English

Reading: 

Learn about plot structures and the distinct conventions of different literary genres. 

Learn how to retrieve key facts from a text. 

Learn how to make simple inferences about characters and themes. 

Learn about how authors use specific language techniques to build atmosphere, mood, and vivid settings. 

Learn how to explain the effect of these language techniques on a reader. 

Learn how to analyse how modern literature utilises or subverts traditional myths and tragic conventions. 

Learn about historical contexts and how language in real-world speeches shapes society. 

Learn how to connect historical context to literature and evaluate the persuasive impact of real-world speeches. 

Writing: 

Learn about baseline accuracy rules (spelling, punctuation, tenses, and subject-verb agreement) and the structures of simple, compound, and complex sentences. 

Learn how to apply baseline grammar accurately and construct varied sentence types. 

Learn about advanced sentence formulas, including "2 pair", "3 -ed", “the more, the more”, "semicolon splits", “colons to clarify”, and "repeat and develop". 

Learn how to write detailed descriptions using a range of DR POISAM techniques for effect. 

Learn how to write detailed PETAL paragraphs (Point, Evidence, Technique, Analyse, Link) for essay structure. 

Learn about rhetorical tools (ARID FOREST) and the Aristotelian triad of persuasion (Ethos, Pathos, and Logos). 

Learn how to write high-quality persuasive pieces and speeches that blend credibility, emotion, and logic. 

Oracy: 

Learn about the components of vocal control, including volume, pacing, and expression. 

Learn how to adjust volume, pace, and expression to actively engage an audience. 

Learn how to memorize and confidently perform poetry in front of others. 

Learn about the structure of formal classroom debates and how to build persuasive speech segments. 

Year 7 Assessment Points:  

Each topic consists of a Progress Check assessment and a Milestone assessment.  

The Progress Checks are completed halfway through the half term. This is a shorter version of the Milestone assessment and allows teachers to formatively adapt their teaching according to pupils’ needs. The Milestone is completed in the final weeks of the half term. This is a longer paper; the data for this is recorded to track pupils’ progress and to inform track points. 

Key Vocabulary 

Tier 2: morality, etiological, omnipotent, hubris, vengeance, idyllic, picturesque, squalid, pristine, feud, fate, banishment, resilience, naive, adversity, emancipation, empathy, tolerance, resolution. 

Tier 3:  inference, retrieval, summary, connotation, denotation, tone, mood, (DR POISAM: dynamic verbs, repetition, personification, onomatopoeia, imagery, simile, alliteration, metaphor), tenor, vehicle, ground, (arid forest: anecdote, rhetorical question, imagery, direct address, facts, opinions, repetition, expert quote/ emotive language, statistics, triple structure), ethos, pathos, logos simple/compound/complex/minor sentence, imperative/interrogative/exclamative/declarative sentences, stanza, sonnet, rhythm, protagonist, antagonist, dialogue, stage directions, dramatic irony, tragedy, tragic hero, hamartia, peripeteia, anagnorisis, monologue, soliloquy, rhetoric.  

Enrichment 

PoetryByHeart lunchtime club and competition 

Access to school Library 

Reading: 

Learn about the differences between poetry, non-fiction articles, scripts, and novels, alongside traditional storytelling structures (such as Freytag’s narrative arc and archetypes). 

Learn about how a book’s historical background (like the Industrial Revolution, Romantic Enlightenment, or modern social issues) influences why the author wrote it and how audiences react to it. 

Learn about how different literary genres change how an audience receives a story, and how authors use hidden meanings (allegories) to comment on real-world themes. 

Learn how to analyse a text, forming personal responses, and use structured paragraph frameworks ("PETAL" and “What? How? Why?”) to explain how language, form, and layout build explicit meaning. 

Learn how to look deeper into a text to find multi-layered meanings, examining how structural shifts, recurring symbols (motifs), and language toolkits shape the overall mood. 

Learn how to compare and contrast two complex books at the same time, look at how reader responses have evolved over history, and write independent essays with balanced arguments. 

Writing: 

Learn about core grammar rules (including appositives, active vs. passive voice, and rules of dialogue). 

Learn about the layout conventions for formal letters, articles, blogs, and scripts. 

Learn about advanced punctuation tools (such as colons, semicolons, dashes, and brackets) and persuasive devices (like the "ARID FOREST" and modal verbs). 

