KS3 & KS4 English

Aims and purpose

What are the aims and purpose of our curriculum?

With this curriculum, we aim to develop confident, articulate and accurate readers, writers and speakers. Pupils read a diverse range of increasingly complex and deep texts, write for a wide range of purposes with technical accuracy, and have multiple opportunities to develop their spoken language capabilities.

Oak curriculum principles

What overarching curriculum principles inform the design of our curriculum?

Knowledge and vocabulary rich

This principle recognises the important role that knowledge, and vocabulary as a particularly important type of knowledge, plays in learning. We map vocabulary across the curriculum, introduce it at the most appropriate moment and review it where necessary. New vocabulary, called key words, are signalled in bold in our lessons to indicate their importance. We use keywords to teach the most important new vocabulary, but other new vocabulary is defined or glossed as they appear. We have partnered with Mrs Wordsmith to develop pupils’ narrative vocabulary. Our curriculum complements teaching pupils the knowledge they need to understand a text or topic with the space to develop their own ideas about the text or topic.

Sequenced and coherent

A careful and purposeful sequencing of our curriculum content underpins the design of our curriculum, ensuring that pupils are able to build on and make links with existing knowledge. Concepts are mapped across year 1 to year 11, ensuring coherence and allowing for their incremental development over time. Units often include links to different domains or topics within English, allowing for retrieval of previously taught content and demonstrating how closely linked different ideas can be. For example, technical writing developed in key stages 1 and 2 underpins writing in the secondary curriculum, but is subtly revisited and extended to meet the demands of the new year groups. Similarly, in the key stage 4 unit ‘Leave Taking’, learning draws on conceptual understanding of identity and belonging that has been taught across primary and secondary.

Evidence-informed

Our evidence-informed approach enables the rigorous application of research outcomes, science of learning and impactful best practice both in education in general and at a subject specific level. For example, the design of our resources reflects findings from Sweller’s cognitive load theory and Mayer’s principles of multimedia learning whilst our lesson design draws on Rosenshine’s [rinciples of instruction. We also draw on findings from research organisations such as the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). At the subject level, we have drawn on ‘The Simple View of Reading’ and ‘The Simple View of Writing’ to structure how we develop the different domains of reading and writing from primary to secondary, and build expertise on top of strong technical foundations.

Flexible

Our flexible approach helps schools use our resources in a way that suits their context and meets their different needs. Our curriculum can be used in its entirety or units can be selected to complement existing curricula. For instance, our ‘appreciation of poetry’ thread can be taken, adapted and implemented to provide a coherent set of poetry units in your curriculum. Our primary curriculum is carefully organised by domain so schools can use only single domains, such as handwriting, whilst continuing to use the rest of their own school curriculum. Our curriculum often provides different options so that schools and teachers can decide what knowledge is best for their pupils, for example when teaching about non-chronological reports in year 3, teachers can choose between the contexts of King Tut or Healthy Lifestyle - or teach through both. Our resources are adaptable so that, for example, teachers can easily replace models with their own live modelling, can edit or add checks for understanding, or adapt practice tasks to better reflect the prior knowledge of their pupils. At key stage 4 teachers and pupils can select a pathway aligned to the most frequently used exam board specifications for GCSE English Literature: AQA, Edexcel or Eduqas.

Diverse

Our commitment to breadth and diversity can be seen in our choice of texts and authors. We are committed to showcasing incredible writing by the widest possible range of diverse authors. At primary, pupils study writers such as Joseph Coelho, John Lyons, Valerie Bloom and Ibtihaj Muhammad, as well as reading books on a wide range of cultures. At secondary, we offer GCSE Literature units on diverse texts including comprehensive resources on Winsome Pinnock’s ‘Leave Taking’ and the new diverse poetry anthologies from AQA and Edexcel, ‘World and Lives’ and ‘Belonging’. At key stage 4 teachers and pupils can select a pathway aligned to the most frequently used exam board specifications for GCSE English Literature: AQA, Edexcel or Eduqas.

