English
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English Curriculum Overview, 2019-2020 |
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Why do we teach English at Ark BDA? |
English is central to any curriculum, both in introducing students to the best literature of the past and present, and in providing space for the exploration of their own experiences and the wider world through language. The ability to read with understanding and pleasure through skills in decoding, comprehension and interpretation, as well as to deploy concise, accurate and appropriate English in speech and writing, are essential skills for life, but more importantly an essential part of every student’s moral and spiritual development.
Ark Burlington Danes students study English to embark on a journey of self-discovery. As learners, they will develop skills that will empower them to contribute to society with confidence, criticality and clarity of expression. Engaging with a range of texts across place and time will enable our students to develop moral character in line with the Christian ethos of the Academy. They will establish informed opinions and communicate these through fluent speech and writing, using Standard English where appropriate. They will explore the links and gateways between literary texts and the wider curriculum, revealing how learning and knowledge are interconnected. In this way, students will develop a love of literature and become engaged and active citizens of the world. |
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How do we deliver our Christian values in English? |
In all English lessons, students, regardless of their ability, are encouraged to feel that their imagination and use of vocabulary are two very powerful tools that enable them to communicate and inspire others. Alongside encouraging reading at home, all English teachers expose students to a wide variety of stories, genres and authors to foster a love of reading and enable the students to gain a deeper appreciation of differences between people and the centrality of love of others and oneself. It aims to challenge students to think deeply about moral and spiritual questions and to develop an appreciation of the transcendent and sublime. All teachers ensure students understand the difference between right and wrong and the consequences of their actions for themselves and others. Students are encouraged to be tolerant, caring and respectful towards others, their community and the world around them. An appreciation of the miracle of creation and creativity and inspiration lie at the heart of our English lessons as a love of English is promoted in all our classes. |
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How do we build core skills and knowledge over time? |
Reading In EYFS, students learn the independence, resilience and confidence that allows them to become successful readers. They begin the journey towards reading by starting early phonics and developing speaking and listening skills. At Key Stage 1, students continue their phonics and work towards blending confidently and early comprehension skills. By the end of Key Stage 1, student will be comprehending confidently. They will have a genuine pleasure in reading, stemming from their confidence and fluency. At Key Stage 2, students develop the reading a range of challenging texts, developing inference skills and exposure to vocabulary. By the end of the Key Stage, students will be moving from comprehension to interpretation. Students will also be reading widely for pleasure.
At Key Stage 3, students build on the inference skills developing in Key Stage 2 and begin to link texts to their contexts. They begin to analyse the texts they are reading. They will also read for pleasure in class time. At Key Stage 4, students are moving their inference into analysis and evaluation. Students also engage with unseen texts and comparative reading across fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
At Key Stage 5, interdisciplinary reading allows students to make links between texts, social, historical and political contexts, demonstrating understanding of the canon and different interpretations of texts. Students develop thematic interpretations of texts and continue to compare across texts.
Writing
In EYFS, students develop the independence, resilience and confidence to be successful writers through child and adult led activities. They learn early phonics, speaking and listening skills and letter formation. In Key Stage 1, the focus is on talk for writing; developing confident speakers leading to creative, imaginative writers. In Key Stage 2, students write for multiple purposes, learning to use a range of genres, grammatical features and vocabulary.
In Key Stage 3, students build on grammatical accuracy using Mastery Writing, which uses an interleaved, mastery approach to students’ writing. Students begin to write analytical arguments in response to texts. At Key Stage 4, students write a range of perceptive and conceptual texts across a range of genres, including analytical texts and non-fiction writing. By the end of the Key Stage, students will be able to use a range of structural and rhetorical devices, as well as building on their high level of grammatical accuracy at Key Stage 3.
At Key Stage 5, students write to develop a perceptive, personal response to texts that moves beyond comprehension to high-level and well-justified creative interpretation of texts. |
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How does the study of English prepare students for life beyond Ark BDA? |
We know that there is more to success than academic achievement. A great education isn’t simply about passing exams, it’s about enabling students to develop the qualities and skills that they need to be successful at school and beyond. Our mission is that every student in an Ark school can access the university or career of their choice. Alongside maximising academic achievement, we also ensure that students develop the habits and skills most desired by universities and businesses, have access to the experiences and role models that will raise their aspirations and are guided in their decisions about what happens after school. English classrooms are rich with opportunities to develop curious, independent, empathetic and critically literate young adults. These characteristics and skills are part of our school culture, ethos and values, and we recognise and celebrate their development on a regular basis. |
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How is the curriculum implemented at Burlington Danes? |
In Early Years, 0ur students are given daily opportunities to expand oral communication and develop fine motor control which are the essential building blocks to put ideas onto paper and control a pencil. In Reception, daily, one hour RWInc phonics lessons teach students the essential blending and segmenting skills so that they can write at both word and sentence levels. In addition, the daily writing lessons teach students skills with which they can access child-initiated opportunities to be a writer and reader across the school day; students move from thinking phrases, to saying phrases and expressing them on paper. A Talk for Writing approach builds foundations of sentence structure, expression and vocabulary in the students’ toolkit. Students at BDPA are taken on a journey to becoming independent and skilled readers and writers.
