The English Faculty - Key Stage 3

Schemes of work used in English in Years 7, 8 and 9:

In Year 7, pupils are introduced to a wide range of challenging, stimulating and diverse texts that facilitate National Literacy Strategy framework objectives. These schemes of work are divided up into half termly segments resulting in the students completing six main areas of study:

• A novel; the department has a number of novels chosen specifically to interest and engage the pupils at this stage of their school career
• A play; the department has a number of playscripts through which the girls can immerse themselves in different roles and learn about the conventions of drama texts
• Media; the pupils have the opportunity, after an introduction to the concept of media, to run their own marketing campaign and present their ideas. Each pupil takes a specific job title in their group and gets to grips with multimedia tools in order to win the pitch to the client!
• Pre Twentieth Century Poetry; pupils consider The Lady of Shalott and explore relevant aspects such as atmosphere, characterisation and structural devices
• Changing Stories; a popular scheme of work where the Year 7 girls can learn about the convention fairy tales in order to become critical readers of the genre
• Non fiction; the students consider the conventions of writing to inform, explain and describe in order to create Year 7 Survival Guides for the incoming Year 7s
• Reading lesson; the pupils have one lesson per cycle to read a book independently and write creatively

Year 8

Building on the teaching and learning throughout Year 7, pupils are taught diverse texts from Medieval Britain to the present day. It is the intention of this year to inspire, challenge and engage the students whilst covering the National Literacy Strategy framework objectives. Schemes of work focus on the following areas of study:

• A novel; the department has a number of novels chosen specifically to interest and engage the pupils at this stage of their school career
• A play; the pupils approach an adaptation of a pre twentieth century novel consolidating their knowledge of the conventions of a play script from Year 7 and consider how atmosphere and mood are created on stage
• Media; the girls critically explore the genre of soap opera and consider the conventions associated with this type of television programme
• Pre Twentieth Century literature; The pupils, after an introduction to the history of the British language, immerse themselves in Chaucer’s Medieval Britain, considering a selection of the Canterbury tales after securing an understanding of the context
• Pre Twentieth Century prose; a popular scheme of work where the girls explore Dickensian London through ‘A Christmas Carol’ The department has both the original and updated text where the pupils are exposed to challenging vocabulary and sophisticated imagery whilst being able to follow this classic text
• Poetry; pupils consolidate their understanding of poetry from Year 7 with this scheme of work. Using a variety of poetry, they develop their critical analysis and independent opinion
• Non fiction; the students consider the conventions of writing to argue, persuade and advise through a variety of activities
• Reading lesson; the pupils have one lesson per cycle to read a book independently and write creatively

Year 9

In this important year, the pupils are taught a broad spectrum of texts chosen specifically chosen to provide confidence at the word, sentence and text level of writing as well as to develop their reading, speaking and listening skills. The richness and diversity of fiction and non-fiction is celebrated as the girls continue to embrace the National Literacy Strategy framework objectives. Schemes of work focus on the following areas of study:

• A novel; the department has a number of novels chosen specifically to interest and engage the pupils at this stage of their school career
• Shakespeare; the department firmly believes in teaching the whole text as opposed to extracts, and the pupils explore the text through drama activities and activities based on character and motivation, the language of the text and ideas, themes and issues. It is seen as imperative that Shakespeare is brought to life for the students and they actively engage in the play
• Media; the pupils approach local, national and global issues through the medium of newspapers. They learn technical terminology whilst developing their analytical skills and applying what they learnt through the construction of their own newspaper
• Non-fiction; the writing triplets are addressed through a specific language lesson that is part of a Year 9 curriculum once a cycle. It is here that the conventions of a variety of purposes of writing are explored, demonstrated to and applied by the pupils
• Original Writing; In order to prepare the students for their GCSE, the department has formulated a scheme of work surrounding The Titanic through which the pupils approach the historical events from a number of different perspectives
• Reading lesson; the pupils have one lesson per cycle to read a book independently and write creatively

All of these schemes of work are written specifically to include the Literacy Strategy Objectives. For more information on these objectives, please visit www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3