“If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.”
- Seamus Heaney
In the English Department, we give our pupils the gift of words through explicit vocabulary teaching, vocabulary acquisition via Bedrock Learning, and the learning of common Latin and Greek roots. Lessons in the English Department reflect the most robust research-based evidence into high-quality learning and teaching.
Coupled with our highly successful Engage Reading Support programme and Accelerated Reading, this creates a word rich environment for pupils of all abilities. Our school library is a central feature of our school building, it is key to our reading culture with a full-time librarian and an ever-expanding reading stock. We have recently invested in a wide selection of KS3 class-readers. These are books that will be read aloud to your daughter by their English teacher. This particular brand of modelled reading is supported by research and our girls report that it is one of their favourite parts of English. We are passionate about sharing our enthusiasm for reading. We are proud to be a ‘Reading School’. We want reading to or with your child and the act of putting books into your child’s hand to sound like chocolate, not medicine. Even though it can indeed be both.
The English Department aims to:
• Equip pupils with well-developed reading, writing and comprehension skills;
• Enable them to speak and write in an articulate and confident manner;
• Enrich their experience of literature by reading a broad range of texts and novels;
• Empower them to become critical thinkers and influential members of society.
Pupils are encouraged to read at every opportunity both at home and in school. Parents also have a key role to play in supporting and maintaining reading routines during their daughter’s time at Ashfield.
Our fully qualified Engage teacher works one-to-one with KS3 pupils identified (using the wealth of internal and national standardised data available to us) as needing support to reach their full reading potential. Furthermore, our ‘Nurture Class’ is a small KS3 class which benefits from a specially designed curriculum to support pupils.
We aim to supercharge spelling improvement by teaching pupils how to use their spelling/learning time effectively and helping them to develop and internalise a phonological and morphological schema of English spelling patterns.
The English Department aims to ensure our pupils leave with the ability to express themselves in an articulate and confident manner, through the use of rich talk and specialist vocabulary. As a department, we provide guidance and strategies to help them find their way through a challenging and ever-changing world.
The English Department also aims to embed the life skills of effective written and spoken communication whilst nurturing creativity, independence, resilience and empathy.
The amount and quality of text that is regularly read is the single most important factor in a child’s reading ability and is closely linked to their personal success. We would argue that in a world that is attempting to steal our children’s focus, sustained reading is a more important gift than ever before. By working together to put reading first, teachers and parents, have the power to give pupils every opportunity to be exceptional and reach their fullest potential.
Term 1: ‘Childhood’ – The Study of Character [Prose]
Text: Transition texts – Matilda and Boy by Roald Dahl
Characterisation anthology and exploring characters through the theme of ‘Childhood’.
The anthology includes opportunities to explore the theme of ‘Childhood’ through the reading of a range of prose, poetry and drama extracts and classroom activities.
Reading: Character based comprehensions
Writing: Character analysis and creating your own character [image stimulus]
Library based task: Writing a book review
Term 2: ‘Island Life’ – The Study of Setting [Prose]
Text: ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ and Island Life Anthology
The anthology includes opportunities to explore the theme of Island Life through the reading of a range of prose, poetry and drama extracts and activities.
Writing: Diary Entry based on island life
Reading: Kensuke’s Kingdom and extracts
Term 3: Shakespeare – Shakespeare’s Women [Drama]
Shakespeare’s Women – an introduction to various plays and popular scenes selected from Shakespeare’s collection.
There will be a focus on the presentation of female characters across a range of Shakespearean plays.
Speaking and Listening focus: Individual Presentation
This will be based on a ‘Soap Box Challenge’, ‘Show and Tell’, ‘Pet Hates’ or a subject of choice.
Year 9
Term 1: Fantasy Worlds, Myths and Legends [Prose]
Text: ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ and Fantasy Anthology
The anthology includes opportunities to explore various writings on fantasy worlds through reading a range of prose, poetry and drama extracts and activities.
Writing: Creative writing based on a fantasy image stimulus
Writing: Create, design and present your own mythical creature
Term 2: Romeo and Juliet’ or ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’[Drama]
Pupils will study the key scenes, characters and themes in the play.
Character analysis and Shakespeare’s presentation of characters will be explored as well as key themes and how they connect to a modern audience.
