English – Oriel High School

English

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King

Subject Overview

The English curriculum at Oriel High School is designed to stretch our pupils as both readers and writer, encouraging them to think critically about the texts we study and their place in the world.

Accelerated Reader (AR)

We know that students who are secure readers are more likely to be successful, not only in their exams but also in their lives. For this reason, we invest in the Accelerated Reader programme for all Year 7 and Year 8 students. Accelerated Reader helps students identify books that are at an appropriate level of challenge for them, ensuring that they are continually progressing with their reading skills.

Termly prizes will be awarded for students with the highest word count and who meet or excel their reading targets.

For access to the Accelerated Reader website please click here

Enrichment

In the English Department, we are committed to ensuring that students have a rich and varied experience of English. As a result, we ensure that students in Year 7 are given two free books per year – the Oriel Big Read book and another through the Book Buzz programme.

We also have regular author visits and theatre visits as part of the school calendar.

Writing clubs and competitions are also available for students to participate in.

Supporting your Child

You can support your child in many different ways with regards to helping them make significant progress in English.

One of the most crucial ways is encouraging your child to read regularly, ideally twenty minutes a day. While studies have shown that reading fiction texts does have the most impact in terms of students’ outcomes and progression, any reading at an appropriate level of challenge is worthwhile. This could include an article that you and your child read together and discuss, preferably from a source that may use vocabulary or idioms that your child is unfamiliar with.

Your child has access to a range of resources such as SAMLearning, Bedrock Learning, Pixl Independence etc. that they can use to support their revision. Please encourage them to use these regularly to consolidate their studies.

In order to support parents of KS4 students, we have invested in Audiopi, a series of podcasts about the key Literature texts that you can your child can listen to together and discuss. Please ask your child for the login details. Throughout their studies, we will be supporting students by teaching them different revision methods. One way you can help is by asking your child to explain and ‘teach’ you about what they are currently studying. While we appreciate that this is not always easy, studies have shown that even attempting to recall information can help develop a student’s memory.

Key Stage 3

At Oriel, we have a three year KS3 curriculum, allowing students to read a wide range of texts and hone their skills before moving onto their GCSEs. Everything we do in English is designed to boost students’ ability to access, understand and explore a complex range of engaging texts and writing styles. Each year group studies a range of prose, drama and poetry as well as producing their own pieces of writing in different forms and genres.

Below is an outline of the overview for KS3 with some of the texts we study. Text choice is completely down to the teacher, who will choose the text based on their knowledge and understanding of the class they are teaching.

TERM	1a	1b	2a	2b	3a	3b
Year 7	Culture and Identity Poetry Students will study a range of poems from across the ages with the theme of Place. Poems by: - John Agard - Maya Angelou - Benjamin Zephaniah - Langston Hughes - And more!	19th Century Fiction Students will study how storytelling can be used to give insight into other time periods, cultures, and experiences. A Christmas Carol Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime Gulliver’s Travels The War of the Worlds The Time Machine	Imaginative Genre Writing Students study a specific genre and produce carefully crafted narrative writing. - Myths and Legends - Sci-Fi - And more!	Shakespeare: Introduction to Drama Students will learn to understand and apply of the features of oracy which can be utilised to create meanings. Extracts from: - Macbeth - Merchant of Venice - As You Like It	Non-Fiction: Writing the World Students will study how and why we express our experiences and identity through writing about our lives.	Divisions and Conflict Students will develop an awareness of impact/ interpretation and the ways language can affect readers. Frankenstein Dracula Noughts and Crosses To Kill a Mockingbird
Year 8	Imaginative Writing: Gothic Horror Students will study a range of 19th Century gothic stories and their place in literary tradition.	Young Adult Novel Students will study how young adult novels can be used to give insight into our own identities and struggles of others.	War and Protest Poetry Students will study a range of porms from across the ages with the theme of Conflict. This unit incorporates the study of poetry from World War 1.	Non-Fiction: Art of Rhetoric Students will study the function of rhetoric in creative meanings; how elements in a text can represent an argument/view and function symbolically for a range of audiences and purposes.	Sharkespeare: Comedy Play Students will explore Elizabethan drama and comedy. This will explore the concept of character development and how this can reflect society/ attitudes.	Short Stories: Distopian Writing Students explore a range of dystopian stories, analysing how the genre is used to express fears and criticisms of society.
Year 9	Prose: Modern Novel Students will study a classic prose text and explore how storytelling can be used to give insight into other time periods, cultures and experiences. - Animal Farm - Lord of the Flies - The Outsiders	Imaginative Writing: The Writer's Craft Students will explore a range of classic fiction to explore the application of narrative structures, analysing how they can be manipulated for symbolic effect.	Film and Representation Students will closely study two media texts exploring ideas about how teenagers are represented in film and wider media. This will inform non-fiction writing around reviews and editorial, whilst supporting media literacy for GCSE.	Shakespeare: Tragedy Play Students will explore Elizabethan drama and tragedy. This will explore the concept of tragic themes and how they can reflect historical ideas around power.	Non-Fiction: Journalism and Editorial Students will develop their awareness of media representations and the ways language can affect readers. This will help them produce creative work around newspaper journalism.	Love and Belonging Poetry Students will study a range of poems from across the ages with the theme of love and belonging. This will support their comparison of how ideas, themes and perspectives form explicit and implicit links between texts.

KS3 Assessment and Non-Negotiables

Students are regularly assessed in English through general book marking and more formal assessment marking. Formal assessments are undertaken three times a year for both reading and writing assignments, assessing many key skills needed to be successful in English.

