The English curriculum at Kidbrooke Learning Centre aims to equip children with the skills and confidence they need for academic success while also developing a love of learning. During these three years before children begin GCSE work, the focus is to develop the main skills they need for their KS4 exams. The skills the English curriculum at KLC develops are analytical writing, creative writing and persuasive writing. Skills like spelling, correct use of punctuation, reading comprehension, sentence and paragraph building are embedded in to the topics that are studied. These skills are constructed into different topics that encourage children to improve their skills while also learning about real world topical issues that are explored in literature. The same skills are covered from year 7 to year 9 with more complicated concepts and more challenging expectations being introduced each year. This is done so the students are able to gradually build their confidence and perfect their skills.
Other Skills Covered: Reading Comprehension, Sentence and Paragraph Building.
Topic: Extracts from Novels and Plays
In Autumn Term 1 pupils will be studying extracts from novels and plays. This helps students improve their reading ability as we often read as a class as well as individually. The extracts come from a range of novels, pupils will be taught about the time the novel was written and also about the author, to give them a deeper understanding of why that particular novel was written and the writer’s intended message to readers.
Pupils will learn a range of language techniques such as similes, metaphors and so on so they can identify them in literary texts. Then pupils will use their knowledge to begin to explain why writers have chosen to use specific techniques, this is done in a PEE (point, evidence, explanation) format. Pupils begin learning and memorising their language techniques and develop their reading comprehension skills through quizzes and questioning.
Other Skills Covered: Reading Comprehension, Sentence and Paragraph Building.
Topics:
Year 7 - Poetry from Different Cultures
Year 8 – War Poetry
Year 9 – Relationship Poetry
Autumn Term 2 continues on with building analytical skills but the topic shifts to poetry. Pupils will study poems from writer’s with different cultural backgrounds which supports them in gaining a new understanding of people from all over the world. The pupils are able to learn about important historical events like Apartheid and also about topical issues like family relationships, poverty, war and immigration that are explored in poems. Pupils will use their reading comprehension skills to guide them in writing from different perspectives so they gain a deeper understanding the people and narratives being explored in the poems. PEE writing will be done during this half term as well.
Other Spelling, Sentence and Paragraph Building, Punctuation.
Topics:
Year 7 –Healthy Living and the Media
Year 8 – Animal Rights and the Media
Year 9 – Pop Culture and the Media
Spring Term 1 introduces a new skill as it focuses on persuasive writing. The pupils will learn how to structure and write convincing arguments through using persuasive writing techniques like facts, statistics, emotive language and many others. The topics that are studied in relation to this skill are Healthy Living and the Media Animal Rights and Pop Culture and the Media. Pupils gain a sound understanding of a particular topic issue, for example year 7 pupils learn what living a healthy life style consists of and also how the media influences our behaviour. Pupils will learn about the persuasive tactics the media use to convince us and influence our decisions. The pupils will then use this information to construct their own persuasive writing.
Pupils will learn how to structure and write a persuasive letters and articles and also take part in writing and performing persuasive speeches which supports their confidence. Sentence and paragraph building building skills will also be developed as pupil learn new and interesting writing styles.
Other Spelling, Sentence and Paragraph Building, Punctuation.
Topics:
Year 7 – Healthy Living and the Media
Year 8 – Animal Rights and the Media
Year 9 – Pop Culture and the Media
Spring Term 2 focuses on the impact of social media and how it coincides with the different topics. Pupils are encouraged to explore their own experiences with social media and how it has shaped their perception of the topic we study. For example year 9 pupils are encouraged to think about how popular culture is presented on social media and think about the effect it has on their mental and physical health. These ideas are then channelled into persuasive writing tasks where pupils have to write convincing arguments to statements they are presented with. An example statement could be: “Children under the age of 16 should not have social media”. Pupils will then have to write an argument which is either for or against the statement, making sure to use a plethora of thoughtful and convincing reasons and persuasive techniques to support and strengthen their argument. Pupils will read and analyseexamples of convincing persuasive writing to support them in improving their work.
Other Spelling, Sentence and Paragraph Building, Punctuation.
Topic: Descriptive Writing: Setting and Character
Summer Term 1 begins with descriptive writing, pupils will learn the difference between descriptive and narrative writing and learn how to describe in a way that creates imagery in the readers head. This term focuses on the pupil’s ability to use a variety of sentence structures, figurative language techniques such as personification, metaphor etc. and also punctuation. The level of complexity and challenge increases depending on the year of the pupils. For example in regards to punctuation, year 9 pupils will be focusing on including higher level punctuation like dashes and semi colons in their work for example.
Pupils will read extracts from world renowned novels so they can study examples of excellent descriptive writing and use what they have learned in their own work.
Other Spelling, Sentence and Paragraph Building, Punctuation.
Topic: Narrative Writing
Summer Term 2 centres on narrative writing. Pupils will learn how to accurately structure a story and use their punctuation, sentence structure and language technique skills to write their own stories. During this term we will study short stories to encourage pupils to begin to think of the effect a good story should have on a reader and how linguistic and structural choices impact the genre of writing. Pupils will learn how to write in different styles by paying close attention to tone and audience.
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