From Key Stage 3 through to Key Stage 5 we have designed our curriculum that focuses on developing and connecting knowledge and skills in the following ways.
The skills of reading for meaning, reading and thinking analytically, and the application of these to your own creative writing processes, are introduced incrementally in Year 7. Our spiral curriculum (which revisits, develops and embeds similar skills over an academic year), coupled with our approach to assessment (where the same skills are assessed several times across Key Stages 3 and 4), provides multiple opportunities for you to improve your skills as a critical reader and creative writer.
We focus on developing your knowledge of authorial choices, genre conventions, and their implementation and impact. You will develop an increasingly complex understanding of linguistic, rhetorical, structural, narrative, poetic and dramatic choices (including terminology) as you progress through the Key Stages – including through Key Stage 5.
Each scheme of learning provides opportunity to develop powerful knowledge through concrete examples of both literary and real-life concepts through themes which are linked across all key stages. As you progress through Key Stage 3, you will build strong foundational understanding of concepts such as justice, power and conflict, issues around gender, relationships (in all forms – including friendship), equality and the natural world.
Term 1 – Explore critical and creative thinking through inference, analysis and descriptive writing
Term 2 - Exploring language and the natural world through article writing and poetry.
Reading a range of diverse poetry to understand how to annotate and analyse the effects of writer’s poetic choices.
Term 3 – Shakespeare and Adventure
Writing the opening of a short adventure story following the conventions of a hero’s quest.
Students are formally assessed twice a term. Tasks will either be a response to a text in the form of analytical paragraphs or essays, or writing for a specific purpose – including description, narrative and articles.
The KS3 WGS Baccalaureate activities for the English subject Award
Term 1 – The Gothic genre and Macbeth
We will also develop our understanding of genre by exploring Gothic conventions through a range of prose extracts.
Term 2 – ‘Writing about the World’: an exploration of autobiography, travel writing and poetry from different cultures.
We will also read a range of diverse poetry to build our understanding of how poetry can present culture and place.
Writing autobiography and travel writing.
Term 3 – ‘Crime and Criminals’: an exploration of Victorian context and more complex fiction.
Students are formally assessed twice a term. Tasks will either be a response to a text in the form of analytical paragraphs or essays, or writing for a specific purpose – including description, narrative and travel writing.
The KS3 WGS Baccalaureate activities for the English subject Award
Term 1 – How to study a novel: ‘Of Mice and Men’ and then ‘Dystopia’.
We then read different extracts of dystopian texts including ‘1984’ and ‘The Hunger Games’ to develop analytical skills.
Term 2 – ‘Voices in Literature’: an exploration of poetry and rhetoric
We also read a range of speeches and articles to develop a critical understanding of rhetoric and argument.
Term 3 – an introduction to GCSE
We will also read fiction extracts to introduce the GCSE Language Paper 1, and extracts from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as part of an introduction to the text for GCSE.
Writing a short story to develop understanding of the importance of description and structural choices when constructing a short narrative piece.
Students are assessed formally twice a term. Tasks will either be a response to a text in the form of analytical paragraphs or essays, or writing for a specific purpose – including description, narrative and articles.
The KS3 WGS Baccalaureate activities for the English subject Award
Term 1 – The Victorian novel and Victorian Context
Literature - ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens (Literature Paper 1)
Language – Non-fiction analysis and writing a viewpoint (Language Paper 2)
Term 2 – Poetry and fiction extracts
Literature - Power and Conflict anthology poetry (Literature Paper 2)
Language – Fiction analysis and writing a description (Language Paper 1)
Term 3 – Modern Drama and presenting a viewpoint Literature - ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J. B. Priestley (Literature Paper 2) Language – developing analysis of viewpoints and writing a viewpoint (Language Paper 2)
English GCSE revision resources
Term 1 – Shakespeare, the Spoken Language NEA, and revision
Literature - ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare (Literature Paper 1)
Language – Completion of the Spoken Language NEA and revision of how to analyse fiction extracts (Language Paper 1)
Term 2 – Poetry revision and unseen poetry
Literature – revision of the Power and Conflict anthology poetry with a focus on writing comparatively, and teaching strategies to explore and write about unseen poetry (Literature Paper 2)
Language – Fiction analysis and writing a narrative (Language Paper 1) and revision of how to compare two non-fiction texts and viewpoints.
Term 3 – Final revision of all texts and skills
GCSE English Literature
There are two written papers:
Paper 1 –Shakespeare and The Victorian Novel
Paper 2 – Modern texts and Poetry
GCSE English specificationEnglish GCSE revision resources
Term 1
Unit 1 Aspects of Tragedy – ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare
Unit 2 Elements of Political and Social Protest Writing – ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini and an introduction to reading and responding to unseen extracts in terms of social protest.