Learn about highly complex literary devices (such as zoomorphism, antimetabole, and iambic pentameter) and non-linear storytelling structures (like flashbacks and shifting perspectives). 

Learn how to build foundational writing accuracy by constructing varied sentences using specific formulas (like the "so, so sentences" "double adverb snap", “prepositional push off”, “whoever, wherever, whenever”, “but no..., more than...” and "simile starts"). 

Learn how to control the pacing of creative writing using paragraph shifts (the "TipTop" method) and construct powerful, tailored persuasive arguments for specific audiences. 

Learn how to intentionally play with language to create subtle subtext, break linear boundaries using dual-narrative positioning. 

Oracy: 

Learn about how tone of voice, varying registers (formal vs. informal), and persuasive delivery change how a spoken argument is received by an audience. 

Learn about how complex narrative perspectives and spoken rhythms sound and function in practice. 

Learn how to read aloud confidently across poetry, scripts, and articles, identifying and highlighting explicit stylistic markers to share information clearly. 

Learn how to present transactional and persuasive arguments aloud, utilizing targeted rhetorical tools to actively influence and engage listeners. 

Learn how to verbally debate alternative interpretations of a text, clearly articulate a sophisticated philosophical thesis statement, and use spoken rhetoric to highlight subtle tonal differences. 

Year 8 Assessment Points:  

Each topic consists of a Progress Check assessment and a Milestone assessment.  

The Progress Checks are completed halfway through the half term. This is a shorter version of the Milestone assessment and allows teachers to formatively adapt their teaching according to pupils’ needs. The Milestone is completed in the final weeks of the half term. This is a longer paper; the data for this is recorded to track pupils’ progress and to inform track points. 

Key Vocabulary 

Tier 2: revolution, oppression, corruption, degradation, jubilation, exploitation, reverence, enlightenment, pastoral, pioneer, hierarchy, resolute, prejudice, discrimination, segregation, disillusioned, trepidation, Machiavellian, foreboding, empathy, sympathy, alienation, despondent, dilapidated, surveillance, agency, dissent, dehumanised, draconian, ephemeral, resplendent, enchanting, euphonious. 

Tier 3: romanticism, sonnet, volta, enjambment, caesura, rhyming couplet, alternating rhyme, iambic pentameter, metonym, biblical allusion, symbolism, irony, juxtaposition, register, modal/dynamic/stative verbs, active and passive voice, appositive, aside, gait, subtext, foil, facial expressions, zoomorphism, characterisation, narrative voice (1st/2nd/3rd person), hendiadys, dual narrative, linear/non-linear structure, foreshadowing, motifs, dialect, colloquialism, Freytag’s narrative structure, flashback.  

Enrichment 

PoetryByHeart lunchtime club and competition. 

Reading: 

Learn about key storytelling conventions (such as Gothic settings or standard poetic structures), central plots, and the themes of studied texts. 

Learn about historical, social, and biographical contexts, and how these backgrounds connect directly to the books and poems being read. 

Learn about the credibility of non-fiction sources, including the distinct differences between misinformation and disinformation. 

Learn how to employ critical thinking to read and evaluate multi-modal sources. 

Learn to appreciate writers’ artistic craft and stylistic choices. 

Learn how to productively use context surrounding a text to deepen understanding of it. 

Learn how to apply a mature analysis of a writer's structural choices (like flash-forwards, cyclical endings, or running lines in poetry) and specific word classes actively shape a reader's reaction. 

Learn how to develop an independent, elegant academic voice by weighing alternative interpretations of a text and debating whether an author’s or poet’s core argument is valid. 

Writing: 

Learn about fundamental spelling, punctuation, and grammar rules, and the core pillars of persuasion (Ethos, Pathos, Logos). 

Learn about advanced writing models, including ‘present participle start’, ‘writer’s aside’, ‘first word last word’, ‘without, without’, I would that I were’, ‘as if pivot’, and ‘as if avalanche. 

Learn about highly advanced structural patterns (such as tricolons, asyndeton, and chiasmus, anadiplosis, anaphora, epistrophe, and hypophora) used to control the rhythm and tension of prose. 

Learn how to construct clear analytical paragraphs, write persuasively about various topics, and use straightforward vocabulary accurately. 

Learn how to seamlessly weave descriptions of characters and settings together using precise verb choices to control the style of their writing. 