Accessible

Our curriculum is intentionally designed to facilitate high-quality teaching as a powerful lever to support pupils with SEND. Aligned with EEF guidance, our resources have a focus on clear explanations, modelling and frequent checks for understanding, with guided and independent practice. Lessons are chunked into learning cycles and redundant images and information are minimised and the narrative that accompanies stories and explanations are contained in a separate document, rather than on slides to manage cognitive load. We have removed reference to year groups in our resources so that they can be used when pupils are ready, regardless of their age. Our resources are purposefully created to be accessible, for example by using accessible fonts, colours with good contrast, and captions in our videos. In the core English domains such as handwriting, spelling and grammar, we focus on securing small steps to help all pupils build their confidence and accuracy in writing.

Oak subject principles

What subject specific principles inform the design of our curriculum?

Pupils regularly read a range of text types as a group and independently, have frequent opportunities to develop personal responses to texts, and build their background knowledge, tier 2 vocabulary and fluency to support comprehension.

Our lessons support the development of reading competence and independence. We use our lessons to ensure pupils have the background knowledge and vocabulary they need to access a text, and we give pupils the space, structure and support to develop their own ideas in response to a text. Throughout the reading and explanation sections of lessons, there are frequent discussion points to help pupils form and refine their ideas.

Writing for a range of purposes, expressing creativity and building writing stamina are developed alongside a deep understanding of grammar, sentence construction, disciplinary writing and underlying spelling patterns.

Our writing curriculum explicitly teaches pupils the grammar knowledge, handwriting competence and spelling rules to make them confident and accurate technical writers. This reduces cognitive load so pupils are able to write with more creativity and freedom. Building technical competence is paired with frequent writing practice throughout the curriculum, but the balance between them shifts over time. We prioritise opportunities for pupils to write with freedom so they develop their writing personality.

Frequent opportunities to develop the components of spoken language are included throughout the curriculum, and each lesson gives pupils multiple opportunities to talk and express their opinion.

Speaking is at the heart of our curriculum. There are opportunities for pupils to express their views and develop their ideas through talk. Throughout all domains, there are tasks with spoken language outcomes. We have deliberately moved away from a model where the final task in an English lesson is always a writing task. We also have a ‘developing spoken language’ domain that includes lessons and units on debate, presentations and performance to help build pupils’ competence and confidence.

Text choice represents a diverse range of voices, backgrounds and cultures so the curriculum provides windows and mirrors to all pupils.

We have included writers and books from a diverse range of cultures and backgrounds, and deliberately chosen GCSE text options that focus on under-represented groups. From year 1 to year 11, our curriculum includes texts that will be windows for some pupils and mirrors for other pupils.

There is a single pathway through the resources that is ambitious for all pupils by offering a low floor and high ceiling in each lesson.

We do not split our resources into different ability groupings. Instead, all pupils can follow the same pathway through the curriculum no matter what their starting point is. We have carefully written questions and designed tasks to ensure it is possible for all pupils to attempt them. We expect teachers to adapt the lessons: support and scaffolding can be added or removed depending on the needs of pupils in the context.

National curriculum

How does our curriculum reflect the aims & purpose of the national curriculum?

There are seven aims of the English national curriculum. First, pupils need to ‘read easily, fluently and with good understanding’. Reading high-quality texts is the cornerstone of our curriculum, and throughout our lessons pupils practise reading to develop their fluency and understanding. As the curriculum develops, pupils read increasingly challenging texts and think about them in more complex ways.

Next, pupils should ‘develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information’. Our curriculum encourages broad reading habits. In our primary ‘developing reading preferences’ and ‘book club’ units, pupils explore their reading habits and look at different recommended texts based on genre preferences. At secondary, pupils read a wide range of text extracts during key stage 4 English language units: units such as ‘Read around the world’ and ‘Books that changed my world’ are explicitly designed to build pupils' reading culture and awareness so they read more for pleasure.

