English
Autumn 1
Year 7
Guided Reading
Students will study whole books from the children’s English literary canon. Guided Reading helps to develop decoding, thinking, discussion and inference skills.
Examples of texts: Kenskuke’s Kingdom (Morpurgo), Matilda (Dahl), and Wonder (Palacio).
Year 8
Guided Reading
Students will study whole books from the children’s English literary canon. Guided Reading helps to develop decoding, thinking, discussion and inference skills.
Examples of texts: War Horse (Morpurgo), Goodnight Mister Tom (Magorian), Hostage (Blackman).
Year 9
Spoken Language Study: Speeches
Students will consider how rhetoric in spoken languages, such as famous speeches, has shaped modern culture.
Speeches may include: I Have a Dream (King), We Shall Fight them on the Beaches (Churchill), and How Dare you? (Thunberg).
Autumn 2
Year 7
Guided Reading/ The Island Project
Guided Reading Continues into Autumn 2.
Some students may undertake a project-based study involving developing a range of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills (such as debate and discussion) connected with an engaging topic.
Students will develop independent writing for a range of purposes and audiences.
Year 8
Guided Reading/Creative Writing Skills
Guided reading continues into Autumn 2.
Some students will revisit and hone their longer independent creative writing skills, and plan, draft, edit and proofread by producing a short story.
Year 9
Shakespeare: Othello
Through the study of Othello, students will focus on the issue of race and racial prejudice in the context of studying Shakespeare, and will also consolidate their knowledge of drama and linguistic techniques.
Spring 1
Year 7
Spoken Language Study: The History of the English Language
Students will undergo an investigation of the origins, tradition, and development of spoken language.
They will find out about the history of English, the nature of Standard English against accent and dialect, the differences between spoken and written language, and consider the nature and philosophy of communication.
Year 8
An Introduction to Pre 1914 Literature
Students will analyse a series of challenging extracts and short stories from seminal world literature from the 19th century – For example: A Christmas Carol (Dickens), Jane Eyre (Bronte), Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations (Dickens).
Students will learn about 19th Century poverty, the church, childhood, social class, and education.
Year 9
Pre 1914 Fiction or Summarising and Comparing
Through a selection of pre 1914 non-fiction texts, students prepare for GCSE study by learning to analyse previously unseen factual texts.
Or
Summarising & Comparing
Students will study a range of extracts of increasing complexity and age, to develop and hone their skills of critical comparison.
Spring 2
Year 7
Shakespeare: Twelfth Night
Students will explore the context of Shakespeare’s life and contemporary theatre through an introduction to Twelfth Night. Students will gain knowledge of the Globe Theatre, staging, costume, and comedic techniques. They will also learn about the historical context of women and Puritanism in Elizabethan England.
Year 8
Media and News Reporting
Students will develop skills in non-fiction writing composition through a series of lessons introducing the techniques of investigative journalism, to appeal to different target audience. They will practice formal speaking and listening by interviewing an unknown adult as part of the investigative process.
Year 9
Cultural Diversity in Contemporary Literature
Students will read and study in its entirety a text from the canon of literature from an ethnically diverse writer in order to build and maintain reading resilience.
Students will study either Once (Gleitzman), or The Boy at the Back of Class (Raug).
Summer 1
Year 7
Gothic Creative Writing: Arlington Manor
Students will be supported in writing at length, producing a piece of sustained creative writing inspired by the genre of Gothic literature. This will develop students’ ability to plan, draft, edit and proofread their writing.
Year 8
War Poetry
Students will study a range of challenging poems, such as Dulce et Decorum Est (Owen) from English literary heritage.
Pupils explore important British WW1 historical context. They will learn about propaganda and its effects, as well as trenches, war illness and injury, and the causes of WW1.
Year 9
Pre 1914 Gothic Literature
Students will experience a range of seminal world literature from the Gothic tradition. They will revisit their study of 19th century context from year 8, and use texts studied as a model to create their own compositions.
Texts could include: Frankenstein (Shelley), Dracula (Stoker), and Northanger Abbey (Austen).
Summer 2
Year 7
An Introduction to Poetry
Students will experience an introduction to poetry and begin to explore the use and effect of a range of poetic conventions and techniques using familiar children’s poetry.
Poems studied could include: How to Eat a Poem (Merriam), Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (Frost), and The Sun has Long Been Set (Wordsworth).
Year 8
Shakespeare: Tragedy
Students will experience a Shakespearean tragedy to incorporate exposure to different stage and screen adaptations in order to compare different readings of the text. Individual teachers will choose a whole text or ‘key scene’ approach depending on the needs of the students.
Year 9
Memory Poetry
Students will experience of a range of poems from the AQA GCSE Power and Conflict cluster in order to aid transition from KS3 to KS4 and ensure continuity of study; namely:
Remains (Armitage), War Photographer (Duffy) and Poppies (Weir)