Learn how to creatively and flawlessly use advanced punctuation (including semicolons, colons, dashes, and brackets) to set a specific mood, while fluidly shifting between the active and passive voice for professional clarity. 

Oracy: 

Learn about the role of physical gestures, vocal projection, deliberate pacing, and structured arguments in delivering an engaging speech. 

Learn about strategies for managing spontaneous communication, managing nerves, and maintaining fluency when speaking without a script. 

Learn how to speak confidently in front of others using varied sentence types, foundational persuasive tools, and clear vocabulary. 

Learn how to plan, refine, and deliver powerful, persuasive speeches to an audience using deliberate performance skills. 

Learn how to think on their feet during spoken presentations, masterfully handling unscripted question-and-answer sessions with absolute fluency and analytical poise. 

Year 9 Assessment Points:  

Each topic consists of a Progress Check assessment and a Milestone assessment.  

The Progress Checks are completed halfway through the half term. This is a shorter version of the Milestone assessment and allows teachers to formatively adapt their teaching according to pupils’ needs. The Milestone is completed in the final weeks of the half term. This is a longer paper; the data for this is recorded to track pupils’ progress and to inform track points. 

Key Vocabulary 

Tier 2:  

derelict, sublime, macabre, sagacious, eerie, misanthropic, putrefied, trepidation, miser, nefarious, heinous, desolate, forsaken, harrowing, propaganda, patriotism, reverence, disillusioned, misinformation, disinformation, subjective, objective, hegemony, fabricate 

Tier 3: convention, eponymous, semantics, serialisation, epistolary form, framed narrative, satire, tricolon, asyndeton, polysyndeton, phonology, sibilance, fricatives, guttural, dentals, assonance, anaphora, refrain, in medias res, hendiadys, anadiplosis, chiasmus, epistrophe, hypophora, cyclic structure, omniscient narrator, social commentary, subversion, bathos. 

Enrichment 

PoetryByHeart lunchtime club and competition 

Access to school Library 

Literature - “An Inspector Calls”: 

Compare characters and themes across a text examining how they change. 

Learn about the social, historical and cultural context of Edwardian England, including biographical details about J. B. Priestley and their impact on our understanding of the play. 

Learn how to examine language choices that reflect themes (including:  responsibility, duty, selfishness, generational divide, role of women, class divide, prejudices). 

Language – Exploration in Creative Reading and Writing (Paper 1)  

Learn how to reflect critically and evaluatively on text. 

Learn how to evaluate a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features analysing and evaluating how form and structure contribute to the effectiveness and impact of a text. 

Learn how to write for impact: creating emotional impact using sophisticated vocabulary for purpose and effect. 

Learn how to use register to match the specific audience. 

Learn how to use linguistic and a range of structural features to connect ideas and achieve overall impact and effect (using a range of discourse markers) including using sentence forms for effect. 

Literature - Nineteenth Century Novel: “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” or “A Christmas Carol” 

Compare characters and themes across a text examining how they change. 

Learn about the social, historical and cultural context of Victorian England. 

Learn how to examine language choices that reflect themes (including:  identity, duality, equality, status). 

Learn about the narrative structure of the novel including use of staves, non- chronological structure, novella form. 

Learn biographical details and their impact on our understanding of the text.  

Language - Writers’ Viewpoints and Perspectives (Paper 2) 

Learn how to reflect critically and evaluatively on text, recognising the possibility of different responses to a text, including being able to identify bias and misuse of evidence 

Learn how to evaluate a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features analysing and evaluating how form and structure contribute to the effectiveness and impact of a text. 

Learn how to write for impact: creating emotional impact; using language persuasively, including rhetorical devices (such as rhetorical questions, antithesis, parenthesis). 

Learn how to use linguistic and a range of structural features to connect ideas and achieve overall impact and effect (using a range of discourse markers) including using sentence forms for effect. 

Literature - AQA Anthology - Power and Conflict Cluster 

Compare two taught poems on a linked theme, attitude or emotion using language, form and structure analysis. 

Learn about the social, historical and cultural context of different Literary Time Periods. 

Learn how to examine language choices that reflect themes (including:  identity, powerlessness, conflicted emotions, displacement). Learn biographical details about Shelley, Blake, Wordsworth, Browning, Tennyson, Owen, Heaney, Hughes, Armitage, Weir, Duffy, Dharker, Rumens, Agard, Garland. 

