Our vision is to empower our young learners to be literate, articulate and confident to interpret the world around them, appreciating the richness of diversity and identity so that they become well-rounded citizens.
Students will read a range of challenging and engaging texts, including novels, short stories, poetry, plays and non-fiction materials – from classic writers like Shakespeare and Dickens to more modern writers such as Simon Armitage and Susan Hill. Students will also write their own short stories, poems and non-fiction such as letters and blogs to entertain readers and communicate opinions. Allowing the chance to learn through talk is very important, so there will be many opportunities for students to develop speaking and listening skills through discussion in class and individual/group presentations.
Students will learn in a supportive classroom, collaborating and challenging each other through peer assessment and discussion activities. In the run-up to Christmas students will take part in creating Christmas hampers to support the local community and collect for the food bank.
Discussions around well-being and positive mental health will take place in a safe and inclusive classroom, where students can give opinions and be heard. Students will consider how social media can affect mental health and how the media (such as advertising) shapes the world through practical design and presentation activities.
Students will learn about the wider world and its diverse cultures through travel writing – with the chance to create adverts promoting Paris as a fantastic holiday destination and advert voiceovers for Disney Land! Students will also explore how key political leaders can change the world through the power of speech.
Many of the texts students will read focus on how characters can bounce back from difficult experiences, demonstrating resilience. Students will consider how using humour can be a way of coping and demonstrate resilience through opportunities to work independently and respond to personal feedback and targets.
Fairness and inclusivity is important to us in school and we have chosen texts that present these ideas, from ‘The Tempest’ to ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Many of the poems students will study focus on characters who are discriminated against and this will allow students to consider how the world can be fairer and more tolerant.
Spoken language opportunities encourage students to listen to and respect the viewpoints and ideas of others, even if they differ to their own. Students will display pride and dignity in the work they produce across the year.
Students will be assessed at specific points across each half-term. We will expect students to complete 2 key assessments each half-term, which will be thoroughly marked with targets for students to respond to, so that their work gradually improves over time. Reading skills will be assessed through close analysis of parts of the text (eg novel or poem) to check understanding of the main ideas and how the writer communicates through language choices.
Writing is assessed by opportunities to write creatively (such as gothic horror stories), to write their own poems and speeches, and to produce non-fiction texts like letters, adverts and booklets. Students will be tested on theirr ability to meet the needs of the audience, to use specific skills suitable to certain types of writing and to be accurate with their spelling, punctuation and sentences.
At the end of each year, students will sit an exam in a formal setting so they can have some experience of this in preparation for KS4.
Students will have to study English at KS4 – and this is because it is absolutely essential in developing well-rounded, articulate and thoughtful young people. GCSE builds on their KS3 experience so that they continue to develop communication skills, both written and verbal.
At KS4, students will sit the English Language and English Literature GCSEs. Just like at KS3, students will read a range of different texts in Literature: themed poetry, a nineteenth century novel, Shakespeare and a modern play. In Language, students will answer questions about texts they have not pre-learned in lessons, but they will learn how to tackle these with their teacher. Some of these texts will be non-fiction, such as travel writing or newspaper articles. Students will also write a creative narrative and transactional writing (eg a magazine article or a speech). The development of oracy skills continues to be important and there are further opportunities to discuss in class with an insistence on responding to questions ‘like a specialist’. Plus students will deliver their own formal presentation to their class.
Ideas about social justice are important themes in the texts students will study, such as ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘An Inspector Calls’, where each author wishes to highlight unfairness and prejudice. Students will also visualise their own goals for the future by writing a letter to their future selves about what they hope to achieve and how this can be realised.
Helping students cope with exams is very important to us: we will ensure that students have plenty of opportunities to practise key skills and timings in lessons and that they have access to the Rubrics for Language and Literature. We will look at revision strategies to build students confidence and ensure that they get the balance between revision and relaxation right.
The theme of ambition is present in some of the texts students will study – especially ‘Macbeth’. Feedback on assessed work and mock exams will ensure that there are ambitious targets for students to rise to.
In lessons, we will keep on helping students to build the skills for success. We will re-visit texts to embed learning. Students will show resilience through independent learning and a willingness to challenge and keep improving all the time.
The Power and Conflict poems students study focus on equity and fairness from the marginalisation of different cultures to imbalances of power between groups of people. Students will continue to demonstrate this value through paired and group tasks.
Just like at KS3, Spoken Language opportunities encourage students to listen to and respect the viewpoints and ideas of others. Students will give an individual presentation to their class on a topic of their choice, using the appropriate formality and displaying professionalism in delivery.
Students will be assessed across the two years through in-class practice of GCSE style questions and past papers. Students will also take an end of year exam in Yr 10 (English Language) and 2 mock exams in Yr 11 (English Language and English Literature).
For English Language, students will follow the EDUQAS exam board and for English Literature the AQA exam board. There are 2 exam papers for each qualification plus a Spoken Language presentation assessed by a teacher.
Both English Language and English Literature are fantastic ‘A’ levels to take: English Language covers a range of different topics from how and why language changes over time to how children learn to speak, read and write. Literature allows students to continue to develop their love of fiction through close reading and analysis of a diverse and challenging range of texts. Both can be studied at university level and many of our future doctors, lawyers, speech therapists, teachers and journalists have an English ‘A’ Level and even degree.
