English
KS3 English
Intent
Our aim is to provide an English curriculum which is engaging, coherent and inclusive of all learners, enabling students to master concepts by studying and producing a broad range of texts.
We believe there is a great dignity in the way in which our KS3 curriculum exposes students to the canon, building their cultural capital, whilst also teaching them media texts that enable them to engage critically with film and advertising.
Our writing units enable students to develop their own unique voice, whilst developing as technically accurate writers. Our literature units explicitly teach students how to structure academic writing, developing accomplished literature students who are confident to engage with challenging texts.
The structure of lessons is clear and deliberate, with regular retrieval practice and homework embedded to ensure that key knowledge is retained by students. Students are assessed at the end of each unit to ensure that they have opportunities to develop their writing skills.
Curriculum sequence
|
Year 7 |
Expressions of Self |
Great Expectations |
Dystopian Fiction |
Poetry of the Natural World |
Travel Writing |
Greek Myths |
||||
|
Year 8 |
Journey’s End |
Gothic Poetry |
Jaws |
The Art of Storytelling |
Twelfth Night / The Tempest |
|||||
|
Year 9 |
Blood Brothers |
The Gothic |
Poetry of People and Places |
Rhetoric and Persuasion |
Romeo and Juliet |
|||||
Each unit is 7-8 weeks long
Meeting the needs of SEND and Pupil Premium students
In line with whole-school priorities, English teachers place SEND and Pupil Premium students at the centre of our lesson planning. Key to ensuring this is high quality teaching: we direct questions to PP and SEND students, check their understanding regularly and provide feedback using whole-class feedback and in-class one-to-one feedback. Students are given opportunities, in lesson time, to act on their feedback.
Ensuring SEND and Pupil Premium students can access our English curriculum is extremely important to us and these inclusive strategies, which benefit all students, are particularly supportive:
- Sentence starters and models are embedded within schemes of learning so students are aware of what excellent work looks like, and have access to the support necessary to produce it.
- Regular opportunities for retrieval are offered using our retrieval starters. Students are regularly retrieve knowledge from previous lessons, the beginning of the unit and previous units.
- Vocabulary is explicitly taught
Retention
Our curriculum is taught to be remembered. Retrieval practice is embedded into lessons; students complete retrieval quizzes and discussion tasks in all Key Stage 3 units. All through Key stage 3 students are supported with revision skills, and are provided with knowledge organisers to revise the key knowledge for each unit.
Assessment
This is an extended piece of writing focused on extended literary writing, writing for real-life purposes, or imaginative writing. The tasks increase in challenge each time a particular type of writing is assessed.
The extended assessment is judged according to the descriptors for each unit. Teachers diagnose success in the relevant strands, and provide feedback and time for students to address their skills deficits and then apply this in improving their work.
These formal assessment opportunities are complemented by informal formative assessment within lessons such as meaningful and well-scaffolded self-assessment and retrieval quizzes to activate prior knowledge. Feedback is provided with whole-class feedback which provide opportunities for students to complete tasks relevant to areas in which they need to develop.
Contact:
Miss Rabey (Head of English)
Mr Elliott (Second in English, KS3 Coordinator)
GCSE English Language
The course will enable students of all abilities to develop the skills they need to read, understand and analyse a wide range of different texts covering the 19th, 20th and 21st century time periods as well as to write clearly, coherently and accurately using a range of vocabulary and sentence structures.
Course outline
The course is divided into 3 key sections that address different skills; reading, writing and spoken language. This course will develop students to:
- read a wide range of texts, fluently and with good understanding
- read critically, and use knowledge gained from wide reading to inform and improve their own writing
- write effectively and coherently using Standard English appropriately
- use grammar correctly, punctuate and spell accurately
- acquire and apply a wide vocabulary, alongside a knowledge and understanding of grammatical terminology, and linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
Paper 1 – Explorations in creative reading and writing (50% of the GCSE)
Section A – Reading: one literature fiction text
Section B – Writing: descriptive or narrative writing
Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes
Paper 2 – Writers’ Viewpoints and Perspectives (50% of the GCSE)
Section A – Reading: one non-fiction and one literary non-fiction text
Section B – Writing: writing to present a viewpoint
Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes
Non-examination Assessment (0% of the GCSE – separate endorsement)
- presenting
- responding to questions and feedback
- use of Standard English
Assessment and Progression
Examination Board:
AQA
Grading system:
1-9 (9 is highest)
Assessment:
2 final examinations
1 non examined assessment
Paper 1 – Explorations in creative reading and writing. 1hr 45 minutes
Paper 2 – Writers’ viewoints and perspectives. 1hr 45 minutes
Non examined assessment – separate endorsement.
Exam questions are a mix of multiple-choice, short and long answers.
Progression to Post-16:
A-Level English Language, A Level English Literature, A Level English Language and Literature.
Future career links:
Journalism
Teaching
Publishing
Librarian
Public Relations
Contact:
Ms Hopkins
jhopkins@st-birinus.oxon.sch.uk
Ms Rabey
Mr Elliott
GCSE English Literature
Course outline
This course will develop students to:
- read a wide range of classic literature fluently and with good understanding, and make connections across their reading
- read in depth, critically and evaluatively, so that they are able to discuss and explain their understanding and ideas
- develop the habit of reading widely and often
- appreciate the depth and power of the English literary heritage
- write accurately, effectively and analytically about their reading, using Standard English
- acquire and use a wide vocabulary, including the grammatical terminology and other literary and linguistic terms they need to criticise and analyse what they read.
Paper 1 – Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel (40% of the GCSE)
Section A - Shakespeare: students will answer one question on Macbeth by William Shakespeare. They will be required to write in detail about an extract from the play and then to write about the play as a whole.
Section B - The 19th-century novel: students will answer one question on The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. They will be required to write in detail about an extract from the novel and then to write about the novel as a whole.
Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes
Paper 2 – Modern texts and poetry (60% of the GCSE)
Section A – Reading: one non-fiction and one literary non-fiction text
Section B – Writing: writing to present a viewpoint
Section A Modern texts: students will answer one essay question from a choice of two on An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley.
Section B Poetry: students will answer one comparative question on one named poem printed on the paper and one other poem from their chosen anthology cluster: Power and Conflict.
Section C Unseen poetry: Students will answer one question on one unseen poem and one question comparing this poem with a second unseen poem.
Written exam: 2 hours 15 minutes
Assessment and Progression
Examination Board:
AQA
Grading system:
1-9 (9 is highest)
Assessment:
2 final examinations
Paper 1 – Shakespeare and the 19th –century novel. 1hr 45 minutes
Paper 2 – Modern texts and poetry. 2hrs 15 minutes
Exam questions are all long answers.
Progression to Post-16:
A-Level English Language, A Level English Literature, A Level English Language and Literature, A Level Drama, A Level Theatre Studies.
Future career links:
Journalism
Teaching
Publishing
Librarian
Public Relations
Law
Contact:
Ms Hopkins
jhopkins@st-birinus.oxon.sch.uk
Ms Rabey
Mr Elliott