If you would like to read a more detailed explanation of the assessments and how you can support your child, please read the following document:

English KS3 Assessment Process Download

At Oriel, we work very closely with our feeder schools and one of the areas we have been most concerned by is the lack of technical accuracy in students’ work. The primary schools all have a series of ‘non-negotiables’ – the minimum expectations in terms of work produced by students. This is something we are now also using.

The non-negotiables are:

Capital letters used for the start of sentences, proper nouns and the word I
Full stops, question marks or exclamation marks used at the end of every sentence
A new paragraph for a change of time, place, topic or person
Apostrophes to show omitted letters or possession
Commas used to separate items in a list
Speech marks used to clearly demarcated speech if used in writing
Consistent tenses
Clear, legible work that shows care in terms of presentation

Students will also be provided with a reference guide to common spelling errors to encourage them to proof-read before they submit work. These included using the correct version of there/their, you’re/your etc.

Key Stage 4

At Key Stage 4, all students study both GCSE English Literature and GCSE English Language. Students will be studying the Edexcel specification which can be found here:

https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/english-language-2015.html

https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/english-literature-2015.html

These websites also contain example essays with examiner feedback and past papers, which many students find useful.

From September 2024, KS4 students will be studying Edexcel’s English Language 2.0 specification. This specification still assesses the same areas as the previous specification but focuses on modern literature rather than 19^th Century literature for its fiction element. The website can be found here: https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/english-language-2021.html

In order to prepare for their GCSEs, students will study a wide range of texts and hone their analytical and evaluative writing skills, producing strong, academic essays.

We will also be working with students to develop a wide range of revision techniques to support their studies.

In Year 10, students will be studying ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B. Priestley and ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson. They will also be studying the Conflict cluster of poetry from the Edexcel anthology as well as preparing for their GCSE English Language paper.

In Year 11, students will be studying ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare as well as preparing for their Unseen Poetry exam. As well as these units, students will revisit the texts studied in Year 10 and will continue to develop their skills for GCSE English Language.

Homework

As well as traditionally set homework, students will be expected to work independently to consolidate their own learning on a regular basis, accessing the various revision sources available to them.

Revision Resources

Please note that the login details for these sites can be found on the wall in English opposite the water fountain.

www.audiopi.co.uk – a series of podcasts about the Literature texts we are studying

www.digitaltheatreplus.com – recorded versions of plays that may help students to understand and interpret the texts they are studying

Students could also look at revision materials on sites such as You Tube (the Mary Meredith Poetry videos are very useful), BBC Bitesize and Sparknotes.

Key Stage 5

At Key Stage 5, we offer both A-Level English Literature and A-Level English Language. Students will study the Edexcel specification for both subjects. These specifications can be found here:

https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-a-levels/english-language-2015.html

https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-a-levels/english-literature-2015.html

For A-Level English Language, students will be have ten lessons of study shared between two teachers and will study topics such as Change, Gender and Power as well as producing a range of original writing pieces.

The current plan of study is outlined below:

	Term 1	Term 2	Term 3
Year 12	Language Identity: Students will explore how factors such as gender, age, race and class can affect language use as well as examining how speakers and writers manipulate language to present certain aspects of their identity.	Language Variation over Time: Students will study the development of English and explore the lexical, grammatical and cultural shifts in language from 1500s to the present day.	Preparation and production of coursework
Year 13	Child Language Acquisition: Students will study how children acquire the ability to speak, read and write.	Language Investigation: In January of Year 13, students will be given a set of pre-release materials and will conduct their own language investigations.	Revision and exams

For A-Level English Literature, students will have ten lessons of study split between three teachers. Each teacher will take responsibility for a different exam paper: Prose, Drama or Poetry.

The current plan of study is outlined below:

	Term 1	Term 2	Term 3
Year 12	Study of Drama: Students will complete an in-depth study of a chosen work by William Shakespeare (Hamlet, Othello, Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, etc.) to explore literary, contextual and thematic impact alongside literary criticism. This will be complemented by a study of a chosen post-1900 drama (A Streetcar Named Desire, Waiting for Godot, etc.) to analyse the writer’s craft and contextual influence.	Study of Prose: Students will conduct a comparative study of pre- and post-1900 prose from a chosen genre, exploring the impact and development of shared themes and ideas across culture and time.	Preparation and production of coursework Students will prepare and produce their own piece of literary coursework, crafting a 3000 word extended comparative essay on two texts of their choice.
Year 13	Study of Poetry: Students will study a range of modern poetry to compare with unseen texts, whilst then analysing an anthology of a selected classic poet for deeper comparison	Writer's Craft and Critical Voice: Alongside increasing revision, students will explore a range of wider fiction and criticism to develop their knowledge of literature, working with teachers to develop their own academic writing	Revision and final exam period.

As well as studying for these exams, students will also undertake a series of wider reading lessons guided by their teachers. These lessons are not only designed to support them in terms of developing their critical reading skills in preparation for further education but will also help prepare them for their coursework.

Texts from the wider reading list have included:

‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy

‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald

‘The Island of Dr Moreau’ by H.G. Wells

‘Ethan Frome’ by Edith Wharton

‘The Bloody Chamber’ by Angela Carter

For A-Level Literature, teachers will rotate their teaching so that students are studying two exam texts and one wider reading text per term or half term, depending on the length of the text being studied.

If any student has any questions about studying English at A-Level, please ask them to come and speak to Miss White, who will give them more information.

Head of Faculty

Deputy Head of Faculty

Assistant Head of Faculty

Teaching Staff