The English Key Stage 3 curriculum covers years 7 & 8 with year 9 as a preparation year for the GCSE courses which start in Year 10.
Students in each year read and explore a wide range of texts in class, and there is a strong focus on directed reading projects completed at home with some class time to check on progress.
In each year, students explore 5 units across the year. The order and content of these units varies with each year group
- Creative writing
- Students develop their narrative and descriptive writing skills, drawing on a range of 19th, 20th and 21st century exemplar source material
- Assessment takes the form of a planned and completed piece of descriptive or narrative writing whose focus is different for each year group.
- Poetry
- Students explore a range of forms from sonnets to dramatic monologues written throughout the 19th, 20th and 21st
- Assessment for years 7 & 9 is in the form of a comparative essay; in Year 8 the assessment is of a previously unseen poem
- Non-Fiction writing
- Each year has a different topic focus for the non-fiction writing.
- Persuasive, analytical and informative writing styles are explored and developed in each year.
- Students are assessed on their ability to produce a well-researched response to 20th and 21st century topics.
- Shakespeare
- Students in years 7 & 8 will study a complete Shakespeare play (Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet respectively).
- Students in year 9 study and compare two Shakespeare plays (Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream).
- Assessment of these units in all years takes the form of a comparative essay.
- Modern novel study
- In years 7 & 8 students will study one of a range of modern novels, with a specific focus for their assessment in each year including character and narrative structure
- Assessment is in the form of an essay
In addition to the five taught modules, students complete two largely independent reading projects:
- Classic (19th century) novel & Modern (20th or 21st century) novel
- For both projects, students complete the reading and reading booklet tasks at home, but with some class time every other week to touch base with their teacher.
- Students are assessed through a short presentation at the end of a project during which they talk about the artefact they have created linked to their reading.