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English Curriculum Overview

 

“One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter”
James Earl Jones 

 

The English department at Whitefield School fosters and develops students' love of language, creating clear, accurate communicators who confidently express opinions and ideas. Students study a range of challenging texts from across the English literary canon (e.g Shakespeare, Dickens and Rossetti) and other diverse backgrounds. Students learn key analysis and evaluative skills as they critically examine the texts and the contexts in which they were written.

Students in all key stages are offered the chance to become effective writers through the exploration of ambitious and enriching concepts, including correct syntax, punctuation and grammar. Each year, students learn the key creative skills needed to write fictional, imaginative pieces and non-fiction transactional pieces. 

At A-level, students engage with in-depth critical thinking on themes introduced across a range of texts, developing analytical and evaluative skills learnt in previous years. In conjunction with this, students are given deeper insight into contexts, as well as being introduced to a range of philosophers and critics, allowing for a more perceptive view of the works.

 

 

Implementation

  • Large collaborative department plan which devises and reviews schemes of learning.

  • Continuous cycle of revisions, amendments and updates - informed by our context and pedagogical research.

  • Curriculum journey developed to teach effective communication.

  • We teach reading, writing and spoken presentation structures each year through a range of texts (fiction and non-fiction) with increasing complexity - to build up knowledge. 

  • Teaching across all key stages will enable pupils to explore a range of concepts as it relates to real life, philosophical, cultural and social situations. With a diverse range of texts and past papers.

  • Learners are assessed at the end of a topic.

Impact

  • Read a variety of different kinds of texts; both fiction and non-fiction.

  • They will also be fluent readers and confident writers and should be able to clearly express their opinion on a range of topics.

  • GCSE learners, in particular, will become critical thinkers who are able to analyse language and the structure of writing in detail. 

  • Quality of student work.

Academic Journey - KS3

Year 7

  
Half Term 1 Half Term 2
Baseline test - Victorian England and Oliver Twist Victorian England and Oliver Twist
Half Term 3 Half Term 4
Elizabethan England and A Midsummer Night's Dream Poetry: understanding how literal and figurative language are used to create images
Half Term 5 Half Term 6
Modern short stories Non fiction texts and writing (speeches)

Year 8

  
Half Term 1 Half Term 2
Literary Study Sherlock Holmes Literary Study Sherlock Holmes
Half Term 3 Half Term 4
Literary Study: The Tempest Imaginative writing: mystery
Half Term 5 Half Term 6
Poetry from other cultures  Non fiction texts and writing (speeches and articles)

Year 9

  
Half Term 1 Half Term 2
Literary Study: Macbeth Imaginative writing: gothic horror
Half Term 3 Half Term 4
Literary Study: The Woman in Black Literary Study: The Woman in Black
Half Term 5 Half Term 6
Poetry: Gender and Relationships Non fiction texts and writing (speeches, articles and letters)

 

Academic Journey - KS4

Year 10

  
Half Term 1 Half Term 2
Language Paper 1 - Reading 19th Non-Fiction Literature paper 2: Conflict poetry
Half Term 3 Half Term 4
Language Paper 2 - Imaginative Writing Literature paper 1: Romeo and Juliet
Half Term 5 Half Term 6
Literature paper 1: Romeo and Juliet Language Paper 1: Transactional Writing

Year 11

  
Half Term 1 Half Term 2
Language Paper 2 - Reading Fiction Texts Literature paper 2: A Christmas Carol
Half Term 3 Half Term 4
Literature paper 1: An Inspector Calls Literature Paper 2: Unseen Poetry
Half Term 5 Half Term 6
Revision  Revision 

 

Academic Journey - Sixth Form

Year 12

  
Half Term 1 - 3  

Introduction to the life and context of Christina Rossetti. Exploring Rossetti's poetry.          

Elizabethan England, colonialism and Shakespeare's Othello

  
Half Term 4 - 6  
Elizabethan England, morality tales and Les Blancs. Poems of the Decade and Unseen comparison  

Year 13

  
Half Term 1 Half Term 2
Coursework: first chosen book study Coursework: second chosen book study
Half Term 3 Half Term 4
Science and society: Frankenstein  Science and society: A Handmaid's Tale
Half Term 5  
Revision