaches to learning?

We offer targeted after school revision sessions for specific students in year 11, along with access to the library for further revision/homework support through copies of our texts, revision guides and electronic resources online. Students in all year groups benefit from theatre trips and access to the library during break, lunch and after school for homework support, computers and writing competitions. We offer bespoke off-timetable literacy weeks for some Year 7 students and run the Book Buzz scheme in which all year 7 students choose a book to keep.

Assessment for learning is ongoing in lessons, through questioning and retrieval, live teacher marking and other, alongside peer and self assessment. Our key assessment points throughout all three terms consist of both low and high stakes assessments. In order to identify progress, at specific points during each term students complete either a reading or writing assessment based on their learning and formative feedback is given.

How do we know if we have a successful curriculum?

We know that we have a successful curriculum because our students are engaged in lessons and they progress in their learning. When we talk to our students, they can tell us what they are learning and why, they can make links between the lesson and something they did last week, last month, last year, they can talk about themes and concepts accurately and with understanding.

How do we support ‘High Attaining’ pupils?

We support our high attaining students through high expectations, targeted questioning and the opportunities to practice higher order thinking. We teach to the top at scaffold so that students can achieve. We know our students and what they need, and we provide that through classwork and homework.