Through Key Stage 1, our students develop a genuine pleasure for reading, and an embedded home-reading habit. Students have daily phonics or reading lessons as well as daily writing lessons. Through a planned series of high-quality texts and the rigour of the Read, Write Inc. programme, pupils are taught reading fluency as well as comprehension through different genres. The Talk for Writing approach enables students to become confident speakers and creative, imaginative writers whose fluent story telling allows the development of rich vocabulary. Vocabulary is also taught explicitly in all curriculum lessons. Oracy is further developed through class discussions, assembly performances, Nativity plays and the outdoor learning programme. In addition, students practise their handwriting to form a legible cursive script and work through spelling patterns and common exception words. Grammar is taught through writing lessons and discrete grammar lessons.
In Key Stage 2, students are expected to read for pleasure; the home reading records are used to develop preference and review skills as well as monitoring genre, range and frequency of reading. Teachers guide students in book choices from the school library. Students write for multiple purposes using a range of genres, sentence structures, vocabulary and grammatical features from their toolkit in both their daily reading and writing lessons. Vocabulary is taught explicitly in all curriculum lessons. Students work from range of high quality books, with some texts linking to the humanities topic so that students are reading and writing content that embeds cross-curricular knowledge. Students will gain a pen license once their cursive script is secure enough to be used across the curriculum. Students learn new spelling patterns, common exception words and grammar structures in both writing lessons and discrete spelling and grammar sessions. Oracy is developed through a Talk for writing approach in writing lessons, habits for discussion across the curriculum, outdoor learning and performance opportunities.
At Key Stage 3, all students have 6 lessons of English a week. This is divided into 3 lessons of Literary Heritage, 2 lessons of Mastery Grammar and 1 lesson of Reading for Pleasure. Each year, students’ study one 19th Century text and one Shakespeare text, revisiting and building on last year’s study, as well as preparing them for the most challenging parts of the GCSE curriculum. Students also study a range of poetry in Year 7 which is returned to in Year 9. When studying grammar students use an interleaved, mastery approach to ensure a high level of technical accuracy before reaching Key Stage 4. The core knowledge expected of students is made explicit in the knowledge organisers for each unit. Key academic vocabulary for each unit is made explicit in the unit plan. Homework at Key Stage 3 focuses on committing key knowledge to memory to give students a secure schema of learning that they can use to form their own opinions about texts.
At Key Stage 4, students have 5 lessons a week. This is divided between Language and Literature study on a termly basis. Each text is studied for one half term but skills are embedded across all texts for overall study. The content has all been taught by January of Year 11, allowing students to sit full mocks at this point and allowing time for revision and refinement of their knowledge and skills once all the content has been covered. The core knowledge expected of students is made explicit in the Knowledge Organisers for each unit. Key academic vocabulary for each unit is made explicit in the unit plan. Homework at Key Stage 4 focuses on committing key knowledge to memory to give students a secure schema of learning that they can use to form their own opinions about texts. It also develops independent working skills necessary for effective revision and success at KS5.
At Key Stage 5, students have 7 lessons a week, divided between two teachers. Each teacher focuses on one paper to ensure that the links between texts within genres are explicit which is especially important in the comparative papers. Homework is extensive and comprises pre-reading, annotation and essay writing. Students are expected to complete at least 5 hours of independent work every week. The content of the course is completed by January of Year 13 allowing time for revision, making links between texts and examination practice.
