---
title: "English"
url: "https://www.st-wilfrids.org/curriculum/subjects/english"
school: "St. Wilfrid's R.C. College, South Shields"
---

# English

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# English Curriculum

Inspiring confident readers, writers, and thinkers.

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## Why study English?

### What English develops

- Builds your imagination
- Encourages reading for pleasure
- Connects you to the world
- Cultural understanding
- Transferrable skills such as analysis and evaluation

### Student voice

“English is my favourite subject; the dark themes explored in The Prince of Mist and Noughts and Crosses really engaged me. I particularly enjoy creative writing and being able to use my imagination” **Ellie, Year 9**

- KS3 English (Y7–9)
- KS4 English
- KS4 Film Studies
- KS5 English
- KS5 Film

Key Stage 3 English – Cycle Overview

Cycle 1

#### Year 7 – Transition Unit and The Prince of Mist

#### Knowledge focus

Characterisation, setting, features of Gothic literature.

#### Key skills

- Analytical skills using what/how/why paragraphs
- Creative writing including narrative and descriptive skills.

#### Assessment

- Reading: analysing a key character.
- Writing: narrative writing.
- Reading: analysing character development.
- Reading and writing summative assessment.

#### Key Vocabulary

- Characterisation
- Protagonist
- Antagonist
- Foreshadowing
- Bildungsroman
- Chronological
- Cyclical
- Bias
- Pathetic Fallacy
- Archetype
- Gothic (as in genre)

#### Year 8 – Animal Farm

#### Knowledge focus

Allegory and relevant context, features of tragedy, features of non-fiction writing.

#### Key skills

- Continuing to develop analytical skills and linking to relevant context.
- Persuasive writing skills including article and speech writing.

#### Assessment

- Reading – analysing a key character.
- Writing a speech.
- Reading – analysing a theme.
- Reading and writing summative assessment.

#### Key Vocabulary

- Allegory
- Rhetoric
- Hyperbole
- Totalitarianism
- Socialism
- Democratic
- Hierarchy
- Propaganda
- Maxim

#### Year 9 – Noughts and Crosses

#### Knowledge focus

Young Adult fiction, conventions of dystopian literature, dual narrative.

#### Key skills

- Evaluation skills and developing an argument as part of analysis.
- Creative writing
- Persuasive writing including speech and letter writing.

#### Assessment

- Writing a description.
- Reading - inferring meaning and analysing effect in poetry.
- Writing a narrative.
- Reading and writing summative assessment.

#### Key Vocabulary

- Epigraph
- Prologue
- Juxtaposition
- Segregation
- Militia
- Eurocentric
- Dystopian
- Authorial intent
- Prejudice
- Denouement

Cycle 2

#### Year 7 – A Midsummer Night's Dream

#### Knowledge focus

Features of Shakespearean comedy and stagecraft in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

#### Key skills

- Analytical skills using what/how/why paragraphs
- Creative writing including narrative and descriptive skills.

#### Assessment

- Reading - analysing a character.
- Writing to argue.
- Reading - analysing a theme within the play.
- Writing to inform and review.

#### Key Vocabulary

- Shakespearean
- Patriarch/patriarchal
- Stagecraft
- Malapropism
- Antagonistic
- Monologue
- Soliloquy
- Aside (as in dramatic technique)
- Athenian
- Supernatural

#### Year 8 – The Crucible

#### Knowledge focus

Features of tragedy within a modern play ‘The Crucible’; allegory and the Salem Witch Trials.

#### Key skills

- Developing analytical skills and linking to relevant context.
- Persuasive writing skills including article and speech writing.

#### Assessment

- Reading – analysis of a character.
- Writing a description.
- Reading – analysis of a theme.
- Writing a narrative ending.

#### Key Vocabulary

- Playwright
- Persecution
- Hysteria/moral panic
- Crucible
- Fatal flaw
- Communism
- Modernism
- Dramatisation
- Historical fiction (as in genre)
- Realism

#### Year 9 – Romeo and Juliet

#### Knowledge focus

Conventions of a Shakespearean tragedy in ‘Romeo and Juliet’

#### Key skills

- Evaluation skills and developing an argument as part of analysis.
- Creative writing
- Persuasive writing including speech and letter writing.

#### Assessment

- Reading - inferring meaning and analysing effect in a play.
- Writing to argue.
- Reading - analysing and evaluating a play.
- Writing to inform and review.

#### Key Vocabulary

- Hamartia
- Peripeteia
- Catharsis
- Elizabethan
- Oxymoron
- Sonnet
- Iambic pentameter
- Microcosm
- Familial
- Anagnorisis

Cycle 3

#### Year 7 – Myths and Legends

#### Knowledge focus

Myths and legends.

#### Key skills

- Analytical skills using what/how/why paragraphs
- Creative writing including narrative and descriptive skills.

#### Assessment

- Analysing meaning in poetic storytelling.
- Writing: descriptive writing.
- Reading: analysing character development.
- Writing: narrative description.

