Encouraging a love of English, as well as students feeling successful in the subject, remains at the heart of the curriculum. The academic year 2025/26 sees the Year 11 cohort completing their public examinations having completed the full ‘Dream’ curriculum with the addition of a revised Language scheme of work to reflect the changes made by AQA. After a successful implementation of the new schemes of work at KS3, and extensive evaluation and feedback from members of the department, we continue to build on the strengths of last year and deliver the ‘Dream’ curriculum to all key stages.
The first unit Year 7 students are introduced to is Legends in Literature – a unit that focuses on famous legends in literature, such as Achilles and Beowulf, whilst also exploring the root of the oral tradition and the role storytelling has as an ancestor to modern literature. This unit is now well embedded into the Year 7 curriculum, and has generated positive engagement and feedback from the previous cohorts. The whole KS3 curriculum has been shaped with the same goal of engagement and love of English. Moving through different time periods, literary movements and genres, the curriculum mirrors the progression of literature in history to progress their interest in English. Each unit is focused on a literary concept or genre, with language skills interwoven so both students and teachers are reminded of the close relationship between fiction and non-fiction with regards to communication and adapting language for specific effects.
Literacy is the result of engaging with and thinking about ideas, issues and problems with written and spoken English. We want to empower students to think rationally, to critically evaluate influences in their world and to appreciate that all communications are constructs designed to achieve the intentions of their authors.
Whilst we have built our curriculum around the National Curriculum guidance to ‘promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment’, we treat this as a starting point for an ambitious curriculum with critical literacy at its heart. Due to the academic context of our school, the vast majority of our students start with a high level of literacy and therefore our aim is to elevate their skills to a more independently critical mindset.
We teach a rich and varied curriculum that both prepares students for their GCSE examinations and also goes beyond the focus of examined texts. For example, in addition to the two 19th Century novels we offer in KS3, students also study three novels from both other cultures and the modern genre. We aim to engage all of our students with a variety of Shakespeare plays, beginning with an engaging introduction in Year 7 through to Hamlet at KS5. By engaging with a range of texts, we are enabling our students to see the wide ranging interpretations that can be made and the varied arguments presented in the texts. We want learners that are able to recognise that there is no one way of reading a text.
Choice of content:
- For English Literature, we choose to teach two of the set GCSE exam texts at key stages 3 and 4 to help students to understand each text in its social, historical and cultural context, but also to be able to draw parallels between them. Students at KS3 study Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in Year 7 and Jekyll and Hyde in Year 9, both of which are GCSE texts, and are in addition to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that they study at KS4 so no repetition of content occurs, only the repetition and reinforcement of context and key themes and ideas linked to the social setting.
- The poetry provision features a diverse collection that includes poetry from other cultures, Classical poetry, Renaissance poetry, and Romanticism in order to present a broad thematic approach in the students’ knowledge and critical evaluation. Students focus on understanding what motivates poets to write in order to deepen their understanding of the function and purpose of poetry.
- For English Language, the overall focus is on a secure command of Standard English in reading, writing, speaking and listening, being aware of register and being able to apply Standard English in a number of ways. We explore political and dramatic rhetoric, fiction and non-fiction extracts from media at KS3 in order to expose students to a variety of genres and styles in preparation for GCSE. English Language is woven into the teaching of all units throughout key stages 3 and 4 in order to reinforce the idea that adapting language and communication is a universal skill.
Beyond the focus on specified curriculum texts, the department provides enrichment opportunities that encourage a love of reading, improved thinking and literacy skills. In Year 7, one lesson per fortnight is in the Library to promote a love of reading, provide students with access to texts and in which they complete fun activities around reading. In a boys’ school, we feel this is essential as research consistently shows boys’ reading ages lag behind girls and are notoriously less likely to read regularly for pleasure and more likely to read below their chronological age, therefore, the texts we choose are always challenging and above the students’ chronological age. Additionally, the library supports individual student choice of text to ensure the texts they choose are appropriately stimulating. Additionally, we utilise the Accelerated Reader program to support student reading for the entire cohort. We also use it to identify those who would benefit from reading intervention to support a small group of students in Year 7 and guide them through new novels and comprehension activities associated with them. Further up the school, students have one library lesson a term, which is dedicated to private reading to prioritise its importance in the study of English as well as a key life skill.
