Our Learning
We offer a range of courses across the school years to help you become knowledgeable and skilled students of English and the framework for each year group is outlined below. Each unit is designed to build upon prior knowledge to give you a strong foundation and a thorough appreciation for literature and language use. Our units will help you build your confidence in the skills that will be assessed by AQA at GCSE.
Exam board:
Our students all sit AQA GCSEs in both English Language and Literature. Students have Language and Literature lessons with the same teacher.
Lesson frequency and length:
Students in years 7, 8 and 10 have 4 lessons of 45 minutes a week.
Students in year 9 have 3 lessons of 45 minutes a week.
Year 11 have 5 lessons of 45 minutes a week.
Assessments and Marking
Every unit is assessed to help build a thorough picture of what our students can do. Many of these assessments will be sat 'blind', rather than planned, and will test the students' skill development across their unit/s. Students complete this work in their blue assessment books, which they will keep from year 7 through to year 11, as a record of their progress. Students are asked to reflect on their targets for improvement in a green pan and to make changes to their writing following feedback. These assessment books are kept in school to ensure they are not lost.
Class books are purple, and these are rough working books which are not formally assessed, however, we expect students to keep these neat to help them prepare effectively and revise for all their assessments.
Year 7
Term 1 - Fantasy & The Natural World (Creative Writing)
Term 2 - Modern Novella ('Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence' by Nugi Garimara)
Term 3 - Introduction to Poetry
Term 4 - Introduction to Shakespeare
Term 5 - Non-Fiction Transactional Writing
Term 6 - Morality Literature (Oscar Wilde and the legacy of Fairy Tale)
Year 8
Term 1 - Dystopia (Creative Writing)
Term 2 - 19th Century Fiction (Sherlock Holmes)
Term 3 - Culture & Voice - Poetry
Term 4 - Non Fiction (Speech Writing)
Term 5 - Modern Fiction ('The Birds' by Daphne du Maurier)
Term 6 - Shakespeare ('The Merchant of Venice')
Year 9
Term 1 - The Gothic (Creative Writing)
Term 2 - Non Fiction Article Writing
Terms 3 & 4 - Power and Conflict Poetry cluster on War and Mental Suffering
Terms 5 & 6 - 19th Century Novel (The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' by R. L. Stevenson)
Year 10
Term 1 - Power and Conflict Poetry cluster on Nature
Term 1 - Modern Play ('An Inspector Calls' by J. B. Priestley)
Term 2 - AQA Language Paper 1 (fiction)
Term 2 - Power and Conflict Poetry cluster on Power
Term 3 - Shakespeare play ('Romeo and Juliet' / 'Macbeth')
Term 4 - AQA Language Paper 2 (non-fiction)
Term 5 - Power and Conflict Poetry cluster on Identity
Term 6 - Mocks and revision
Year 11
All units are revision of prior learning.
Mocks are sat in November for both Language and Literature, additionally, further assessments are held in class for each unit.
Term 1 - Revising the 19th Century Novella ('The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' by R. L. Stevenson)
Term 2 - AQA Language Paper 2 (non-fiction)
Term 2 - Unseen Poetry
Term 2 - Mocks (AQA Language Paper 2; Literature - 'Jekyll and Hyde' and 'Romeo and Juliet' / 'Macbeth').
Term 3 - Revising Shakespeare ('Romeo and Juliet' / 'Macbeth')
Term 4 - AQA Language Paper 1 (fiction)
Term 5 - Revising the Modern Play ('An Inspector Calls' by J. B. Priestley).
Revision
Term 6 - Exams