Learn about the different types of poems. 

Spoken Language Study (Individual presentation): 

Learn how to present information and ideas 

Selecting and organising information and ideas effectively and persuasively for prepared spoken presentations. 

Planning effectively for different purposes and audiences. 

Listening to and responding appropriately to any questions and feedback 

Expressing ideas using Standard English whenever and wherever appropriate. 

Year 10 Assessment Points:  

1. October half-term assessment Language Paper 1 - Writing to Describe and Literature “An Inspector Calls” 

2. December Language Paper 1 Reading and Literature “An Inspector Calls” 

3. February half-term assessment Language Paper 2 – Writing to Persuade and Literature Nineteenth Century Novel 

4. April Language Paper 2 Reading and Literature Nineteenth Century Novel  

5. June Year 10 E.O.Y. assessments – Language Paper 2 and Literature Unseen Poetry  

6. July – Spoken Language Presentations 

Key Vocabulary 

connotation, emotive language, hyperbole, dramatic irony, juxtaposition, oxymoron, foil, semantic field, microcosm, allegory, caesura, enjambment, iambic pentameter, free verse poem, abstract noun, patriarchy, static and dynamic character, ambiguous, ominous, omniscient, conscience, displacement, autonomy, futility.

Enrichment 

Theatre Trip “An Inspector Calls”.  

Revision classes. 

Language: Explorations in Creative Reading Paper 1 Revision 

Learn how to read and evaluate texts critically and make comparisons between texts. 

Learn how to summarise and synthesise information or ideas from texts. 

Learn how to select vocabulary, grammar, form, and structural and organisational features judiciously to reflect audience, purpose and context. 

Learn how to write convincingly for different forms. 

Learn how to maintain a consistent point of view, maintaining coherence and consistency across a text. 

Literature: Shakespeare text – “Macbeth” 

Compare characters and themes across a text examining how they change. 

Learn about the social, historical and cultural context of Renaissance England and the impact of Jacobean Society.  

Learn how to examine language choices that reflect themes (including:  responsibility, duty, conflict, ambition, loyalty, role of women, class divide, prejudices). 

Learn about the structure of a Shakespearian play. 

Learn about the impact of tragedy genre. 

Learn biographical details about Shakespeare and their significance on our understanding of the play. 

Literature: Unseen Poetry Revision 

Learn how to compare two unseen poems on a linked theme, attitude or emotion in examination conditions. 

Learn about the social, historical and cultural context of Modern Literature. 

Learn how to examine language choices that reflect themes, attitudes and emotions. 

Learn how to identify and examine structural features to reflect themes, attitudes and emotions. 

Language: Reading – Writers’ Viewpoints and Perspectives Paper 2 Revision  

Learn how to reflect critically and evaluatively on text, recognising the possibility of different responses to a text. 

Learn how to evaluate a writer’s choice of vocabulary, form, grammatical and structural features: explaining and illustrating how vocabulary and grammar contribute to effectiveness and impact, using linguistic and literary terminology accurately to do so and paying attention to detail; analysing and evaluating how form and structure contribute to the effectiveness and impact of a text. 

Learn how to write for impact: creating emotional impact; using language persuasively, including rhetorical devices (such as rhetorical questions, antithesis, parenthesis). 

Literature Revision: “An Inspector Calls”, Nineteenth Century Novel and AQA Power and Conflict Poetry  

Year 11 Assessment Points:   

1. October half-term assessment Language Paper 1 Reading and Literature “Macbeth” 

2. December Year 11 Mock Examinations Language Paper 1 and Literature “Macbeth” and Unseen Poetry 

3. February Year 11 Mock Examinations Language Paper 2 and Literature Power and Conflict Poetry and “An Inspector Calls” 

4. April English Language Paper 1 and Literature Nineteenth Century Novel and Unseen Poetry 

Key Vocabulary 

paradox, soliloquy, dramatic irony, hamartia, pathetic fallacy, iambic pentameter, foil, regicide, volta, anaphora, assonance, plosives, anthropomorphism, incantations, cacophony, euphemism, quatrain, sestet, octet, symbol / motif.

Enrichment 

Theatre Trip “Revision on Tour: Macbeth”.  

Revision classes.