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Autumn 1 |
Autumn 2 |
Spring 1 |
Spring 2 |
Summer 1 |
Summer 2 |
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Nursery |
Topic |
I am unique |
People who help us |
Space |
Fairy Tales |
New life |
Animals (Habitats) |
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Texts |
Nursery children are read books daily. Some link with topic and others are for pleasure, vocabulary and comprehension. |
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EYFS offers continuous child-initiated and specific adult-led provision for motor development, communication and language and literacy that all combine to prepare children to excel in Literacy |
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Reception |
Topic |
Marvellous Me
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Out and About
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Out of this World (Space) |
Traditional Tales
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Growth and New Life
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Dinosaurs & Superheroes |
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Texts |
The mulberry bush We are going on a bear hunt The Gruffalo Baby Owls The tiger who came to tea
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The smartest giant in town The little engine that could A monster in the hood The jolly postman The shopping basket Stick man
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Where the wild things are Aliens love underpants The day Mars disappeared How to catch a star Goodnight moon Man on the moon
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Jack and the beanstalk Little red riding hood Goldilocks and the three bears The gingerbread man The three little pigs Room on the broom
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Mad about minibeasts A tadpole’s promise The Odd egg The Very hungry caterpillar |
Giraffes can’t dance Tiddler The snail and the whale
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Reading skill |
Differentiated teaching within RWINc programme across all terms teaching sounds, blending, segmenting and sentence reading and comprehension. |
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EYFS offers continuous child-initiated and specific adult-led provision for motor development, communication and language and literacy that all combine to prepare children to excel in Literacy |
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Assessment |
EExAET portal RWINc |
EExAET portal RWINc |
RWINc |
EExAET portal RWINc |
RWINc |
EExAET portal RWINc |
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Year 1 |
Topic |
Our Local Area |
Toys in time
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A Ticket to Ride |
A Ticket to Ride |
The UK |
Seaside Now and Then |
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Text |
The Three Wolves and the Big Bad Pig The Three Little Pigs |
Traction Man is here The Steadfast Tin Soldier |
Mr Gumpy’s Motor Car
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Naughty Bus
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The Queen’s Handbag Shirley Hughes ‘Out and About’ |
The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch The Mousehole Cat
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Genre |
Story, retell |
Story, information text |
Non-chronological report, retell |
Non-chronological report, narrative
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Pesuasive writing Narrative
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Non-chronoloical report Story writing
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Reading skill |
Differentiated teaching within RWINc programme Aim: purple Retelling
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Differentiated group teaching within RWINc programme Aim: pink (set 2) Non-chronological, non-fiction comprehension (what, when)
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Differentiated group teaching within RWINc programme Aim: Orange Preference and linked texts
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Differentiated group teaching within RWINc programme Aim: yellow Non-chronological, non-fiction comprehension (where, what, when) |
Differentiated group teaching within RWINc programme Aim: yellow/blue Preference, prediction, basic inference (what can we assume?)
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Differentiated group teaching within RWINc programme Aim: blue Fluency, full comprehension of setting, character, events
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W |
Word level : Plural noun suffixes; suffixes with no change, prefix un- |
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Sentence level: joining words; words within sentences
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T |
Text level : sequencing sentences into narratives |
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P |
Punctuation: use of word spaces; CLs, FS, !?Capital letters for names and ‘I’ |
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Assessment |
RWINc |
Pira, RWINc TA Writing |
RWINc |
TA Writing, RWINc |
RWINc |
Phonics screening check; Pira; TA writing, RWINc |
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Year 2 |
Topic |
Castles |
How will you change the world?
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England or India, where would you rather live?
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How do we go into space? |
How do we find our way? |
How has the seaside changed over time? (2019-20 only)
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Text |
The Sword in the Stone (narrative writing) Reading texts Non RWInc pupils The Story of Castles (NF) – 2 week Rapunzel (F) – 2 weeks Sleeping Beauty (F) – 2 weeks
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Fantastic Mr Fox (Reading -non RWINc pupils)
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Giraffe, Pelly and Me (Reading)
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Space race (Reading)
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Colly’s Barn (Reading) |
Shackleton’s Journey (Reading) |
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Genre |
Newspaper Report: Local Boy Removes the Sword Narrative |
Biographies – Nelson Mandela (4 weeks) Narrative – The Nativity story (3 weeks)
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Narrative – The Elephant's Garden
Non-chronological report: The Pruber
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Recount of a day during half-term World Book day stories
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Non-chronological report on development Newspaper report –set locally Diary entry of an animal on Wormwood Scrubs Instructions on how to find your way. Story set in local area Poem about our local area |
Setting description Message in a bottle from a mermaid Recount of trip to the beach Poem about the sea Non-chronological report on the seaside
