English Curriculum Overview
Welcome to English at Noel-Baker Academy
“The limits of my language are the limits of my world”
Ludwig Wittgenstein
The Noel-Baker Academy English Department is committed to ensuring that all students are given their entitlement to ‘the best that has been thought and said’ in English. Our curriculum is designed to build the cultural capital that students need to be successful in school and in life. Through our bespoke, knowledge-rich curriculum, expert teachers ensure that students become critical readers, creative writers and confident speakers.
Mr Linekar – Curriculum Director for Communications
Year 7 Curriculum Overview
Unit 1: Greek Mythology
Students will begin the year exploring a range of Greek Myths, what myths tell the story of, the purposes of myths and the different types of myths. Through the exploration of Greek Myths students will develop an understanding of fate, freewill, the Gods of Greek Mythology, Tragedy, heroes, heroic honour and punishment in literature.
Unit 2: Romeo and Juliet
This unit provides students with their first experience of Shakespearean drama. During their study of the play, students will read an abridged form of the text incorporating the Victorian prose version from Mary and Charles Lamb. Students will explore Elizabethan theatre, the purpose of the prologue, the three main genres of play and the influence of the Renaissance and the Elizabethan era on classical literature and literacy. Throughout this text, students will engage with challenging concepts such as the presentation of women in the play and patriarchy. Furthermore, exploring the theme of fate, engaging with sonnets and Aristotelian Tragic heroes.
Unit 3: Morality
In the final unit of the academic year, students will explore the concept of morality and then take a deeper look at morality through the seven deadly sins. Students will explore the importance of this concept that guides the behaviour and decisions of individuals in society. It introduces opportunities for students to develop an understanding that morality is the foundation of ethical conduct, helping us to distinguish right from wrong. The exploration of morality will enable students to engage critically with significant ethical, philosophical and social issues in order to understand the world we live in more fully. Students will develop the skills of listening, speaking and discussing, as well as those of enquiry, analysis and evaluation. This will explore a range of texts to provoke challenging questions about the meaning of life; issues of right and wrong and what it means to be a good human.
Year 8 Curriculum Overview
Unit 1: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
In the first unit of the academic year, students will read the novel ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ that is built around the concept of human morality and corruption through the gothic tradition. It begins by exploring the historical context of the text, linked with scientific developments of the era, the clash between science and religion and the class divide of Victorian London. This is the first full novel that the students will study during their KS3 curriculum, allowing them to investigate the use of language and how it can be used to share a fundamental message surrounding human morality, which is a continued theme from their studies in year 7.
Unit 2: Rhetoric
The Rhetoric unit is designed to give students a clear grounding in the use of language for persuasion, but also to make them aware of how others may use rhetoric to persuade them/others. It is a key building block for the transactional writing they will be expected to produce at KS4, as well as encouraging students to focus on crafting any piece of writing. It revisits how a writer can show their opinion, which will be important when considering the English Language Paper 2 reading responses. The unit begins with a simple focus on the power of words/language using the familiar world of advertising to encourage students to question ideas of fact and opinion in persuasive texts. It continues with a basic grounding in the history and progression of the use of rhetoric, including developing their knowledge of the impact of Aristotle’s teachings from Romeo & Juliet that students studied in Year 7. It introduces key concepts such as the three means of persuasion (ethos, pathos, logos) and the three part planning structure that we teach students to use for any written text they are asked to produce (invention (ideas); arrangement (structure/sequence); and style (language choices and devices)). There is also an important opportunity to interrogate how the media can reinforce discrimination through their language choices in articles and headlines.
Unit 3: Richard III
In the final unit, student will read and explore Richard III which prepares students well for the study of ‘Macbeth’ in KS4 and develops an understanding of Shakespeare’s use of rhetoric in his characters’ speech before encountering Aristotle’s ideas on rhetoric. Both characters are inspired by ‘real people’, but Shakespeare uses poetic licence to change and adapt their presentation, creating both as Machiavellian figures in order to impress/pander to the vanities of the reigning monarch of the time. It can also introduce the idea of the divine right of kings. It uses language in a sophisticated way and explores how the unthinkable can happen given the right use of propaganda and political intrigue. It gives students experience of exploring a complex historical and political background and a plot with many twists and characters. Student will study texts in this unit so they can understand how language has the power to shape the opinions of the public both in the moment and for centuries to come.
Year 9 Curriculum Overview
Unit 1: Animal Farm
In the first unit of the academic year students will study the literary heritage text and political satire ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell’. In this unit, students will explore the world of politics particularly the Russian Revolution, how Manor Farm represents Russia when it was part feudal, part-capitalist system of Tsars. Student will explore key themes and characters in the novella and key concepts around capitalism, socialism and communism. This will build on student’s work of Shakespeare, as they will learn how to integrate context further into their analysis and understanding, which prepares them for KS4. Students will build skills in analysis, exploring language and structure of the book, and then evaluate how this helps to create meaning.
