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ENGLISH

KEY STAGE 4

All students study AQA GCSE English Language and Literature. We follow two routes through the course of study. One cohort completes GCSE English Language in Year 10, sitting their examination in the summer exam period (May/June) at the end of Year 10. The second cohort studies both courses for two years, sitting exams in both English Language and English Literature at the end of Year 11.

The course of study is as follows:

  • A 19th century novel - Jane Eyre or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

  • A modern text - Lord of the Flies or An Inspector Calls

  • AQA poetry anthology: Love and Relationships

  • Explorations in Creative Writing

  • Writers’ Viewpoints and Perspectives

  • Spoken Language

KEY STAGE 3

All students are assessed throughout each year in the three key strands of Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening. Skills in these areas are developed through focus on a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. Students study Shakespeare every year and prose writing from the English Literary tradition, as well as engaging with the work of contemporary writers and poets. The study of non-fiction texts is interleaved throughout each term in every year of KS3.


Year 7


Autumn Term Theme: Victorian Literature and Society

To include a study of either Great Expectations or A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, alongside both contemporary and 19th century non-fiction.


Spring Term Theme: 'Dark Tales’: Gothic, the Supernatural, and the Dramatic Monologue

To include the study of a range of short stories and dramatic monologues.


Summer Theme: Magic and Mythology

To include a study of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare and extracts from classical mythology.


Year 8


Autumn Term Theme: Heroes: the Tragic Form, the Origins of Rhetoric and Epic Poetry

To include a study of Macbeth by William Shakespeare and extracts from epic poetry, including Beowulf and the Iliad.


Spring Term Theme: Exploration of Genre

The study of a range of different literary genre (including utopia and dystopia, YA fiction and detective fiction) and their characteristics.


Summer Term Theme: Adventure Writing

To include the study of Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as extracts from other adventure fiction, and travel writing.


Year 9


Autumn Term Theme: Freedom Writing: speeches, stories and poetry

To include a study of a range of texts of various genre, including feminist, post-colonial, and autobiographical writing.


Spring Term Theme: Forbidden Love

To include the study of a contemporary novel – Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go – and the sonnet form, both traditional and modern.


Summer Term 1: Much Ado About Nothing

The study of Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing, and revisiting the conventions of tragedy and comedy.

Summer Term 2: Introduction to GCSE English Literature Texts

Students will read and explore the context of either Jane Eyre or An Inspector Calls.

KEY STAGE 5

  • A-Level English Literature - Specification A (AQA)

  • A-level English Language (AQA)

  • Film Studies (WJEC)

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT:

Mrs K Bannister Grey


Second in Dept: Mrs J M Perry & Mrs L Floyd

DEPARTMENT STAFF:

Miss L Connolly, Mrs N Swan, Miss MacKay, Miss R Spittles, , Mr R Robertson, Miss E Duncan, Miss I Ahmad, Mrs A Din, Miss O Milburn. Maternity Leave: Miss S Sweet, Mrs R Webb

CURRICULUM INFORMATION
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