Term 3: Reading Non-Fiction and Library Project
Pupils will read a range of non-fiction style pieces of writing and will analyse the writer’s use of language and the impact upon the reader. They will study a range of relevant and relatable topics which will form the basis for Speaking and Listening tasks. They will also write their own non fiction articles and present them to the class.
Speaking and Listening focus: Group Discussions
This will be based on something topical and current or a subject related to the text or exploration of an issue or key theme.
Library Project: Non-Fiction – ‘Tell me something I don’t know…’
Year 10
Term 1: Gothic Literature – An Introduction
Pupils will explore the Gothic conventions and the historical background of the Gothic genre. Pupils will study classics such as Frankenstein, Dracula and Jekyll and Hyde and other stories.
Reading: response to The Ghost Coach and Gothic genre-based stories
Writing style and genre: creating setting and atmosphere using the Gothic conventions.
Resources: Project Gutenberg - Books in Gothic Fiction
Term 2: Teenage Life – Body Image, Social Media and the Environment
Text:'Wonder'
Writing to Persuade and Speaking and Listening
Writing to persuade: Body Image and other issues impacting teenagers
Reading: Analysing persuasive techniques and how to analyse and evaluate
S/L Group discussion – topics will include issues affecting teenagers and current affairs.
S/L Presentation – topic of choice based on key issue, news item or creating awareness.
Term 3: The Study of the Spoken Word – ‘Speak Up, Speak Out!’
Pupils will be exposed to a range of famous speeches and poems. They will analyse speeches and poems using their understanding of rhetorical devices and the impact they have on the reader.
Pupils will explore a range of themes, contexts and subject matter in order to gain a broad understanding of, and an appreciation for, the power of language.
Speaking and Listening focus: Role Play
This will be based on something topical and current or a subject related to the text or exploration of an issue or key theme.
Each Unit will be accompanied by a Knowledge Organiser that will include subject specific key terms, extended vocabulary and, Reading and Writing support scaffolds.
GCSE English Language
The specification has four units:
• Unit 1: External exam - Writing for Purpose and Audience and Reading to Access Non-Fiction and Media Texts [30%]
• Unit 2: Continuous Assessment [20%]- Speaking and Listening
• Unit 3: Controlled Assessment [20%] - Studying Spoken and Written Language
• Unit 4: External exam [30%] - Personal or Creative Writing and Reading Literary and Non-Fiction Texts.
• More information can be found here: CCEA English Language Guide
GCSE English Literature
The specification has three units:
• Unit 1: External Exam [30%]: The Study of Prose - Of Mice and Men
• Unit 2: External Exam [50%]: The Study of Drama will include either Blood Brothers or An Inspector Calls
The Study of Poetry based on Relationships, Identity or Conflict
• Unit 3: Controlled Assessment [20%] The Study of Shakespeare – either Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth
More information can be found here: CCEA English Literature Guide
Pupils study the WJEC English Literature Specification
Unit 1: Prose and Drama (closed-book)
Tennessee Williams - Streetcar Named Desire
Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre
Unit 2: Poetry Post-1900 (open-book)
The Poetry of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath
Unit 3: Poetry pre-1900 and Unseen Poetry (open-book, clean copy)
• Section A: Geoffrey Chaucer: The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale (Cambridge)
• Section B: Unseen poetry
Unit 4: Shakespeare (closed-book) ‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare
Unit 5: Prose Study - Non-exam assessment based on two novels of choice.
Resources: WJEC Specification
AS level English Literature - Weighting: 40%
A level English Literature - Weighting: 60%
• Roald Dahl Day https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl-day
• Visit to CS Lewis Square https://visiteastside.com/listing/cs-lewis-square
• Rebel Readers
• Spelling Bee
• Creative Schools Project
• Soroptimist Public Speaking Competition NI https://sigbi.org/northern-ireland/
• Literature Lectures at Queen’s University and Stranmillis
• Heaney HomePlace http://www.seamusheaneyhome.com/
• Lyric Theatre https://lyrictheatre.co.uk/
• Dublin Museum of Literature https://moli.ie/
Why not try reading some of the classics?
Ebooks:
Click on the link on an iPad and then choose open in iBooks when given the option.
The texts included in this list are part of the GCSE and A level Literature specifications.
Top 100 Most Read Classic Novels