Thirdly, pupils need to ‘acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language’. Keywords are listed at the beginning of all lessons, and are then repeated throughout the lesson to ensure important vocabulary is embedded. We also have a ‘vocabulary’ thread at primary to group the units that are only focused on vocabulary development. Similarly, grammar teaching is a key feature of the entire curriculum: at primary, we have units that teach grammar discreetly; at secondary, explicit grammar instruction is embedded within wider writing units. Across our curriculum, pupils also study units focused purely on reading or spoken language, and during these units they develop their understanding of the corresponding linguistic conventions.

Pupils also need to ‘appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage’. Our curriculum covers a broad range of classic texts from across our literary heritage, teaching five Shakespeare plays, learning about multiple romantic poets, and reading classic Victorian stories such as ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’. Our curriculum also includes modern examples of our rich and varied literary heritage, such as Andrea Levy’s ‘Small Island’, Elle McNicoll’s ‘A Kind of Spark’, Drew Daywalt’s ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ and Winsome Pinnock’s ‘Leave Taking’.

Next, pupils need to ‘write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences’. Pupils start developing their confidence in this in primary, and then become increasingly confident with it as they move through secondary. We prioritise pupils developing their writing clarity and accuracy so they can later adapt it for different contexts. At primary, pupils study grammar, handwriting and spelling in discrete units and threads so that they have a strong foundation of clarity and accuracy. Pupils also study units in areas such as non-chronological reports and speech writing to help them build their writing agency and vary their writing for different contexts.

Pupils also need to ‘use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas’. Discussion is embedded throughout the curriculum and lessons: we use a discussion symbol to indicate key opportunities for discussion in lessons, and we have included a high percentage of tasks that have spoken outcomes. Outside of its role in all lessons, we have a ‘developing spoken language’ thread to help build pupils’ accuracy and confidence in spoken language: at primary, we have at least two dedicated spoken language units per year group; at secondary, we have at least one.

Finally, the curriculum needs to ensure pupils ‘are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.’ This aim is covered extensively in the ‘developing spoken language’ thread mentioned above, as well as in other parts of the curriculum. From primary onwards, pupils learn the foundations of speaking and listening, before being introduced to presentation skills as well as debate. These are then picked up again in secondary as pupils practise more formal debate conventions and develop all the skills needed to give confident presentations.

Curriculum delivery

What teaching time does our curriculum require?

Our curricula for key stages 1-3 are designed for 36 weeks of curriculum time across the school year which leaves time for other activities both within and beyond the curriculum such as assessments or school trips. At key stage 4, year 10 also has 36 weeks of curriculum time, but year 11 has only 26 weeks (approximately 2 terms) to recognise that schools will not be teaching new content in the run up to the GCSE exams.

In our primary English curriculum for key stages 1-2, the number of lessons we provide per year varies due to the changing nature of the subject. In year 1, we provide around 4 lessons per week to allow time for your phonics programme. This increases to over 6 lessons per week in year 2, and over 7 lessons per week in years 3 to 6. Our resources are designed to be taught by domain, so separate time in your timetable needs to be set aside for grammar, spelling, handwriting and reading, writing and oracy lessons. The set up of each class is different, so we recommend adapting the curriculum to fit into the shape of your class or school cadence.

In our secondary English curriculum we provide four lessons per week in key stage 3, and five lessons per week in key stage 4. In key stage 4, our curriculum has been designed to teach three lessons of English Literature per week and two lessons of English Language per week. We recommend teaching one fiction and one non-fiction English Language lesson per week. However, the curriculum can also be taught with consecutive units of English Literature and English Language. We think schools are in the best place to make informed decisions about what works for their particular context.

Curriculum coherence

What are 'threads'?

We use threads to signpost groups of units that are linked around a particular topic or concept. We use the term thread, rather than vertical concepts, themes or big ideas, because it helps us to bring to mind the visual concept of a thread weaving through the curriculum.