#### Key Vocabulary

- Legend
- Fable
- Folklore
- Epic
- Hero/Heroine
- Villain
- Quest
- Moral
- Symbolism

#### Year 8 – Non-Fiction Writing

#### Knowledge focus

Features of non-fiction writing.

#### Key skills

- Continuing to develop analytical skills and linking to relevant context.
- Persuasive writing skills including article and speech writing.

#### Assessment

- Writing to inform and describe.
- Reading - analysing meaning in non-fiction writing.
- Writing to persuade.
- Reading - analysing meaning and comparing non-fiction writing.

#### Key Vocabulary

- Orient (both interpretations of word)
- Autobiography
- Memoir
- Formality
- Tonality
- Afropean
- Emotive language
- Cliché
- Suffix
- Prefix

#### Year 9 – Detective Fiction

#### Knowledge focus

Detective fiction and 19th century literature.

#### Key skills

- Evaluation skills and developing an argument as part of analysis.
- Creative writing
- Persuasive writing including speech and letter writing.

#### Assessment

- Reading - analysing meaning and evaluating ideas.
- Writing to narrate.
- Reading - analysing meaning and evaluating ideas.
- Writing to describe.

#### Key Vocabulary

- Exposition
- Denouement
- Duality
- Dichotomy
- Enigmatic
- Bohemia
- Red herring
- Reputation
- Nineteenth Century
- Carbuncle

Key Stage 4 English – AQA GCSE Literature and Language

Cycle 1 – Literature and Language

#### Year 10 – Conventions of Gothic Literature

#### Knowledge focus

Conventions of Gothic literature, context of Victorian London.

#### Key skills

- Continue to develop analytical skills but applying them to a more extended, essay style task and building a coherent argument.

#### Assessment

- GCSE style exam questions including: Language Paper 1
- Literature Paper 1

#### Key Vocabulary

- Conscious construct
- Duality
- Epistolary
- Repression
- Imagery: similes and metaphors
- Narration (third person, omniscient, limited, unreliable)
- Motif
- Analepsis
- Prolepsis
- Fin de siècle

#### Year 11 – Power and Conflict Poetry

#### Knowledge focus

A mock exam brief that mirrors the externally set task format.

#### Key skills

- Continue to develop analytical skills but applying them to a more extended, essay style task and building a coherent argument.

#### Assessment

- GCSE style exam questions including: Language Paper 1
- Literature Paper 2

#### Key Vocabulary

- Socialism
- Capitalism
- Verisimilitude
- Dramatic Irony
- Impertinent
- Patriarch/patriarchal
- Bourgeoisie
- Modernism
- Nouveau Riche
- Euphemism/Dysphemism

Cycle 2 – Literature and Language

#### Year 10 – Macbeth and Non-Fiction Writing

#### Knowledge focus

Exploring the tragedy ‘Macbeth’; exploring non-fiction writing skills.

#### Key skills

- Applying skills from KS3 to more challenging texts and producing more detailed and argumentative responses.

#### Assessment

- GCSE style exam questions including: Language Paper 2
- Literature Paper 1

#### Year 11 – Revising English Literature Paper 1 and English Language Paper 2

#### Knowledge focus

Revising English Literature Paper 1 and English Language Paper 2

#### Key skills

- Revising knowledge and skills from KS4.

#### Assessment

- GCSE style exam questions including: Language Paper 2
- Literature Paper 1

#### Key Vocabulary

- Juggernaut
- Troglodytic
- Transcendental
- Atavism
- Misogyny
- Stock (relating to character)
- Foil (relating to character)
- Machiavelli/ Machiavellian
- Coherence (in writing)
- Logos, Pathos, Ethos

Cycle 3 – Literature and Language

#### Year 10 – An Inspector Calls and Non-Fiction Writing

#### Knowledge focus

Exploring social responsibility in ‘An Inspector Calls’.

#### Key skills

- Analysis of authorial methods including dramatic techniques.

#### Assessment

- GCSE style exam questions including: Language Paper 1
- Literature Paper 2

#### Key Vocabulary

- Synthesise
- Rhetoric/Rhetorical
- Broadsheet
- Romantic (as in literary movement)
- Assonance
- Consonance
- Onomatopoeia
- Synaesthesia
- Dactylic dimeter
- Iambic tetrameter

#### Year 11 – Revision in preparation for Externally Set Examinations

####

Key Stage 4 Film Studies – Eduqas GCSE

Cycle 1

#### Year 10 – British Film

#### Knowledge focus

- Introduction and exploration of contemporary British Film
- Key features of film including characterisation, genre and cinematography

#### Key Skills

- Introduce and develop analytical skills, applying them to a Film

#### Assessment

- GCSE style questions

#### Key Vocabulary

- Action
- Protagonist
- Antagonist
- Cinematography
- Mise en scene
- Key lighting

#### Year 11 – Histories and Features of US Films

#### Knowledge focus

- History of US Film Industry
- Key features of US Films

#### Key skills

- Continue to develop analytical skills but applying them to a more extended, essay style task and building a coherent argument.

