English
Students study a wide variety of units throughout the year which include reading, writing and speaking and listening.
Autumn Term 1
Students begin the course with a 2 week introductory unit about memories and/change with a variety of stimulus materials being used. Students are also introduced to "English" and what this subject is at secondary school.
Gothic Stories - students study a variety of extracts or short stories relating to this theme, followed by a core reading assessment in the form of an APP task (Assessing Pupil Progress).
Autumn Term 2
Poetry - students study a variety of poetic techniques and forms and study several poems based on a theme. The end unit assessment consists of a comparative written piece in which students focus on structure (paragraphiing) and formality (including appropriate technical vocabulary).
Spring term 1 & 2
Students study a novel and are given the opportunity to develop their personal reading. They concentrate on character and plot development as well as techniques used by writers to create particular effects. The end of unit assessment consists of a piece of their own writing, either imaginative or non-fiction.
Summer Term 1
The Power of Persuasion - students study a range of media-based texts (print and screen) which focus on the art of persuasion. Students develop their own speaking and listening skills, including debate and the end of unit assessment is a speaking and listening task.
Summer Term 2
Investigating Shakespeare - the focus is on students researching the social and historical background of Shakespeare, including web-based research, and studying excerpts from his plays. Students produce a text using ICT to show their findings. The end of unit assessment is drama based performance.
Homework
Homework is given on a regular basis and can take a variety of forms - reading, research, short written tasks and extended written tasks or projects which may be completed over several weeks. Homework set is dependent on the unit of work being studied and the specific sections of that unit.
(n.b. assessments are graded according to National Curriculum levels)
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Applied Learning