English

Half Term 1 - Transition unit:  Stories You Should Know. Interleaved with creative writing.

MAT agreement on the importance of a foundation of “stories you should know” - building students’ knowledge of important mythical, biblical and religious allusions.  

Stories chosen to complement allusions in the central texts (AMSND and TGB)

An emphasis on creative writing from the start aims to harness confidence and “best work” from KS2.

Half Term 2&3 

AMND - An introduction to Shakespeare with context interleaved with the conventions of plays, interleaved with “poetry through the ages”.  

AMND - story and character development, interleaved with “poetry through the ages”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is used as the anchor text off which the poetry unit hinges.  The idea behind spending a whole term on each anchor text is to ensure students can have time to have an overview and delve deeper into literary texts.  The focus across KS3 is engagement and enjoyment of Literature, and confidence with Shakespearean texts.

Students are taken on a journey through Literature through the medium of poetry.  This should help to embed a timeline of Literature, a vitally important skill in accessing and analysing texts.  It should also begin to build a schema to enable students to make links across Literature and other subjects.

Half Term 4&5 - The Graveyard Book interleaved with Gothic fiction and thematic reading/writing skills

Students are taken on a journey through Literature through the Gothic genre.  This should help to embed an appreciation of the genre and the possibilities of conventions and innovations within genres.

Also an emphasis this half term on building students’ confidence and skills with unseen texts and extract analysis.

The Graveyard Book was chosen partly for its intertextual possibilities and sense of challenge. Students will be able to make several links to the allusions that they studied at the beginning of the term and analyse their meaning and significance, which in turn is developing their cultural literacy. 

Half Term 6 - Non-Fiction unit linked to TGB themes prevalent today.

Speech and Diary writing:

• Education

• Community

• Compassion and forgiveness

• Good vs Evil

A focus on writer’s methods and the interaction between writer and reader.

Continued confidence with unseen but building confidence with non-fiction and emphasising the universality of Literature.

Half Term 1 - Transition Skills interleaved with Language Paper 1 skills

MAT agreement on the importance of a foundation of “stories you should know” - building students’ knowledge of important mythical, biblical and religious allusions.  

Stories chosen to complement allusions in the central texts (The Tempest and WTWE).

Half Term 2&3 - Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ interleaved with thematic unit: ‘monsters, myths and magic’

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is used as the anchor text off which the poetry unit hinges.  The idea behind spending a whole term on each anchor text is to ensure students can have time to have an overview and delve deeper into literary texts.  The focus across KS3 is engagement and enjoyment of Literature, and confidence with Shakespearean texts.

The thematic unit involves a journey through literature - from Greek myths to the modern day Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and continues to build confidence with unseen texts and extracts, and continues to build the all-important Literature schema.

Half Term 4&5 - Where the world Ends interleaved with thematic unit: nature.

A second novel in KS3 aims to crystallise enjoyment, engagement and confidence with a whole literary text. Students will be able to make intertextual links to the allusions that they studied at the beginning of the term and analyse their meaning and significance, which in turn is developing their cultural literacy. 

Students delve deep into the symbolism and richness of nature within literature - with opportunities to explore the Romantics and their spirituality - the Romantics being a key area of knowledge for GCSE and A-Level English.

Half Term 6 - Non-Fiction unit linked to WTWE themes prevalent today.

Newspaper & Travel Writing

• LGBTQ+

• Gender

• Religion

• Mental Health

Students should feel confident going into year 9, when GCSE skills begin to be emphasised, with some key universal ideas (emphasised in the AQA examiners report as a key skill/knowledge base for students who performed the best).

Half Term 1 - ‘Of Mice and Men’ interleaved with unseen poetry identity

Introduction to literary analysis and extract analysis. Emphasis of the importance of reading widely, experiencing and emotionally connecting with a variety of literary texts, especially from the  “English Canon”.

In 2019, exam board stressed the importance of students engaging with wider issues of inequality, injustice, gender, race, age, democracy etc.  All prominent in this text and the poems.

Half Term 2 - ‘Of Mice and Men’ interleaved with unseen poetry identity

Introduction to literary analysis and extract analysis. Emphasis of the importance of reading widely, experiencing and emotionally connecting with a variety of literary texts. 

 In 2019, exam board stressed the importance of students engaging with wider issues of inequality, injustice, gender, race, age, democracy etc.  All prominent in this text and the poems.

Half Term 3&4 - Macbeth’ interleaved with descriptive writing

Introduction of Shakespeare for a surface reading.  Focus on the play as a seen text. Emphasis on enjoyment and grappling with the storyline and wider issues.

Emphasis on using learned skills and techniques from term 1 in own writing.

Half Term 5 - PPE preparation (Language Paper 1)

Re-cap and testing of extract analysis skills and creative writing (fundamental English Language and Literature skills)

Half Term 6 - Non-Fiction writing and 1984

Emphasis on the importance of reading widely and connecting with variety of texts, especially from the  “English Canon”.

Non-fiction writing in preparation for Paper 2 and writing speeches for the Spoken Language endorsement.

Half Term 1 - English Literature Paper 2 An Inspector Calls interleaved with English Language Paper 2 Reading and Writing.

In 2019, exam board stressed the importance of students engaging with wider issues of inequality, injustice, gender, race, age, democracy etc.  Students begin here to grapple with those ideas in their own writing, inspired by some of the issues thrown up in the play.

Half Term 2 - English Literature Paper 2 An Inspector Calls interleaved with English Language Paper 2 Reading and Writing.

In 2019, exam board stressed the importance of students engaging with wider issues of inequality, injustice, gender, race, age, democracy etc.  Students begin here to grapple with those ideas in their own writing, inspired by some of the issues thrown up in the play.

Half Term 3 - English Literature Paper 1: A Christmas Carol or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Interleaved with writing - Paper 1 and Paper 2

Emphasis on writing to encourage students to begin to see themselves as “readers as writers” and to engage dialectically with Literature texts.

Half Term 4 - English Literature Paper 1: A Christmas Carol or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Interleaved with writing - Paper 1 and Paper 2.

Emphasis on writing to encourage students to begin to see themselves as “readers as writers” and to engage dialectically with Literature texts.

Half Term 5 - Study of Macbeth as a Lit text

Students engaged with and gained an understanding of Macbeth in year 9.  Now study it as a literary text. Focus now on AO2 - playwright’s craft.

Half Term 6 - Spoken Language endorsement

A compulsory and important part of the GCSE course, the Spoken Language endorsement offers students an opportunity to reflect on their progress through the course so far and their choice of topic is hopefully influenced by their studies so far.

PPE preparation in this half term too.

Half Term 1&2 - Power and Conflict poetry anthology, interleaved with unseen poetry

Final Lit texts.  Consolidating the expectation that students will have a “personal response” to a Literary text, honing everything they have studied so far.

Half Term 3 - 19th century and Shakespeare revision interleaved with Lang Paper 1 revision.

Revision and reflection on PPEs.

Tailored preparation and responsive teaching.

Half Term 4 - Language paper 1 revision. March PPE Lang and Literature paper 1

Revision and reflection on progress from PPEs and in-class assessments.

Tailored preparation and responsive teaching.

Half Term 5 - All Language and Literature Revision

Highly tailored and personalised preparation for exams

Half Term 6 - Exams