Intention

At The Woodroffe School, English at KS3 is taught for three hours a week in mixed ability groups. In Years 7 and 8, classes are taught as six distinct tutor groups of approximately 30 students and, for continuity, with the same English teacher. In Year 9, students move out of their tutor groups into subject pathways. English is taught alongside the Y7, 8 and 9 Literacy programmes.

Above all, our intention at KS3 is to instil a love of reading in our students – and, at the very least, to impart the centrality of reading. We want our students to see the distinct link between reading and good writing. Our aim is that students leave Y9 as increasingly confident communicators in the written and spoken form. They will not only have a clear grasp of grammatical structures, but they will have an interest in vocabulary and, fundamentally, in producing and receiving information – in a variety of forms – which helps them to make sense of the world around them. Students will also start KS4 sure of the importance of English as a subject in its own right but also as the medium through which other subjects are taught.

As a truly comprehensive school, we recognise the need to support and challenge each student. Alongside the additional Literacy curriculum time for all Y7 and Y8 students (with the exception of those studying Mandarin), the Y9 Literacy group comprises those extracted from Language lessons, allowing for careful intervention with our most vulnerable readers. Here, smaller class sizes and more TA and Sixth Form help enable greater tailored support in accelerating reading and writing fluency, comprehension skills and emotional literacy. More able students are invited to join the fortnightly Extended Reading group. Theatre trips, an annual Poetry Live visit, a Carnegie book shadowing group and a weekly creative writing club for students of all abilities allow students to see English as not limited to a classroom – but as an experience which transports and excites.

Implementation

Across Y7-9, students have six English lessons a fortnight. In Y7 and Y8, one of these six lessons a fortnight becomes a ‘Let’s Think in English’ lesson. This programme aims to systematically develop skills of inference, deduction and analysis to increase students’ confidence, understanding and ability to express ideas – particularly when working with previously unseen extracts of varying forms and genres.

We encourage active participation in all our classes; lessons include a balance of individual, paired and group work and a mix of discussion and written work.

The curriculum is designed to extend students’ skills and knowledge across the three years.

Year 7 sees students consolidating and developing skills practised at upper KS2 by reading a range of fiction and non-fiction texts, both pre and post-1900. Students also practise writing both fiction and non-fiction, for a range of audiences.

• The initial Writing to Argue unit allows for an initial assessment of students’ grammatical understanding and usage of key persuasive skills.
• Following this unit with ‘Tender Earth’ introduces soft analytical skills and emotional literacy skills, and enables students and teacher to enjoy reading a narrative together.
• Following this with ‘A Christmas Carol’ introduces students to studying and understanding the historical and social context of a text alongside plot and characterisation. Students are also introduced to the essentials of analytical writing, practising the selection of quotations and evidence to support ideas and considering the writer’s methods used. Students explore how Dickens presents aspects of characterisation in a particular passage.
• The subsequent Y7 Poetry: character and voice unit introduces students to different characters and voices but in poetic, rather than narrative, form. Students consolidate their analytical skills, constructing analytical paragraphs increasingly independently, and are introduced to approaching alternative interpretations of a text. Students are also introduced to new terminology, particularly exploring the structural aspects of a poem.
• The Narrative Writing unit returns to an explicit grammar focus, building on the opening unit of Y7, and allows Y7 students to explore the typical conventions of adventure fiction. Having identified these features in texts, students then practise these in their own writing whilst retaining the essentials of accurate writing (paragraphing, punctuation) explored in their first unit at Woodroffe.
• Students start the summer term with ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. They are introduced to the conventions of Shakespearean comedy and to approaches which help them to confidently tackle Shakespearean language.
• In their study of the modern play, ‘Face’, students consolidate the conventions of drama studied when covering ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and are introduced to other key dramatic terms and structural features such as a chorus.
• Students finish the year with AQA English Language Paper 1 skills which softly introduce the format and skills required in the later GCSE English Language questions. Students recap analytical skills when considering Q2 and, in approaching Q4, build on the work regarding alternative interpretations encountered in the poetry unit.
• Students also have a fortnightly dictation, fortnightly spelling, punctuation and grammar activity, and are read to fortnightly as well as regularly reading their own books independently.

Year 8 sees students consolidate and develop skills mastered at Y7 by reading a broad range of challenging texts from across different genres. They also write for a wider range of purposes and audiences.

