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English

In English, our aim is to provide an enriching and inspiring curriculum that will encourage your child to be a lifelong lover of the spoken and written word.

KS3

How we Support and Develop Your Child

Lessons, homework and spelling lists are tailored to the needs of students working at and towards each threshold, ensuring that students are simultaneously supported and challenged. Students receive writing frames and sentence starters for more challenging tasks and are shown models of work from each threshold. Furthermore, the English department works closely with the Student Support Centre to ensure that students with additional needs are given the appropriate support, especially for extended reading and writing tasks. Finally, through fortnightly library lessons, students are given additional support with their reading and are encouraged to borrow books that are both suitable and challenging.

How we Assess Your Child's Progress

Students are encouraged to engage with their own learning through Threshold progress booklets. Formative assessment, through teacher, peer or self-assessment, is recorded and reflected on at regular points throughout each unit. At the end of each unit, students will be summatively assessed, with each skill being monitored against the threshold descriptors. In addition, students will be regularly tested on relevant vocabulary definitions and spellings. Finally, Reading Logs are monitored on a fortnightly basis; students are rewarded for their perseverance in reading outside the classroom.

Year 7

Overview

Year 7 is an opportunity for your child to settle in and to experience a range of literary and linguistic genres that will whet the appetite for deeper study as students’ progress up the school.

Skills Developed

A variety of reading, written and speaking and listening skills are developed. Specific techniques such as analysis of the writer’s craft and evaluation of the methods and techniques employed are covered, in addition to specific writing skills including using a wider variety of sentence types and punctuation for effect, and an increasingly sophisticated repertoire of vocabulary within their own work. The use of dictionaries, ICT and regular testing of vocabulary are all actively developed. Speaking and listening skills are also an integral part of the course and the skills taught here are designed to boost confidence. Formal grammar work is also a priority and includes polishing the skills of applying basic punctuation, the development of paragraphing and the use of tenses in writing. Students work towards achieving the requisite reading and writing skills on their Threshold progress booklets.

Topics Covered

Download the English Year 7 Curriculum Overview

Transactional Writing – Theme Park design
Around the World Poetry
Novel: ‘Running on the Roof of the World’
Narrative Writing
Shakespeare: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
Greek Mythology
Short stories and independent reading

Year 8

Overview

Year 8 is an opportunity for your child to develop on the foundations built in Year 7, building connections between the challenging texts that they study and developing their own writing style.

Skills Developed

A variety of reading, written and speaking and listening skills are developed. Specific techniques such as analysis of the writer’s craft and evaluation of the methods and techniques employed are developed from Year 7, in addition to specific writing skills including using a wider variety of sentence types and punctuation for effect, and an increasingly sophisticated repertoire of vocabulary within their own work. Students are encouraged to experiment with the writing styles that they are reading, especially focusing on more challenging pre-20th Century texts. The use of dictionaries, ICT and regular testing of vocabulary are all actively developed. Speaking and listening skills are also an integral part of the course, especially when studying drama texts, and the skills taught here are designed to boost confidence. Formal grammar work is also a priority and includes polishing the skills of applying basic punctuation, the development of paragraphing and the use of tenses in writing. Students work towards achieving the requisite reading and writing skills on their Threshold progress trackers.

Topics Covered

Download the English Year 8 Curriculum Overview

Novel: ‘Of Mice and Men’ or ‘Private Peaceful’
Gothic: ‘Frankenstein’ or ‘The Woman in Black’
War Poetry comparison
Description Writing – a focus on Dickens and 19^th C
Introduction to GCSE Language Paper 1 Skills: ‘Stone Cold’
Short stories and independent reading

Year 9

Overview

Year 9 is an opportunity for your child to develop on the foundations built in Year 8 and prepare them for the rigorous demands of GCSE English Literature and English Language.

Skills Developed

Year 9 is the gateway to GCSE and students will be set high expectations in order to prepare them for the challenging texts studied and skills required in Year 10. In language, students will build on the foundations formed in Year 7 and Year 8, experimenting with more complex writing structures and ensuring that their writing is both accurate and ambitious. Furthermore, students will be introduced to some of the key reading skills assessed at GCSE: retrieval, analysis and evaluation. In literature, students will explore a range of stimulating modern texts, demanding them to examine the connections between context, characterisation and the writer’s craft, leading to their first GCSE literature unit on A Christmas Carol in the final half term. The use of dictionaries, ICT and regular testing of vocabulary are all actively developed. Speaking and listening skills are also an integral part of the course and the skills taught here are designed to boost confidence.