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Reading skill |
Differentiated teaching within RWINc programme and non-phonics reading programme Aim: Grey |
Differentiated group teaching within RWINc programme Aim: Finish phonics programme Non-chronological, non-fiction comprehension (what, when) |
QLA from Pira suggests weighting Inference Prediction Selection Summary |
Speed of reading Underlining key words Inference Prediction Selection Summary |
QLA from mock SATs suggests weighting Underlining key words Inference Prediction Selection Summary |
Reading fluency Preferences Predictions Widen genre/text sources |
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W |
Word level: Formation of nouns using suffixes such as –ness, –er and by compounding; Formation of adjectives using suffixes such as –ful, –less; Use of the suffixes –er, –est in adjectives and the use of –ly in Standard English to turn adjectives into adverbs |
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Sentence level: Subordination (using when, if, that, because) and co-ordination (using or, and, but); Expanded noun phrases for description and specification [for example, the blue butterfly, plain flour, the man in the moon] How the grammatical patterns in a sentence indicate its function as a statement, question, exclamation or command |
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T |
Text level: Correct choice and consistent use of present tense and past tense throughout writing; Use of the progressive form of verbs in the present and past tense to mark actions in progress [for example, she is drumming, he was shouting] |
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P |
Punctuation: Use of capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks to demarcate sentences; Commas to separate items in a list; Apostrophes to mark where letters are missing in spelling and to mark singular possession in nouns [for example, the girl’s name] |
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Assessment |
Reading Age RWINc |
Pira, RWINc TA Writing |
TA Writing RWINc (some pupils) |
TA Writing RWINc (some pupils) |
SATs tests Reading, maths, SPAG RWINc (some pupils) |
Phonics screening check (Y2s not passed in Y1) TA writing, |
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Year 3 |
Topic |
Settlers of the Stone, Bronze and Iron Age
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European neighbours |
Ancient Civilisations: Greeks |
Ancient Civilisations: Greeks |
Biomes |
UK Land Use |
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Text |
Stig of the Dump
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Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales
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The Adventures of Odysseus
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Cont… The Adventures of Odysseus |
The Lost Words
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Core Texts: The BFG by Roald Dahl |
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Genre |
Pupils re-write the first chapter of ‘Stig of the Dump’. Pupils will write their own explanation text about ‘How did Bronze/Iron Age People Live?’ |
Pupils will write their own version of one of the tales. Full narrative. Will replace characters and setting. A new ending can also be substituted. Pupils will write their own non-chronological report about the man-made features of Europe |
Story Narrative Persuasive writing (Detail added as ACP release it term-by-term) |
Story Narrative Retell (Detail added as ACP release it term-by-term) |
Poetry Non—chronological report Persuasive writing (Detail added as ACP release it term-by-term) |
Story narrative Non-chronological report (Detail added as ACP release it term-by-term) |
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W |
Word level: Formation of nouns using a range of prefixes [for example super–, anti–, auto–]; Use of the forms a or an according to whether the next word begins with a consonant or a vowel [for example, a rock, an open box]; Word families based on common words, showing how words are related in form and meaning [for example, solve, solution, solver, dissolve, insoluble] |
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S |
Sentence level: Expressing time, place and cause using :
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T |
Text level: Introduction to paragraphs as a way to group related material; Headings and sub-headings to aid presentation; Use of the present perfect form of verbs instead of the simple past [for example, He has gone out to play contrasted with He went out to play] |
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P |
Punctuation: Introduction to inverted commas to punctuate direct speech |
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Assessment |
Reading Age |
Pira TA Writing |
TA Writing |
TA Writing |
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Pira TA writing |
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Year 4 |
Topic |
Invaders: The Romans |
Roman Britain
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The Amazon |
The Amazon |
Mayans |
The US |
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Text |
The Adventures of Hugo Cabret |
Who let the gods out? |
The Explorer by Katherine Rundell
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The Explorer by Katherine Rundell |
A Midsummer’s Nights dream |
Holes by Louis Sachar |
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Genre |
Pupils will box up a simplified version of the story before writing their own version: -Introduction of setting and main character - Pupils will write their own newspaper article about Boudicca and her rebellion. Can write with non-bias or bias 1 Poetry session |
Narrative – openings focussing on setting, character and dialogue. Model text will be shortened version of section of story. Non-Chronological Report Model text will be non-chronological report about the Roman military. 1 Poetry session
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Narrative Persuasive writing Chronological report 1 Poetry session
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Narrative Newspaper report 1 Poetry session
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Narrative Chronological report 1 Poetry session
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Narrative Non-chronological report 1 Poetry session
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W |
Word level: The grammatical difference between plural and possessive –s; Standard English forms for verb inflections instead of local spoken forms [for example, we were instead of we was, or I did instead of I done] |
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S |
Sentence level: Noun phrases expanded by the addition of modifying adjectives, nouns and preposition phrases (e.g. the teacher expanded to: the strict maths teacher with curly hair); Fronted adverbials [for example, Later that day, I heard the bad news.]