• The Dystopian Narrative Openings unit allows students to demonstrate their understanding of the dystopian genre by creating their own dystopian setting and character. Writing only the opening demands students to synthesise and reduce the character arc and plot.
• The subsequent unit, the Y8 Poetry Anthology: poetic form, allows students to recap their specific poetry lexicon but also enjoy a variety of poetic forms and diverse contexts, times and authorships. Students again consider how writers are influenced by their surroundings, culture and literary heritage, as well as personal experience. Students’ appreciation of poetry is furthered through a focus on students writing their own poetry alongside analysing published work. Students consolidate the skills of analytical writing from Y7 and practise the evaluative response work undertaken at the end of the previous academic year. Students also demonstrate understanding of how poetic form can emphasise the content of a poem.
• Studying ‘Animal Farm’ next introduces students to increasingly complex literary features such as allegory. Moving on from the 19th century novel studied in Y7, students are introduced to the conventions of a 20th century novel and to the genre of dystopian writing. They also continue to explore the significance of a text’s social, historical and, now, political context. The writing to review assessment revisits persuasive and opinion writing work from Y7.
• Students then encounter ‘Twelfth Night’ or ‘The Tempest’ (teacher’s choice) where students recap the conventions of Shakespearean comedy and/or Shakespearean tragicomedy. In this unit, students further practise their analytical writing, concentrating on a specific passage of Shakespearean language; they also analyse the significance of the extract in the context of the wider play, preparing them for later GCSE English Literature assessments.
• The pre-1900 short story unit introduces students to the conventions of detective fiction and to the varying interpretations of the character of Sherlock Holmes. The reading assessment consolidates and furthers students’ analysis through developing an extended analytical response.
• Students start the summer term with AQA English Language Paper 1 skills unit which consolidates the Q4 evaluative skills explicitly practised at the end of Y7. Students are again softly reminded of the GCSE English Language question format and skills. Students are introduced to structural analysis through moving image.
• The Y8 curriculum finishes with a modern drama, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’, allowing students to recap the conventions of modern drama and to further their understanding of structural features and devices. Social context regarding Christopher’s learning and processing deepens students’ understanding of characterisation and dramatic function.
• Students also have a fortnightly dictation, fortnightly spelling, punctuation and grammar activity, and are read to fortnightly as well as regularly reading their own books independently.

The annual Year 8 Writing Day also allows students to enjoy writing for writing’s sake; a visiting author inspires students to develop their own story ideas – just for the sheer fun of it.

In Year 9, students build on and develop skills taught in Year 8 by studying increasingly demanding texts, across both fiction and non-fiction genres (such as diaries, reports, recounts, opinion articles and speeches). Texts previously featured on the GCSE syllabus stimulate and challenge all abilities. Writing units reinforce and develop skills taught in Y7 and Y8 with a more explicit focus on the requirements of the English Language GCSE.

• The ‘Y9 poetry anthology: war and conflict’ unit stretches students’ understanding of pre- and post-1900 poetry. To develop poetry analysis skills honed in Y8, students are taught and assessed on their ability to compare the presentation of a theme in two named poems in the style of a GCSE English Literature Paper 2 Section B style question. Students analyse the effects of writers’ methods and contextual factors in their analysis.
• Before studying the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’, students understand its social, historical and political context through reading and discussing narratives of the enslaved. GCSE Paper 1 English Language skills are practised throughout the reading of the novel, with close language analysis replicating Q2 and evaluative responses to exploratory statements mirroring Q4 style questions. Students also produce an extended piece of descriptive writing, leading to the recapping of the conventions of narrative and descriptive writing (Q5).
• Studying ‘Romeo and Juliet’ introduces students to the conventions of Shakespearean tragedy, prefiguring their study of ‘Macbeth’ at GCSE. Students are assessed by means of a GCSE English Literature Paper 1 style question, where students analyse the presentation of a character in a specific extract and then in the wider play.
• The ‘Writing to argue’ unit builds students’ confidence in approaching unseen non-fiction texts and consolidates the Y7 unit on persuasive writing. Students write an opinion article in response to a GCSE English Language Paper 2 Q5 style question. The teaching and practising of speaking and listening skills in this unit prepare students for their later GCSE Spoken Language assessment.
• The ‘AQA KS3 English Language Paper 2’ unit introduces students to the skills of summary and comparing attitudes and perspectives in preparation for KS4 alongside familiarising students, again, with language analysis.
• The short penultimate unit, narrative/descriptive writing skills, introduces students to structures used throughout KS4 to create tightly focused and controlled pieces of descriptive writing.
• Y9 students finish KS3 by studying a GCSE set text, ‘An Inspector Calls’. Students discuss the structural similarities to the previous modern drama texts studied at KS3 as well as considering capitalism, socialism and class in the Edwardian era. Students consider the plot, characterisation and main themes and prepare to study the text in greater detail at KS4.
• Students also enjoy a fortnightly standalone unseen poetry lesson. Students encounter and discuss a range of poems related to the themes of identity, love and relationships. Consequently, students develop their independent responses to poetry, as well as developing their emotional intelligence, and are increasingly prepared for the demands of the unseen poetry question at GCSE.

Impact

Students finish KS3 as increasingly articulate, inquisitive thinkers, readers and writers. They write with increasing accuracy for a variety of audiences and purposes and in different forms. They read with, and for, meaning.

Students are assessed each term in either reading or writing and by a GCSE exam style question (implicitly in Y7 and 8, and explicitly in Y9) in the summer term. Formative assessment is prioritised with students being able to see the progress they are making in reading (English Literature, green front sheets) and writing (English Language, red front sheets) disciplines on assessment front sheets where individualised written feedback is prioritised over a summative grade. Students recognise the need to take responsibility for their own learning; the school’s literacy marking code and ‘Now’ task system, in particular, facilitate this student-led response. The department is also increasingly trialling whole class feedback sheets.

Students finish KS3 recognising that texts are not written in a vacuum, but are affected by the contexts in which they are written and received. Students, throughout the course of KS3, learn to become more empathetic readers and writers.