| Terms 1 and 2 | A Midsummer Night’s Dream – William Shakespeare. | |
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| Pupils will read sections of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to build on their basic English Literature Skills. They will practise reading and comprehension of a Shakespeare text, analysing the writer’s use of Language and Structure. The key focus here will be on understanding plot, character and themes from the play. However, pupils will also explore aspects of the social and historical factors underlying the play such as: Shakespeare's Globe theatre; visiting the theatre in Elizabethan times, and the beliefs, traditions and values of the period which would have shaped the ways in which Shakespeare's audiences received his plays. Pupils will be taught to write in clear PEE (Point/ Evidence/ Explanation) paragraphs, selecting suitable quotations from the play as supporting evidence to demonstrate their understanding of textual content. |
| Assessment: Analysis of an extract from a key scene. | Key Words and Terms |
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| Terms 1 and 2 | Dystopia | |
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| Across both terms, students will explore a range of engaging dystopian and science fiction short stories - spanning an exciting range of worlds, characters and events. The emphasis is on enjoying these tales as a whole, and really engaging with the writers' craft. Why might they have chosen this specific setting or situation for their story? Which events are the most engaging, and why might they be presented in this order? Which ideas do we really respond to?
Building on their exploration of these stories, students will harness some of these key "ingredients", and engage in a range of creative writing activities. This is an opportunity for students to enjoy playing with language, broadening their horizons by repurposing generic conventions they've enjoyed. The sky is the limit here, and the stories they produce really are out of this world! |
| Assessment: 1) Evaluation of key ideas within a short story
2) Creative Writing piece | Key Words and Terms |
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| Terms 3 and 4 | The Bone Sparrow – Zana Fraillon. | |
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| Winner of the CILIP Amnesty Honour 2017, The Bone Sparrow is a deeply moving story about a refugee boy who has spent his entire life living in a detention centre. Pupils will read this thought-provoking novel to build their critical reading and interpretation skills, including identifying, inferring, deducing and explaining. Moreover, they will focus on studying the novel as a whole, considering the development of characters and themes, and how the author and novel’s wider context may affect the message for their readers. However, perhaps most importantly, whilst reading this novel students will consider the effects of an unequal prejudicial society on both those within and without it – arguably these issues are more relevant than ever before.
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| Assessment: Analytic written response to the whole novel. | Key Words and Terms |
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| Terms 3 and 4 | Selling the Experience | |
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| Students will explore a range of texts, such as leaflets, adverts, websites, and speeches, to discover how amusement parks promote themselves. There is an emphasis on approaching texts as a whole, understanding why they have been written, the demographic of the audience, and how various tones and emotions can be used for different attractions. There will be a fascinating exploration of some of the most unusual days out, both locally and from around the world.
After understanding how the professionals make a day out sound incredible, students will then begin designing and promoting their own amusement parks - all with innovative twists to try and engage and captivate their audiences. As well as developing and understanding different form of writing, students will also develop their teamwork and oracy skills as they deliver ‘Dragon’s Den’ style pitches to convince that their amusement park is worth the investment!
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| Assessment: 1) Evaluation of key ideas from promotional material
2) Writing a speech
| Key Words and Terms |
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| Terms 5 and 6 | “Diverse Lives”; revision for end of year assessment. | |
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| “Diverse Lives” is a dynamic new addition to our curriculum, based around a range of narrative and ballad poetry, alongside biographies, news reports and obituaries of people who have made the world a more interesting place. Throughout this module, students embed interpretive, analytical, and comparative skills by considering – and enjoying – poems as a whole. This is supplemented by stimulating non-fiction texts, encouraging them to think more broadly about the rich variety of experiences across the globe. Putting it all together, students are encouraged to play with the building blocks of poetry, to come up with some entirely new creations of their own. |
| Assessment: "Diverse lives": analysis of a poem + writing with a purpose.
End of Year: English Language Paper 1: Reading fiction + Creative writing | Key Words and Terms |
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| Terms 5 and 6 | End of Year exam + Speaking and Listening. | |
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| Following their end of year exams, students have the opportunity to respond to a "real world" scenario, to speak about an issue they feel strongly about. Across this module, students gain valuable presentation skills, developing a host of skills from being given their "brief" to performing in front of their peers. In particular, we focus on giving and building on useful feedback, editing and crafting a piece of work over multiple iterations, and confident and effect public speaking techniques. |
| Assessment: | Key Words and Terms |
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