The English curriculum has been designed to be accessible to all students. The topics are chosen to reflect both real-life experiences, as well as fictional environments that students can relate to and explore a personal engagement with. If a text offers challenging vocabulary, vocabulary banks are used, or activities that allow students to learn the vocabulary before engaging with the text. Retrieval practices are used across all key stages to ensure students regularly revisit key concepts and terms, for example the tragic genre (and therefore all the concepts and terminology related to it) is first explored through Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet at KS3, followed by Macbeth at KS4, and finally Hamlet at KS5. Writing frames and scaffolds are also regularly used to support students with extended responses, and all resources are shared with students via Google Classroom so they are readily available.
By the end of KS3 we expect students to be making an informed response to texts. By the end of KS4, we expect students to have developed a more evaluative and personal response to the texts. By having this foundation of skills, we expect KS5 students to have developed an awareness of themselves as literary critics where their opinions stand alongside other critical interpretations. These expectations clearly show the progression in skills through engaging with literature. Through fostering a love of literature, it is the aim that more Year 11 students will choose A Level English Literature. We want them to see the value of a subject deeply rooted in communication and invaluable as a bedrock for many other post-16 studies. Additionally, at the end of KS3 students will be able to form responses that address all of the relevant assessment objectives for GCSE Language and Literature. The end points for KS4 and 5 is most obviously success in the public examinations with an aim of 60% achieving a 7-9 for GCSE English Literature and an ALPS 3 for A Level, whilst also producing students who are able to engage with an evaluative and personal response to any text. We want students to go on and study English Literature at a post-graduate level having become excellent critics and writers.
Successful learning in English comes from an engaging curriculum that delivers lessons which create learners who are: persistent in finding answers; who think and respond creatively about texts and can apply what they have learned in their own writing. Teachers deliver lessons that focus on the skills required to be successful in English Language and Literature, and students recognise the cross-over of skills for all the texts they face. There is a strong use of dialogic communication between the teacher and students so they are able to show their own thought processes in learning and not simply reiterating what the teacher has said.
We believe that effective learning in English is an activity of construction (i.e. making meaning, not receiving) and that in lessons there should be a promotion of action and reflection (i.e. using materials and creating ideas). We believe success is driven by learners’ agency when the students’ sense of intention and choice is respected. Our monitoring and assessment procedures follow a process of teacher marking and providing targeted feedback on which the student reflects, responds and improves specific areas of weakness. Teachers then check these responses, which forms an ongoing dialogue of improvement, personalised to each student.
Assessment at KS3 is carried out using a variety of peer, whole class, and full teacher-assessed marking. Assessment is rooted in establishing that a deep knowledge and understanding of English Language and Literature has been moved into pupils’ long term memories. Students are all aware of their personal target grades, based on their GCSE target grade and providing a clear route to success. Each term students complete 3 assessments including a reading analysis and a writing response. So even if students are studying a literature unit, they are still practising the skills required to be creative and transactional in their writing, whilst reflecting the aim that students see the valuable crossover between fiction and non-fiction.
In order to ensure learning enters the long-term memory, the curriculum is mapped against the GCSE specification, whilst also featuring elements of the KS5 literature foci. This allows students, for example, to revisit the context for Shakespeare and the 19th Century novel, re-examine the analysis of poetry, including multiple aspects of the Romantic movement, and different aspects of the language course. Each term the department includes starter activities that test students on their knowledge of previously taught units whilst also incorporating tasks that focus students on retrieving knowledge regarding the shared context of texts, the forms and genres of texts as well as comprehension of content.
Current topics taught are:
Year 7 – Legends in Literature (extracts from Ancient Greek mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, Norse mythology, Yoruba mythology, etc.) The Art of Rhetoric (political speeches, social poets such as Agard and Zephaniah, extracts from persuasive characters in Shakespeare, and studying Much Ado About Nothing), and the Story of the Novel (extracts from Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, The Great Gatsby, Mrs Dalloway, and studying A Christmas Carol)
Year 8 – Marginalised Voices (studying Terror Kid, Curious Incident, and Noughts and Crosses), Evolution of Poetry (poetry from across the literary canon), Tragedy and Comedy (extracts from Shakespeare, and studying Romeo and Juliet)
Year 9 – The Gothic Tradition (extracts from a range of Poe, Stoker, Jacobs, etc., and the study of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde), Dystopia (extracts from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, 1984, The Trial, The Machine Stops, The Road, and studying The Giver), and Romanticism (poems from Blake, Shelley, Wordsworth, etc.)
