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  • ASPIRE

    English

    Our curriculum is mapped from Yr 7 to Yr 11 to allow the greatest exposure to the key and main skills required to understand and enjoy English language and English Literature. This is a spiral curriculum to allow all pupils to the regularly revisit the core knowledge needed for success – regular exposure to the knowledge required through well planned and spaced study. All assessment objectives are mapped throughout the five-year journey – these are embedded across broad and varied schemes of work, seamlessly blending language and literature study which are adapted in class to a range of abilities. Challenge is presented in all lessons and constant desire to improve the pupil’s cultural capital are main stays in each and every scheme of learning.

    The key cultural contexts of the GCSE set texts are first visited in KS3 to allow the pupils to have prior learning about the various periods of history, to allow them be knowledgeable and engaged come KS4 when they revisit the (not only the key skills) but the broader picture of the context of production and reception of the literature. The vision is to embed the core skills of reading for meaning, analysis, writing structures and language terminology at KS3, so when the GCSE teaching starts the pupils have a strong and sound basis of English skills to build upon and allow them to develop personal reaction and deeper responses to the texts – thus enabling the higher grades.

    English is arguably the core skill that all pupils need – the ability to read for meaning, read for insight, write with clarity and meaning and oracy are life skills. From essays in the majority of subjects, to CV’s, to letters, emails, websites, blogs and journalism. English is a skill employed every single day. All our pupils need a high level of literacy to progress on to apprenticeships, college, work and life.

    Year 7

    Students begin their journey into Key Stage 3 and the fundamental process is the transition from Primary into Secondary education. In the term, students will develop their reciprocal reading skills and build on their Key Stage 2 knowledge. We begin with their baseline assessments, checking their reading, writing and spelling capabilities. We us the New Group Reading Tests to assess the pupils reading ages. They will also have the opportunity to develop their reading skills through weekly library visits. After this, we begin to look at Poetry and we study a poetry anthology created and crafted by the English staff. We focus in on the language techniques and structure unique to poetic study.

    From November to Christmas we focus our attentions on a ‘Rapid Reading’ text, which is a proven and successful module on engaging pupils in reading for pleasure and understanding – the rapid reading scheme allows us to read an entire book with our class. We shall be reading ‘The Road of Bones’ by Anne Fine the previous children’s laureate. The value of whole text reading has been highlighted within the National Curriculum for Key Stage 3 and the story-telling elements present the students with an understanding of the basic elements of a story and how these have underpinned narrative writing throughout the ages. Students also begin to develop their analytical skills, considering the rationale behind writer’s choices and appreciating the reason behind specific linguistic and grammatical choices being made by writers. Students are also aided in developing their key vocabulary with a clear focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 words.

    A love of Shakespeare is for some a love of the English language and that is what the next unit in the January terms seeks to promote. The students get to investigate the world of Shakespearian literature whilst also looking at infamous extracts and inspirational quotations. The students begin to see behind the challenging text and look at the semantics of the Shakespearian lexicon and the beauty of its figurative language. The ‘Shakespeare and Me’ module gives an engaging overview of the bard and his world famous theatre, The Globe.

    After February half term we focus on a range of creative writing skills whilst reading ‘Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror’. We begin to explore how to create and craft a short narrative, whilst making the correct judgements in how to write within the gothic narrative, we use the narratives as a template and base our own writing around. In the Summer Term, students begin a thematic focus on ‘Myths & Legends’ looking at Greek mythology and some seminal texts such as ‘Pandora’s Box’ and ‘Medusa’ and then building towards and understanding of how these various characters and ideas have been used in literature throughout the ages. We finish the year on a writing and oracy joint project called ‘It’s a Mystery’ where we study a range of non-fiction, all wish the shared idea of mystery, from The Mary Celeste to The Loch Ness Monster across the world and time the pupils can choose and research a range of writing about a favourite subject, UFO’s and who shot Kennedy – the pupils then build into a project they verbally share with the class in the form an end of year presentation.

    Year 8

    Students will explore a range of Literature texts including a Shakespeare play, 20th Century Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Non Fiction and Poetry. Students will develop their writing skills in terms of content and technical accuracy and learn to write for different audiences. Students will also have the opportunity to take part in discussion and drama focused tasks to develop their Speaking & Listening skills. In the Autumn term, students will build on prior knowledge from the poetry skills learnt in year 7. We start the year with a module of work called ‘ Travel Through Poetry’, here we deepen and revisit the core skills of comprehension and analysis. Our second ‘Rapid Reading’ module, to increase reading pleasure and engagement will be the whole class reader of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ – this seminal piece of world literature will help engage pupils in the world of non-fiction as well as blending the study of literature and history. This is studied during the time of Holocaust Memorial Day. Students will next delve into the various genres of literature available – each week bringing the traditions and conventions of six different genres to the pupils, therefore allowing them to study a range of literature and also write in a range of different styles.

