English
Key Stage 3
Our KS3 offer focuses intensely upon developing skilled and accurate readers of a wide range of texts across different genres: novels, plays, and poems which offer entertaining, challenging, and exciting opportunities to enter fictional worlds where students can develop original and imaginative responses to the works they read and study. Non-fiction text study ranges from writing for websites and creating blogs, debating current topical issues, to newsprint journalism, and allows students to study an increasingly wide spectrum of media texts and become experts in ‘real-world’ issues.
Year 7
Autumn Term
Key Skills: To understand and appreciate how writers construct a sense of identity in texts.
Theme: Family and Relationships
Students study the Core text of Coraline by Neil Gaiman and an anthology which includes autobiographical/biographical extracts, poetry, short stories and prose.
Spring Term
Key Skills: To explore through reading and writing and speaking, how language can engage the imagination.
Theme: Dreams and the Imagination
Students study the core text of a Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare and an anthology which includes; poetry, Kafka, images from the arts, extracts from classic and contemporary novels and short stories.
Summer Term
Key Skills: Through reading and writing explore the relationship between texts and their contexts
Theme: Adventure
Students study the core text of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and an anthology which includes; myths and legends, Beowulf, a range of poetry and extracts from a range of classic and contemporary novels.
Year 8
Autumn Term
Key Skills: Analyse through reading and writing how social issues are explored in texts.
Theme: The Big Issues
Students study the core text of Stone Cold by Robert Swindells and an anthology which includes; poetry, advertising and extracts from fiction and non-fiction texts.
Spring Term
Key Skills: Analyse through reading and writing the impact of cultural diversity on language.
Theme: The World Around Me
Students study a range of poetry and an anthology which includes; travel writing, extracts from fiction and non-fictional texts and a range of autobiographical and biographical extracts.
Summer Term
Key Skills: Explore through reading and writing how language can be used to influence and persuade
Theme: Power and Influence
Students study the core text The Tempest by William Shakespeare and an anthology which includes; a range of speeches, articles, advertising and extracts from fictional and non-fiction texts.
Year 9
Autumn Term
Key Skills: Develop an understanding of the impact of social, cultural, and historical contexts on literary movements.
Theme: Gothic and the Supernatural – fear and isolation
Students study the core text A Woman in Black by Susan Hill and an anthology which includes; a selection of poetry, extracts from gothic fiction and images and texts from art and culture
Spring Term
Key Skills: Through reading and writing develop an appreciation for the diversity of language in our culture.
Theme: Identity and Voice
Students study the core text: EMC Diverse Shorts and an anthology which includes; a range of poetry, speeches and literary extracts
Summer Term
Key Skills: Developing skills which allow students to read, understand, and respond to texts. Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate. Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.
Theme: Post 1914 Prose/Drama
Students study the core text An Inspector Calls by J.B Priestley as part of their transition to GCSE English Literature.
Enrichment
For lovers of reading the English Department runs a weekly reading club where we read, discuss, and debate a wide-ranging selection of the most popular books that teenagers are currently reading.
For the budding writers, we run a weekly writing club where you can discuss, develop, create, and publish your own original ideas. Authors’ work can also be submitted for nationally run writing competitions.
Debate and discussion are key to the study of English Language and Literature and each year the English Department hosts the ‘Youth Speaks’ debating competition where teams of keen debaters can compete at a local, regional, and national level.
In addition to our clubs, we also run regular trips and visits: to local and regional theatres for the latest theatre productions, as well as to lecture and conference centres for academic study-days.
Useful Links:
https://classroom.thenational.academy/subjects-by-key-stage/key-stage-3/subjects/english
GCSE English Language and Literature
Throughout Years 10 and 11 our programmes of study focuses explicitly upon the key reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills which students need to master to be fully prepared for their GCSE examinations. The course continues to develop all of the key skills which students have been focusing upon in KS3: confident and accurate reading, fluent and technically accurate writing, supported by confident and engaging spoken presentations, so that students can achieve success at the end of Key Stage 4 and be prepared for the next phase of their studies: either for Sixth Form academic study or for the vocational challenges of apprenticeship-based study.
English Language
Students study 2 components:
Component 1 focuses upon 20th Century Fiction reading and creative writing
Component 2 is based upon a comparative reading of 19th and 21st Century non-fiction reading and transactional writing.
English Literature
This GCSE builds upon the core elements of KS3: a selection of poetry ranging from the 18th to the 21st Century; the novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde – a classic 19th Century Gothic fiction; and a wealth of Shakespeare study: the tragedies of the star-crossed Romeo & Juliet; the obsessively destructive jealousy of Othello; or the haunting treachery and deceit of Macbeth.
GCSE English Language Specification:
https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/english-language-gcse/#tab_overview
GCSE Literature Specification:
https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/english-literature-gcse/#tab_overview
Enrichment
For lovers of reading the English Department runs a weekly reading club where we read, discuss, and debate a wide-ranging selection of the most popular books that teenagers are currently reading.
For the budding writers, we run a weekly writing club where you can discuss, develop, create, and publish your own original ideas. Authors’ work can also be submitted for nationally-run writing competitions.
Debate and discussion are key to the study of English and Literature and each year the English Department hosts the ‘Youth Speaks’ debating competition where teams of keen debaters can compete at a local, regional, and national level.
In addition to our clubs, we also run regular trips and visits: to local and regional theatres for the latest theatre productions, as well as to lecture and conference centres for academic study-days.
Useful links:
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/examspecs/zpxh82p
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/examspecs/zw9mycw
- https://www.bl.uk/works/the-strange-case-of-dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde
- https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-romantics
A Level English Literature
At Lady Lumley’s our A-level offer for Literature provides a wide-ranging programme of study covering the key areas of academic investigation and research in Literature: poetry, prose, and drama, from early-modern theatre, via the significant poets of the 17th to the 21st Centuries, to contemporary novels and drama. Students are provided with the study-skills to be able to widen their independent study and research across an increasingly diverse field of critical theories and literary debate.
The A-level is assessed in a combination of three essay-based written exams and a non-examined independently-researched literary essay (NEA). As with GCSE our Exam Board is Eduqas, and their website provides useful overviews, suggestions for academic approaches to literary study, and links to wider reading and support materials.
A Level English Language
The A-level Language offer is based upon an introduction to the academic study of linguistics where students will have the opportunity to engage with language origins and development; how language use interacts with society and social studies; and the dynamic ever-changing nature of language and communication in the fast-paced world of social media and other forms of electronic and other interactive media.
Assessment for the A-level English Language qualification is via a combination of three exam-based components and an independent creative research-based essay (NEA). The featured components are: (i) Language Concepts and Issues (ii) Language Change Over Time (iii) Creative and Critical Use of Language (iv) Language and Identity (NEA).
A Level Literature Specification:
https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/english-literature-as-a-level/#tab_overview
A Level Language Specification:
https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/english-language-as-a-level/#tab_overview
Useful Links
