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About Consilium

English

Head of Department Ms A Ghelichi

The study of English, in line with the national curriculum, introduces pupils to the literary canon, enabling students to access rich and engaging poetry, prose, drama and non-fiction from across the ages. The curriculum will enrich pupils’ lives by equipping them with the knowledge needed to become critical and creative thinkers. Pupils will become excellent and influential communicators, in both speaking and writing which will support success across many subjects.

Within our curriculum, pupils will read, understand and analyse texts that offer challenge in order to develop resilient readers and critical thinkers. They will read, understand and analyse texts that are important historically, culturally and socially and also those that reflect our pupils’ own positions and others’ positions in the wider world. Such texts will provide opportunities to make cross-curricular links to a broad range of subjects such as history, geography and PSHE.  

Our pupils will be taught how to use language to become critical thinkers and have the knowledge and tools to confidently, question, influence and shape the world around them. They will appreciate how powerful language can be and be empowered to use it in order for them to have a voice in the world they live.

They will learn to write with fluency, accuracy and creativity and understand grammatical components of English in order to communicate varied and complex ideas with success and accuracy, in both speaking and writing and acquire a broad and extensive vocabulary (which will continually expand) to communicate effectively in writing, analysis and speech .

In order to fully consolidate and expand their knowledge, pupils will be explicitly taught how sequences of learning link within (and outside of) English.

Curriculum Overview

Year 7

  • Autumn Term 1 and 2: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
  • Autumn Term 2 and Spring Term 1: The Odyssey and Non Fiction Writing 
  • Spring 1 and Spring 2: Identity Poetry 
  • Summer 1 and 2: Shakespeare's The Tempest 

Year 8

  • Autumn 1 and 2: Animal Farm 
  • Autumn 2 and Spring 1: Myths and Power- Non Fiction writing 
  • Spring 1 and Spring 2: Poetry: The Romantics 
  • Summer 1 and Summer 2: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet 

Year 9

  • Autumn 1 and 2: Noughts and Crosses
  • Autumn 2 and Spring 1: Non- Fiction Unit: Victorian obsessions 
  • Spring 1 and Spring 2: Power and conflict poetry 
  • Summer 1 and 2: Shakespeare's Othello 

Year 10

  • Autumn 1 and 2: Shakespeare's Macbeth 
  • Autumn 2 and Spring 1: A Christmas Carol 
  • Spring 1 and 2: Anthology Poetry 
  • Summer 1 and 2: An Inspector Calls and Preparation for Speaking and Listening exams 

English Language skills, such as analysis of unseen texts and narrative and transactional writing and interleaved throughout units. 

Year 11

  • Autumn 1: An Inspector Calls - exam technique and English Language Component 1: Fiction reading and writing skills 
  • Autumn 2 block 1: A Christmas Carol - exam technique and English Language Component 2: Non Fiction reading and writing skills 
  • Autumn 2 block 2: Anthology Poetry - exam technique 
  • Spring 1: Macbeth - exam technique and English Language revision 
  • Spring 2: Revision of all core texts in preparation for GCSE exams.