Year 10 and 11 – Science and Society (Frankenstein), Power (incorporating Romantic poems, fiction and nonfiction extracts), Tragic Heroes (Macbeth), Culture and War (Power and Conflict poetry, Language Paper 1 and 2 skills); Modern prose study (Animal Farm).
Year 12 and 13 – Supernatural Prose comparison (Beloved and Dorian Gray), Post-2000 Poetry, Poetry of Christina Rossetti, Dystopian literature comparison, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.
It is departmental practice to revisit previous topics both through the structure of the curriculum, a bespoke retrieval homework programme at KS4, as well as starter activities, to keep information in students’ memories. This practice also enables them to see the cross-over of skills across all the units they study. Teachers maintain high expectations of written and spoken English in lessons and all assessments. By reinforcing these standards and expectations, students are prepared for and able to use the skills necessary regardless of the text they are reading, be it a taught or an unseen text. Additionally, following the Peer Review, there will be an increased focus on improving students’ oracy. Although teachers regularly model high level vocabulary, it will be practised in all lessons to encourage students to improve their own verbal responses to reflect the high level of vocabulary they regularly use in written responses.
Since the introduction of Chromebooks across years 7-13, classroom teachers vary the ways students engage with contextual research in their lessons, offer opportunities for sharing a wider range of source material, and ensure students practise a more independent approach to some aspects of their studies. By using google docs and slides for differentiated tasks, the teacher is able to provide immediate assessment and feedback to students in real time. The department has successfully adapted resources for the google suite, and activities in lessons, to further maximise the use of Chromebooks. In years 12 and 13, students engage with more critical readings, develop the critical research skills needed for further education, and more effectively write and redraft their coursework essays.
The impact of the curriculum can be seen through pupils gaining exemplary literacy skills and knowledge of critical literature analysis, which enable them to access the next steps in their education and future. This is evidenced through the excellent results in public examinations gained by students at the Math school, and the particularly successful implementation of challenging texts for the 100% exam GCSEs our students now enter. These results are clear evidence of the rigorous programme of learning our teachers deliver with 55.39% of GCSE English Lit results in 2024 being a Grade 7-9 and 47.55% in GCSE English Language. This is achieved in the national context of only 12% of boys achieving grades 7-9 in English Language and 15% in English Literature. The A Level results show 96.3% achieved a grade C or above compared to last year’s 89.7% A*-C grades. This year we had a superb 4 students achieving A* grades, last year there were none.
In Key Stage 3, 79% of students in a pupil voice survey stated that they enjoy the subject, which is also evidenced by their exemplary behaviour and engagement in lessons, and the quality of work in their books and assessment folders. 94% of students agree that pupils behave well in lessons and 96% feel they make good or better progress, creating an engaging learning environment. Student morale in the classroom is also high, with 92% stating that they feel they are successful in their English studies, and 98% of students feel able to ask for help from their teachers. Overall satisfaction in English is one of the two highest percentages in Key Stage 3 across all subjects, and this positive attitude and enjoyment of English early in their secondary school career builds a sound foundation, not just in skills specific to English but also cross-curricular skills in critical literacy which they can apply across a range of disciplines. Creating a rich enjoyment of the subject builds the knowledge of the canon, providing them with a foundation to become critical and appreciative learners further up the school. Our students demonstrate these skills by performing well in other subjects, specifically humanities subjects or any subject where students are required to be critical and evaluative thinkers.
The nature of the texts we study offers a broad understanding of historical, social and cultural backgrounds and engenders positive outcomes in terms of students’ perspectives on the diversity of the human experience, in line with British values. When possible, we take our students to see performances of the texts we study to enrich their understanding of literature as an art form. We regularly attend lecture series with our students that are run by University professors, experts in their fields, to further enhance their critical understanding and to model to them what this level of thinking looks like. Many of our students choose to study English Literature at A Level and increasing numbers are choosing the subject at undergraduate level at England’s top universities. Their enjoyment of the subject allows them to develop into highly literate and critical individuals who take an active role in evaluating the sources and purposes of any text they encounter in their future lives.