Term 2
Unit 1 Aspects of Tragedy - Understanding of how to approach exam questions for Section A and B: responding to extracts and constructing arguments.
Unit 2 Elements of Political and Social Protest Writing - Understanding of how to approach exam questions for Section A and B: responding to extracts and constructing arguments.
Non-Examined Assessment (NEA) – both teachers will teach critical theory this term and will introduce how to apply this to poetry and prose.
Term 3
Unit 1 Aspects of Tragedy – ‘Death of a Salesman’ by Arthur Miller
Unit 2 Elements of Political and Social Protest Writing – ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ by William Blake
NEA – students will be independently drafting and redrafting their essay responding to a poetry text this term.
English Language and Literature
Term 1
Unit 1 – Telling Stories: Remembered Places – Paper 1, Section A
An exploration of how language is used to present different aspects of place based on a study of an anthology of texts about Paris. The anthology includes a wide range of text types with a particular emphasis on non-fiction and non-literary material to introduce different ways of analysing texts.
Term 2
Unit 1 – Telling Stories: Poetic Voices – Paper 1, Section C
A study of poetry by Robert Browning to analyse the function of the poetic voice in representing people, places, events and relationships.
Unit 2 – Exploring Conflict: Writing about Society – Paper 2, Section A
A study of ‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini to explore how conflict between people and within society is represented in texts. This is used to inform re-creative writing whereby absent or undeveloped perspectives in the original text are considered in order to create a new text.
Term 3
Non-Examined Assessment (NEA): Making Connections
Lessons will focus on the NEA which requires students to investigate a chosen theme and its representation in two text.
Term 1
Unit 1 Aspects of Tragedy – ‘Tess of the ‘D’Urbervilles’ by Thomas Hardy
Unit 2 Elements of Political and Social Protest Writing – ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood
NEA - students will be independently drafting and redrafting their essay responding to a prose text this term.
Term 2
Unit 1 Aspects of Tragedy - Understanding of how to approach exam questions for Section C: connecting texts and genre.
Unit 2 Elements of Political and Social Protest Writing - Understanding of how to approach exam questions for Section C (connecting texts and genre) and revision of how to respond to an unseen text.
Term 3
Unit 1 Aspects of Tragedy – revision of all texts and exam sections
Unit 2 Aspects of Social Protest – revision of all texts and exam sections
There are two written exam papers and an element of Non-Examined Assessment (NEA)
Paper 1 – Literary Genres: Aspects of Tragedy
Study of three texts: ‘Othello’, ‘Death of a Salesman’ and ‘Tess of the ‘D’Urbervilles’.
Paper 2 – Texts and Genres: Elements of political and social protest writing
Study of three texts: ‘The Kite Runner’, ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. The exam will also include an unseen text.
Non-exam assessment: Theory and independence
This assessment comprised the study of two texts: one poetry and one prose text, informed by study of the Critical Anthology. Students will produce two essays of 1250–1500 words, each responding to a different text and linking to a different aspect of the Critical anthology.
A level English Literature specification
English Literature A level revision resources
Term 1
Unit 1 - Telling Stories: Imagined Worlds – Paper 1, Section B
Either ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley, or ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood. Students will explore unusual narratives, narrators and events in one of these texts to consider how the imagined world has been constructed.
Unit 2 - Exploring Conflict: Dramatic Encounters – Paper 2, Section B
‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare
NEA: students will complete their independent study.
Term 2
Unit 1 - Telling Stories: Imagined Worlds – Paper 1, Section B
Focus on exam skills
Unit 2 - Exploring Conflict: Dramatic Encounters – Paper 2, Section B
Focus on exam skills
Term 3
Revision of all texts and exam questions.
There are two written exam papers and an element of Non-Examined Assessment (NEA)
Paper 1 – Telling Stories
Section A – Remembered Places: analysis of texts from the AQA Anthology: Paris.
Section B – Poetic Voices: Robert Browning
Section C – Imagined Worlds: either ‘Frankenstein’ or ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Paper 2 – Exploring Conflict
Section A – Writing about Society: ‘The Kite Runner’
Section B – Dramatic Encounters: ‘Othello’
Non-exam assessment: Making Connections
An independent, personal investigation that explores a specific technique or theme in both literary and non-literary discourse (2,500–3,000 words)
A level English Language and Literature specificationEnglish Language and Literature A level revision resources
Updated September 2025
