The curriculum has been carefully designed to introduce pupils to a variety of literary genres and forms, including different writing forms. Each year has a key theme: War and Conflict in Year 7; Social Justice in Year 8; Relationships in Year 9. In each year, we include a Non-Fiction unit which enables pupils to explore the issues around each theme before they explore these issues in the studied texts. In addition, the ideas and themes, and/or the way they are explored, become increasingly challenging.
Each unit details the skills and key knowledge (e.g. conventions, vocabulary and terminology) which pupils should know and be able to apply. Pupils will be given multiple opportunities to revisit the skills and key knowledge within the year and across Key Stage 3. For example, pupils will be introduced to the impact of a writer’s use of characterisation, setting and symbolism in the Year 7 unit, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, and this will then be revisited in the Short Stories unit. These key methods are then revisited in Year 8 with Richard III and Dystopian stories, and Year 9 with The Crucible and Sherlock Holmes.
In Key Stage 4 pupils will follow the AQA specification and sit examinations for both Language and Literature. These will consist of:
English Language:
Paper 1 Creative reading and writing - this is an examination paper with a time allowance of one hour and 45 minutes; in section A, pupils will answer four questions on an unseen extract from a piece of fiction and in section B they will create their own piece of narrative or descriptive creative writing.
Paper 2 Viewpoint and opinion - this is an examination paper with a time allowance of one hour and 45 minutes; in section A, pupils will be given two extracts from non-fiction texts (one from the 19th century) and will answer four questions about the texts using comparison skills. In section B, pupils will complete their own piece of non-fiction writing.
English Literature:
Paper 1 Shakespeare and the 19th Century text - this is an examination paper with a time allowance of one hour and 30 minutes; in section A, pupils will answer an extract to whole essay question on Macbeth and in section B they will answer an extract to a whole question on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Paper 2 Modern prose or drama and poetry - this is an examination paper with a time allowance of two hours and 30 minutes; in section A, pupils will answer an essay question on Lord of the Flies; in section B, they will answer a comparative essay question on poems they have studied from the AQA Power and Conflict Anthology and in section C they will answer to questions on unseen poetry.