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 rames 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 trackers. 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 Diaries 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 trackers.

Topics Covered

Download the English Year 7 Curriculum Overview

• 'Of Mice and Men’
• Dickens Writing
• Oracy through gothic texts: ‘The Woman in Black (Mastery) & 'Frankenstein' (sets 2-5)
• War Poetry Comparison
• ‘The Tempest’ Reading
• 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

• Dickens Writing Unit: Students will be introduced to Dickens’ writing style through a range of extracts. They will experiment with a range of stylistic devices and learn about the context in which Dickens was writing.
• Of Mice and Men: Students will study this iconic text by John Steinbeck, developing their analytical skills and focusing on how Steinbeck creates characters.
• Frankenstein and Gothic Writing: Students will read a drama adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by Philip Pullman, using it as inspiration for their own gothic writing.
• War Poetry: Students will read, discuss and explore a range of war poetry. Work in this unit will lead towards the end of year examination, a comparison of two war poems that they have studied.
• Macbeth Transactional Writing: Through engagement with the plot and characters of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, students will develop their skills of writing for different purposes and audiences.

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

• Introduction to GCSE Language Paper 1 Skills (Reading)
• Persuasive Writing (Writing and Speaking and Listening)
• Pre-GCSE Novel Unit (Reading) (Curious Incident, Martyn Pig, Book Thief)
• Narrative Writing (Writing) (DEVELOPMENT PLANNED 21-22)
• GCSE 19th Century Prose Unit (A Christmas Carol) (Reading)
• Short stories and independent reading

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

COMING SOON - THIS PAGE IS BEING UPDATED

Year 10

Download the English Year 10 Curriculum Overview

Year 11

Download the English Year 11 Curriculum Overview