Unit 2: Romanticism
This unit has been designed to give students an insight into the passions and concerns of the Romantic period. In this unit, students will have the opportunity to build-on their pre-existing knowledge of poetry in readiness for their in-depth study of the AQA poetry anthology at KS4. In addition to studying the Romantic writers and their poetry, students will also have the opportunity to study and explore a range of other texts that are thematically linked. These thematically linked texts will lay the foundations for the KS4 curriculum which requires students to synthesise and compare texts across a range of literary time periods.
Unit 3: Boys Don’t Cry
In the final unit, students will study their final full text at KS3 ‘Boys Don’t Cry’. In this hard-hitting novel, that revolves around two brothers and their widowed father student will explore themes of family relationships, in particular, those between father and son are explored. Students will learn about the wider implications surrounding current issues such as single parenthood, teenage pregnancy, race and sexuality; these may be issues they can relate to. Through critical thinking and philosophical discussions surrounding the themes raised in ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, students will deepen their understanding and knowledge of these topics.
Year 10 Curriculum Overview
Unit 1: Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’
The first unit in Year 10 English begins the programme of study for English Language and Literature. The focus is Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’, which is a required English Literature GCSE unit, alongside Shakespeare (‘Macbeth’), Poetry Anthology (Power and Conflict) and the modern text (A Christmas Carol). The end point for students is to be confident in their knowledge of plot, character, theme and context of the play. Students will be taught how to analyse language, form and structure academically in order to explain the effect of an author’s decisions in a text with confidence. The unit links to several areas of the KS3 curriculum including the theme of social justice explored in George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’.
Students also complete work connected to the Language GCSE, with a focus on creative writing and 20th/21st century texts.
Unit 2: J.B. Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’
The study of Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’ is a required English Literature GCSE unit, alongside Shakespeare (‘Macbeth’), Poetry Anthology (Power and Conflict) and the 19th Century novel (A Christmas Carol). The end point for students is to be confident in their knowledge of plot, character, theme and context of the play. Students will be taught how to analyse language, form and structure academically in order to explain the effect of an author’s decisions in a text with confidence. The unit links to several areas of the KS3 curriculum including the themes of morality and the human condition and ideas connected to social justice explored in their study of ‘Animal Farm, ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ and ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ and each of the Shakespeare units.
Students also complete work connected to the Language GCSE, with a focus on transactional writing and comparing non-fiction texts.
Unit 3: Power and Conflict Poetry
Students will study a cluster of 15 poems taken from the AQA poetry anthology ‘Poems Past and Present’, under the title ‘Power and Conflict’. The poems in the anthology are thematically linked and were written between 1789 and the present day. Students will study all 15 poems and be prepared to write about any of them in the examination. The poems are grouped thematically so that students are supported in practising writing comparative essays (a key skill in the final exam).
– The Power of Nature: Ozymandias, Storm on the Island, The Prelude, Exposure
– The Power of People: Kamikaze, Tissue, Checking out me History, London,
The Emigree, My Last Duchess
– Conflict and War: Bayonet Charge, Remains, War Photographer, Charge
of the Light Brigade, Poppies
Unit 4: Spoken Language
Spoken Language is an essential part of the GCSE Language course with students receiving a separate certificate of achievement following the summer exams to indicate whether they have achieved a ‘pass’, ‘merit’ or ‘distinction’. It is the only element of the English course that is assessed in the classroom by the class teacher, rather than in a silent exam at the end of their studies.
Students will prepare a 7-10 minute speech about a topic of their choice and deliver this to their class or teacher. They will then answer questions from the audience as clearly and articulately as they can.
Year 11 Curriculum Overview
Unit 1: Shakespeare’s ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’
The study of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ is a required English Literature GCSE unit, alongside modern drama (‘An Inspector Calls’), Poetry Anthology (Power and Conflict) and the 19th Century novel (‘A Christmas Carol’). The end point for students is to be confident in their knowledge of plot, character, theme and context of the play. Students learn and embed knowledge of how to analyse language, form and structure effectively. By the end of this unit, students will have completed all of the required English Literature GCSE units and feel confident in how they approach analysis of language, structure and form in every text.
The study of ‘Macbeth’ has many links across our KS3 and KS4 curriculum. We study several Shakespeare plays in full, so students will have a degree of familiarity with the language and understand the key keys that Shakespeare explores such as: morality, the human condition, guilt, power, conflict etc.
Students also complete work connected to the Language GCSE, with a focus on transactional writing and comparing non-fiction texts.
Unit 2: Revision for GCSE Exams
Each of the units in KS4 are revisited with the focus switching to exam technique. In particular, teachers focus on the individual needs of students in their classes based on the work produced so far and how confident students feel with each section of their exams. Largely, teachers support students in approaching ‘high-tariff’ questions (the questions worth the most marks in the exams).
GCSE EXAMS TAKE PLACE
Students complete their final GCSE exams before beginning their next-steps.