SPALD English

Academic End Points

Year 7

In Year 7 English, students develop essential literacy skills through reading, writing, speaking and listening, enabling them to access the wider curriculum and the world around them. They study a range of carefully selected, accessible texts that help build cultural capital and support their understanding of society. The curriculum encourages a love of reading and writing while providing opportunities for students to express themselves clearly and communicate effectively with others. Students also develop their language skills and vocabulary, equipping them with the literacy foundations needed for future education, employment and everyday life. Through a letter-writing unit, students explore a variety of texts, including complaint letters, charity appeals and open letters, and learn how writers use persuasive techniques to influence their audience. They apply these skills in their own writing, producing letters that are appropriate for purpose, audience and genre, while preparing for more advanced persuasive writing in future years.

Year 8

Students will study a range of literary and non-fiction texts to develop their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, while building the vocabulary needed to access the wider curriculum and everyday life. They will explore storytelling through myths, legends and short stories, learning about genre, narrative structure, writer's craft and how stories reflect different cultures and historical periods. Students will develop their creative writing skills by planning and writing their own narratives, using descriptive techniques and accurate dialogue. Through a unit on rhetoric, they will learn how language can be used to persuade, analyse famous speeches and create and deliver their own persuasive speeches using rhetorical techniques. They will also study texts that explore identity, relationships, inclusion and resilience, developing their ability to infer meaning, analyse characters and respond thoughtfully to literature. The year concludes with the study of A Midsummer Night's Dream, where students develop their understanding of Shakespeare's language, characters, themes and historical context while strengthening their comprehension, discussion and analytical skills.

Year 9

This year focuses on developing their reading, writing and spoken language skills ready to access Entry Level in year 10.  It is very much bespoke to the needs of the cohort and a flexible curriculum in that regard. Through a variety of writing units, they will develop a solid foundation of vocabulary and sentences structures to be successful at gaining an Entry Level qualification in year 10. They can write more extended texts which demonstrate application of the writer’s craft as learned throughout Key Stage 3 (including complex sentences) and further develop, use and build on a range of vocabulary which they have learned so far.  Reading lessons, as well as the study of Romeo and Juliet and a novel will develop their cultural capital and vocabulary as well as developing their understanding of context, the audience’s response, and the analysis of character/theme, as well as provide the opportunity to practice the skills needed in both the literature and language GCSEs if appropriate at KS4. This bespoke curriculum can also incorporate a poetry unit (building on their work from year 7) to develop their ability to identify and use poetic devices. This will also further students’ abilities to decipher explicit and implicit meaning.

Year 10

The curriculum is designed to build foundational reading and writing skills, gradually increasing challenge and explicitly linking each lesson to the skills required for AQA GCSE English Language. Whole curriculum progression: Year 10 focuses on developing secure foundations in reading, writing and spoken communication through supported texts and authentic writing opportunities. Students progress from comprehension and functional communication towards analytical thinking, interpretation and purposeful writing. Students learn that writers create atmosphere through lexical choices, sentence structures and setting descriptions. Year 11 builds upon these foundations by applying and refining skills within GCSE English Language contexts. Students become increasingly independent readers, writers and communicators, capable of analysing complex texts, evaluating viewpoints and crafting responses for a range of audiences and purposes.

Year

11

Students studying the English Language curriculum will develop the reading, writing, speaking and analytical skills needed to progress from Entry Level English to GCSE English Language. They will learn how writers use language, structure and narrative techniques to create atmosphere, tension, character and meaning through the study of fiction, non-fiction and literary texts, including Gothic writing and An Inspector Calls. Students will develop the ability to retrieve information, make inferences, analyse writers’ methods and evaluate different viewpoints and perspectives. They will learn to write effectively for a range of audiences and purposes, producing descriptive, narrative and transactional writing such as speeches, articles and letters. Through themes including sustainability, survival, exploration, identity, belonging, conflict and social change, students will explore important real-world issues while developing their communication and critical thinking skills. By the end of the course, students will be able to independently analyse unseen texts, compare ideas and perspectives, construct well-supported arguments and confidently meet the demands of the AQA GCSE English Language examinations.