#### Assessment

- GCSE style questions

#### Key Vocabulary

- Mainstream
- Independent
- Generic conventions
- Narrative
- Genre

Cycle 2

#### Year 10 – Non-English Language Films

#### Knowledge focus

- Introduction and exploration of Global non-English language Film

#### Key skills

- Continue to develop analytical skills, applying them to a Film

#### Assessment

- GCSE style questions

#### Key Vocabulary

- Anarchism
- Fascism
- Authoritarianism
- Diegetic
- Non-diegetic

#### Year 11 – Independent US Films

#### Knowledge focus

- An in depth look at an independent US film

#### Key skills

- Continue to develop analytical skills but applying them to a more extended, essay style tasks and building a coherent argument.

#### Assessment

- GCSE style exam questions

#### Key Vocabulary

- Hybrid
- Iconography
- Stereotypes
- Psychological

Cycle 3

#### Year 10 – Developments in Film and Film Production

#### Knowledge focus

- Developments in film and film production
- Production of NEA

#### Key skills

- Explore the process behind the production of a film. With a particular focus of screenplays and story boards.
- Explore the history of film production and the changes throughout the 20th century.

#### Assessment

- GCSE style questions

#### Key Vocabulary

- Screenplay
- Filming script
- Denouement
- Symbolism
- Climax
- Foreshadowing
- Mood
- Motif

#### Year 11 – Revision in preparation for Externally Set Examinations

#### Knowledge focus

- Revision of all core knowledge in preparation for External Examinations

#### Key skills

- Building of skills from year 10 film and using these skills to and producing more detailed responses. Building on knowledge of modern film and film making

#### Assessment

- GCSE style exam questions

#### Key Vocabulary

- Hybrid
- Iconography
- Stereotypes
- Psychological

Key Stage 5 Literature A Level AQA

Cycle 1

#### Year 12

#### Knowledge focus

- Love through the Ages: Othello and The Great Gatsby
- Characterisation, Genre, context of early 20th century America
- Feature of a Shakespearean tragedy play, Stage craft, Context of Jacobean England.

#### Key Skills

- Continue to develop analytical skills but applying them to a more extended, essay style task and building a coherent argument.

#### Assessment

- A Level exam style essay based responses

#### Key Vocabulary

- American Dream
- Disillusionment
- Capitalism
- Protagonist
- Tragedy
- Tragic hero, Hamartia
- Pathos
- Catharsis

#### Year 13

#### Knowledge focus

- Modern Times: post-1945 Literature
- The Handmaid's Tale: Characterisation, Genre, context of 20th century America.
- A Streetcar Named Desire: Feature of a play, Stage craft, context of early 20th century America particularly the south

#### Key skills

- Continue to develop analytical skills but applying them to a more extended, essay style task and building a coherent argument.

#### Assessment

- A Level exam style essay based responses
- Coursework

#### Key Vocabulary

- Dystopian
- Plastic Theatre
- Prophetic
- Totalitarian
- Analogy
- Allusion
- Bildungsroman
- Didactic
- Dichotomy

Cycle 2

#### Year 12

#### Knowledge focus

- Genres of poetry
- Changing concept of love
- Poetic features
- Context

#### Key skills

- Continue to develop analytical skills but applying them to a more extended, essay style task and building a coherent argument.

#### Assessment

- A Level style exam questions

#### Key Vocabulary

- Meter
- Rhyme
- Sonnet
- Allusion
- Allegory
- Apostrophe
- Ballad
- Iambic pentameter

#### Year 13

#### Knowledge focus

- Narrative voice
- Annotating unseen texts
- Context post 1945
- Poetic Features
- Context

#### Key skills

- Continue to develop analytical skills but applying them to a more extended, essay style task and building a coherent argument.

#### Assessment

- A Level style exam questions

#### Key Vocabulary

- Irony
- Metaphor
- Simile
- Syntax
- Lexis
- Ambiguity
- Archetype
- Stream of Consciousness

Cycle 3

#### Year 12

#### Knowledge focus

- A Doll’s House: Feature of drama, stage craft, context, gender roles
- Post-1945 Literature: Characterisation, Genre, context of 20th century America

#### Key skills

- Continue to develop analytical skills but applying them to a more extended, essay style task and building a coherent argument.

#### Assessment

- A Level style exam questions
- Coursework

#### Key Vocabulary

- Fin de Siecle
- Denouement
- Symbolism
- Climax
- Foreshadowing
- Mood
- Motif
- Damsel

#### Year 13

#### Knowledge focus

- Revision for final exams.

#### Key skills

- Continue to develop analytical skills but applying them to a more extended, essay style task and building a coherent argument.

####

Key Stage 5 Film Studies

Content coming soon

#### Year 12

#### Knowledge focus

Add KS5 Film Studies content here.

#### Year 13

#### Knowledge focus

Add KS5 Film Studies content here.

**[For Key Stage 5 Curriculum information please click link here to our Sixth Form Curriculum](https://st-wilfrid-s-rc-college-south-shields.schudio.com/sixth-form)**

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