Topics Covered

Download the English Year 9 Curriculum Overview

Narrative Writing
Shakespeare: The Tempest
Pre-GCSE Novel: ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’, ‘Martyn Pig’ or ‘The Book Thief’
Transactional Writing: Speech writing and presentations
GCSE 19th Century Novel: A Christmas Carol
Short stories and independent reading

KS4

Subject Leader: Mr J Brake
Email: brakej@lytchett.org.uk

In Lytchett Minster School, English should be taught to ‘electrify’ students and by that, we mean to not only enthuse them with a love of Literature, but also to make them stop and think about the world.

English is the gateway to not only high performance in other subjects, but also to being able to make sense of and thrive in the adult world.

This is because the ability to read closely or to summarise is required in all exam subjects, and is an essential skill in all jobs. In our modern world of multiple truths, being able to discern bias and subtext is all the more important.

Similarly, being able to express themselves clearly and accurately orally and through writing is a transferable skill not only for employment but also for other school subjects.

We also want students to enjoy writing in a creative and imaginative manner, developing self-expression.

Literature has the added benefit of also developing empathy and giving students insights into aspects of life that would otherwise be closed off to them.

Long term, our intent is to equip people to develop a lifelong love of reading, questioning and learning: we would like them to establish a lifelong reading habit – and be reading texts on the beach in their adulthood! We aim to achieve this intent through a broad and multi-cultural collection of gripping texts. Ultimately, we wish students to love the subject as much as we do.

How we Support and Develop Your Child

Key Stage 4 marks a significant shift in intensity, as we begin to tailor our learning towards their GCSE exams in Year 11.

English provides two GCSE exams: English Language and English Literature. Your child will study both courses, organised throughout the school year(s).

Classes are setted from Year 10, allowing each class teacher to provide a framework and support for learning that is accessible for and appropriate to the students’ levels of expertise.

We strive to provide a ‘level playing field’ for all students to succeed in their GCSEs, to which end our schemes of work and curriculum are tailorable to provide support and challenge for differing ability levels whilst all being provided with a common experience. Homework is set regularly in order to provide opportunities to either embed knowledge and skills already learned, or to provide a ‘feed-forward’ effect to enable more in-depth in-class experiences. Furthermore, the English department works closely with the Student Support Centre to ensure that students with additional needs are given the appropriate support, especially for extended reading and writing tasks.

How we Assess Your Child's Progress

Students are assessed both formatively (feedback and suggestions for areas to develop) and summatively (marked in accordance with exam board marking guidelines and grades), throughout their Key Stage 4 journey. At the end of each unit, students will be summatively assessed, having previously been given practice papers to achieve more comfort in answering the relevant question types for each paper.

Examinations in both Language and Literature require a blended curriculum of both courses woven together through the two academic years of GCSE study in such a way that:

(a) all aspects are taught effectively with sufficient time allotted to them

(b) there is an alternation of focus to ensure maximum focus

Examinations

Our exam board for both English Language and English Literature is Eduqas.

English Language

Paper 1

Section A – Reading One modern text, five questions

Section B – Writing Narrative Writing - one piece from 4 prompts

Paper 2

Section A – Reading Two texts (one modern, one 19^th Century), six questions

Section B – Writing Transactional Writing – two pieces from: Speech – Review – Letter – Report – Article

Spoken Language requirement

Deliver a speech on a topic of student’s choice: awarded Pass-Merit-Distinction

English Literature

Paper 1

Section A – Shakespeare Two questions on one text.

Currently, students are learning either Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing or The Merchant of Venice. Which text will depend on their class teacher’s expertise with, and passion for, the chosen text.

Section B – Poetry Two questions based on Eduqas’ anthology of poems

Paper 2

Section A – C20^th Prose/Drama Lord of the Flies (top sets only) or An Inspector Calls or Blood Brothers

Section B – C19^th Prose A Christmas Carol

Section C – Unseen Poetry Two poems to compare

Skills Developed

Building on their Keys Stage 3 skills, a variety of reading, written and speaking and listening skills continue to be developed. Specific techniques such as analysis of the writer’s craft and evaluation of the methods and techniques employed are covered, in addition to specific writing skills including using a wider variety of sentence types and punctuation for effect, and an increasingly sophisticated repertoire of vocabulary within their own work. The use of dictionaries, ICT and regular testing of vocabulary are all actively developed. Speaking and listening skills are also an integral part of the course and the skills taught here are designed to boost confidence.

Formal grammar work is also a priority and includes polishing the skills of applying punctuation and paragraphing for effect. The ability to create a strong thesis statement, or line of argument, is another focus for their essays; this thesis is then unfolded through the essay enabling students to deploy an academic register combined with intellectual rigour.