    From March to Easter we re-visit non-fiction and fiction combined - the theme this term will be ‘Survival’ – we study a range of writing about people in extreme circumstances that have survived, from real life peril on Everest to classics like Oliver Twist – this helps broaden cultural capital, and depend analytical skills on how tension and atmosphere has been crafted across and range of writers and eras. Shakespeare has his second visit of KS3 and we look at the play ‘Hamlet’, although an ambitious choice the themes present in Hamlet are universal and relevant, the struggle of the adolescent and the fight against negative influences, the imagery carries into many modern stories and these links are explored a long with the text, encouraging deeper analysis. We finish Year 8 with an extract based module on the Non-fiction works of George Orwell, each week visiting a different extract from his global travels, from Burma to Spain and his time ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’. The focus is that of the craft of the writer and how Orwell’s language choices shape his world and imagery.

    Year 9

    In the Autumn Term students look at an enthralling and challenging scheme based around ‘The Gothic’ with a specially made anthology of key gothic extracts. We ask the pupils to linguistically analyse texts, how they are crafted and structured for impact upon the reader the students also delve into the Victorian era itself, a fantastic period for literature with clear literary figures such as Shelley and Stoker espousing endless reams of literary genius which the students get to analyse and enjoy. From November to Christmas, in line with the KS3 National Curriculum we study a range of short stories, we collection of stories has been curated at WCHS with the focus being tales from around the globe, starting with a narrative from Japan. The In the Spring Term, we rekindle our love for Poetry which has been honed and developed through Year 7 and Year 8. In the previous years, there has been an ‘Introduction to Poetry ’ and a study of poetry through time. However, this year we move on to a full and comprehensive study of approaches to Unseen Poetry and how we hone our skills in having a personal reaction and opinion of the poems and themes in front of us. As we enter into March we focus our attentions back onto creative writing and the key skill of oracy. We study, with the aid of visual stimulus narrative and descriptive writing, how we plan, craft and shape our word choices for impact. Building on this we look at rhetoric in speech and study a range of passionate and evocative speeches across history and analysis how the communication is effective.

    In the Summer Term, we move back to non-fiction and compare a range of historical non-fiction with modern non-fiction, we look at how people, themes, ideas and fashions have been written about, presented and how these have changed over the decades. The themes touch upon disability, crime and the role of women. Our final module of the year is an introduction into the world of eighth century Scotland and it’s famous ruler ‘Macbeth’ this proceeds a summer holiday project based around this play.

    Year 10

    In KS4 (Years 10 and 11) the main focus for students is the detailed study of their Literature set texts in order to prepare adequately for the closed book exams. For Paper 1 students will study ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ or ‘A Christmas Carol’ and for Paper 2 students will study ‘Animal Farm’ or ‘DNA’ they will also be focussing on the fifteen ‘Power & Conflict’ poems as well as prepare for an unseen poetry assessment. Students also focus on being able to confidently use key Literature terminology to give them the tools for their analysis. In addition to preparation for their Literature exams, pupils will also be studying for English Language Paper 1 and Paper 2. Pupils will be given a range of fiction and non-fictional texts to study and develop their language analysis skills. At the end of Year 10, students will be assessed for the Spoken Language endorsement as part of their final GCSE English Language study. The skills we are focusing on in Year 10 are skills that pupils have already covered in KS3 but with more specific focus on exam technique.

    The GCSE work is still clearly focused on the key skills that underpin every element that the English Department focus on – Narration, Description, Audience, SPaG, Analysis, Metaphor, Context, Poetry, Shakespeare and Immersion in Literature.

    After each unit of work, pupils will be given an exam style question and they will be asked to answer it in exam conditions. This will allow them to put the exam techniques and skills they have studied into practice.

    Year 11

    The focus is on preparing for the English Language and Literature exams. For language, the skills needed for the reading section are synthesis, use of language, analysis of structure, comparison and evaluation. For the writing section students must be able to write for a variety of audiences on a given topic in both a creative task and a viewpoint piece. The skills they need to demonstrate here are content and organisation and technical accuracy. In the terms of the other texts, the main focus is on demonstrating an understanding of main themes, ideas, character; use of quotation and reference to text to support interpretations in closed book conditions; analysis of language; personal interpretation and response.

    To find out more about our English curriculum, please contact Mrs A Stoker, Head of English, by emailing astoker@westcraven.co.uk  or phoning the main office to arrange a call back