English

Curriculum

English Language is vital for your success in the working world

It teaches you how to communicate effectively be that written or verbally. It also teaches you to be able to read with perception, to see through the bias and to drill down into the real meaning that writers are trying to create. Being skilled at English Language means that you don’t have to accept one version of the truth. You will have the ability to read between the lines, make your own interpretations and in turn, create your own version of the world.

English Literature is the study of plays, poetry and novels that have significance in helping us understand culture and tradition. These texts are influenced by events that changed the world: the modernization of the English language, the importance of our monarchy or the Industrial Revolution. We read these texts to help us understand how past events have shaped the society we live in today.

At Shireland, we want your child to leave with the necessary skills that will allow them to confidently understand the world around them, and the expertise to express themselves confidently in any situation.

WHAT IS COVERED IN

Year 7

Aspects of English are covered within the L4L curriculum.

Year 7 L4L Themes:

Citizen Me
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
In Days of Old
Fairy Tales
Journeys
iRobot
Growing
Silent Movies
Off With Your Head
Water

Year 8

Aspects of English are covered within the L4L curriculum.

Year 8 L4L Themes:

Pudding Lane
Grand Designs
Coming and Going
India
Da Vinci
Freedom
Please Sir
Over the Top
Coast

People and Places
This unit aims to introduce and develop pupil understanding of literary and non-literary non-fiction from the 19th, 20th and 21st century. It will use extracts from biographies, auto-biographies and travel writing to take them around the world.

Cultures
Using Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck as a base text, pupils will explore a variety of poetry and non-fiction texts surrounding African-American culture.

Love
Using Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare as a base text, pupils will explore a variety of poetry, fiction and non-fiction texts surrounding the theme of love.

Year 9

Detective mystery fiction
Based on famous short stories by writers such as Roald Dahl, pupils will explore how writer’s use structure in their narrative writing.

Poetry through time
Pupils are introduced to a variety of poems from different contexts, including relationship and cultural poetry.

Comparing viewpoints
Pupils will read a variety of speeches that changed the world in order to hone their own writing skills, focusing on their ability to put forward their point of view.

Gothic Literature
This is an extract-based scheme that will introduce students to the context of 19th century Gothic literature. Extracts from novels such as Frankenstein (Shelley) and Dracula (Stoker) will also be used to inspire pupils’ creative writing skills.

Journey’s End
Using the modern play by R.C. Sherriff, pupils will study the entire text, examining how characters and themes change across a play.

Exploring Shakespeare
Pupils will read a range of extracts from Shakespeare’s plays, exploring significant themes and key characters from his works.

Year 10

Modern Classics
GCSE Language paper 1 skills using a range of modern texts

Macbeth
Examination preparation for their GCSE Literature Shakespeare text

A Christmas Carol
Examination preparation for their GCSE 19th Century text

Changing Britain
GCSE Language paper 2 skills using current issues for pupil exploration

An Inspector Calls
Examination preparation for the GCSE Literature modern play

Poetry
Examination preparation for the GCSE Literature poetry cluster: Power and Conflict

Year 11

GCSE AQA Content:

Shakespeare and the 19th century novel – Literature paper 1 revision
Modern texts and poetry – Literature paper 2 revision
Explorations in creative reading and writing – Language paper 1 revision
Writer’s viewpoints and perspectives – Language paper 2 revision

KS4 COURSE

WHAT CAN ENGLISH LEAD TO?

The careers listed below are specific to college courses and university degree that specialize in English language and literature skills. However, a graduate with an English based degree can work in a variety of other fields as the skills you learn are transferrable across subjects. Remember, even a company that manufactures medicines or makes car parts needs someone to write their advertising materials or write up the research papers.

Journalism
Research
Teaching
PR
Copywriting
Web content creation
Publishing
Law

HOW WILL I BE ASSESSED?

English Language:

You will sit two examinations, each worth 50% of the course. There is also a spoken component. This is graded separately and does not contribute to your overall grade.

English Literature:

You will sit two examinations, each worth 50% of the course.

WHAT SKILLS ARE REQUIRED?

For both subjects, a love of reading will help! For English Language, the ability to analyse and break down texts into their parts is a key skill. A sense of imagination and a strong point of view will help your writing. For English Literature, having read widely from the literary canon will support your analysis, as will your analytical and evaluative skills.

Mrs Hayden

Head of Department

From a young age, English has been my favourite subject, especially the exploration of language and its meanings through reading extensively. Having studied English Literature at Sixth Form in rural Herefordshire, I continued my studies at the University of Worcester, completing a BA in English Literature in 2012. I completed my PGCE also at the University of Worcester in 2014. I have worked at Shireland Collegiate Academy since 2019 as Second in Department and became Head of Department in 2020.