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T |
Text level: Use of paragraphs to organise ideas around a theme; Appropriate choice of pronoun or noun within and across sentences to aid cohesion and avoid repetition |
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P |
Punctuation: Use of inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate direct speech [for example, a comma after the reporting clause; end punctuation within inverted commas: The conductor shouted, “Sit down!”]; Apostrophes to mark plural possession [for example, the girl’s name, the girls’ names]; Use of commas after fronted adverbials |
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Assessment |
Reading Age |
Pira TA Writing |
TA Writing |
TA Writing |
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Pira TA writing |
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Year 5 |
Topic |
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Key question |
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Content |
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Assessment |
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Year 6 |
Topic |
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Key question |
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Content |
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Assessment |
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Autumn 1 |
Autumn 2 |
Spring 1 |
Spring 2 |
Summer 1 |
Summer 2 |
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Year 7 |
Topic |
Oliver Twist |
A Midsummer Night’s Dream |
Poetry |
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Key question |
How do authors create characters? |
How does Shakespeare create an intricate plot? |
How and why do writers use imagery? |
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Content |
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Assessment |
How does Dickens present the character of Bill Sikes? |
Is the Love Potion a good or bad thing? |
Unseen Poem |
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Year 8 |
Topic |
Sherlock Holmes |
The Tempest |
Animal Farm |
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Key question |
How do authors develop characters which are multi-faceted? |
How do texts reflect the era in which they are written? |
How can readers see the author’s intentions? |
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Content |
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Assessment |
How does Conan Doyle present the character of Sherlock Holmes? |
How does Shakespeare present the character of Caliban? |
Why does Animal Farm fail? |
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Year9 |
Topic |
Jane Eyre |
Romeo and Juliet |
Journeys Poetry |
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Key question |
How do authors use texts to criticise society? |
What is a tragic hero? |
How and why do poets portray similar topics differently? |
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Content |
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Assessment |
How does Bronte present Jane’s childhood? |
How does Shakespeare present Juliet as a tragic heroine? |
Comparative question on two poems. |
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Year 10 |
Topic |
Macbeth |
Language Paper 1 |
Jekyll and Hyde |
Love and Relationships Poetry |
Love and relationships and Spoken Language exams |
Language Paper 2 |
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Key question |
How does Shakespeare use the tragic genre to comment on contemporary concerns? |
How do authors shape meaning within texts and how can I do the same? |
How does Stevenson use Jekyll and Hyde to comment on society? |
How do writers compare across different time periods? |
How can I use spoken language to persuade others |
How do writers shape meaning in texts to express different viewpoints? |
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Content |
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Assessment |
Literature Paper 1 Section A |
Language Paper 1 |
Literature Paper 1 |
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Spoken Language exam |
Language Paper 1 and Literature 2 B and C |
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Year 11 |
Topic |
An Inspector Calls |
Language Paper 2 (6 weeks) Mocks Revision (2 weeks) |
Language and Literature revision |
Language and Literature revision |
Language and Literature revision |
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Key question |
How can texts be used to criticise society? |
How do writers shape meaning in texts to express different viewpoints? |
How do students best retain information? How can students show off their knowledge in their exam? |
How do students best retain information? How can students show off their knowledge in their exam? |
How do students best retain information? How can students show off their knowledge in their exam? |
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Content |
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Assessment |
Literature Paper 2 Section A |
Language Paper 2 |
Language and Literature Papers 1 and 2 |
Public examinations |
Public examinations |
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Year 12 Teacher A |
Topic |
A Streetcar Named Desire |
Othello |
Tragedy Revision |
The Great Gatsby |
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Key question |
How does A Streetcar Named Desire reflect the anxieties of America in the 1940’s ? |
How does Othello fulfil and subvert expectations of a tragedy? |
How do students best retain information? How can students show off their knowledge in their exam? |
How can I draw independent links between texts? |
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Content |
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Assessment |
An exam question on Streetcar |
Past Paper (Paper 1) |
Past Paper (Paper 1) |
NEA |
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Year 12 Teacher B |
Topic |
A Handmaid’s Tale |
Frankenstein |
Prose revision |
Approaches to Unseen poetry |
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Key question |
How do texts reflect the era they are written in? |
How do texts continue to develop after they are written? |
How do students best retain information? How can students show off their knowledge in their exam? |
How do I analyse an unseen poem? |
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Content |
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Assessment |
A question on Handmaids |
Past Paper (Paper 2) |
Past Paper (Paper 2) |
Past Paper (Paper 3) |
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Year 13 Teacher A |
Topic |
Romantic Poetry |
Revision (Tragedy and Romantic Poetry) |
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Key question |
Can Romantic poetry been seen as a rebellion? |
How do students best retain information? How can students show off their knowledge in their exam? |
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