Our English threads are:

Primary

• Fiction reading spine
• Traditional tales
• Reading and writing texts that inform
• Modern literature strand 1: identity, belonging and community
• Developing essay writing
• Developing grammatical knowledge
• Developing handwriting fluency
• Appreciation of poetry
• Developing spelling accuracy
• Developing vocabulary knowledge
• Developing reading preferences
• Book Club
• Developing spoken language
• Developing fiction writing
• Developing persuasive writing

Secondary

1. Developing fiction writing
2. Shakespeare and the outsider
3. Exploring the gothic
4. Developing spoken language
5. Non-fiction reading and writing
6. GCSE English Language
7. Developing fiction writing
8. Nineteenth century literature
9. Modern literature strand 1: identity, belonging and community
10. Modern literature strand 2: power, control and oppressive regimes

Our threads help teachers navigate our English curriculum by identifying and mapping important concepts in English teaching. At primary, we have threads for the domains of handwriting, spoken language, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. Knowledge and skills within reading and writing are broken down into narrower threads, such as ‘Traditional tales’ and ‘Reading and writing texts that inform’.

At secondary, our threads are selected to indicate connections by period, concept or theme. This includes threads such as ‘Exploring the gothic’ and ‘Shakespeare and the outsider’. ‘Modern Literature strand 1’ and ‘Modern Literature strand 2’ are two threads that link to GCSE outcomes.

Some threads are phase specific whilst others span primary and secondary. Domain threads tend to be primary only because the isolated teaching of grammar, spelling and handwriting normally concludes in primary school. Our ‘Developing spoken language’ thread for example, weaves across primary and secondary, mapping how pupils gain increasing knowledge and skill over both phases.

Recommendations from subject specific reports

How does the curriculum address and enact recommendations from subject specific reports (e.g. EEF guidance reports & Ofsted Research Review)?

Recent EEF guidance and the Ofsted subject report for English have advocated the importance of explicitly teaching and extensively practising the building blocks of literacy to ensure pupils have the working memory capacity to focus on fluency and creative ideas in their reading and writing. Our curriculum fully embodies these recommendations by providing comprehensive grammar, spelling and handwriting resources. We also break complex written tasks down into manageable small steps that can be taught, practised and learnt so that pupils are able to focus their working memory on writing creative original ideas fluently.For example, in the year 3 unit ‘The Man on the Moon: narrative writing’, pupils develop their narrative writing by mastering each part of the narrative journey in isolation: pupils spend multiple lessons on opening, build-up, climax and resolution writing so that they develop a more coherent understanding of the key elements of narrative writing.

Subject-specific needs

How does the curriculum deal with elements that arise from the specific needs of the subject?

How do our primary and secondary English curricula differ?

Despite a number of important similarities, primary and secondary English differ significantly in emphasis. At primary, pupils' learning is organised across the domains of handwriting, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and reading, writing and oracy. At secondary, all these domains are combined because while at primary pupils are still building their word-reading and transcription skills, at secondary it is presumed that the majority of pupils have developed these competencies.

How did you choose the texts in the curriculum?

Text selection is the most challenging aspect of English curriculum design. There are near-infinite possibilities and combinations that can form a high quality English curriculum. Our text selection has been drawn from the expertise in our curriculum partners, Fox Federation and Twyford CofE Trust. We chose texts to reflect the full range of life in the United Kingdom, and attempted to represent all backgrounds, regions and cultures, whilst also giving pupils a firm grounding in the history and traditions of English Literature.

What books are featured in the curriculum?

Year 1

• ‘A Superhero Like You’ by Dr. Ranj Singh
• ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’, traditional
• ‘The Magic Porridge Pot’, traditional
• ‘Little Bo Peep’, traditional
• ‘Hickory Dickory Dock’, traditional
• ‘Five Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day’, traditional
• ‘Anna Hibiscus’ Song’ by Atinuke
• ‘Lulu Gets a Cat’ by Anna McQuinn
• ‘Zim Zam Zoom’, ‘Firework’, ‘Splish! Splash! Splosh’, ‘BEwARe’ by James Carter
• ‘Paddington’ by Michael Bond
• ‘Wild’ by Emily Hughes
• ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, traditional
• ‘Ada Twist Scientist’ by Andrea Beaty

Year 2

• ‘Yoshi the Stonecutter’ by Becca Heddle
• ‘The Wolf, The Duck and The Mouse’ by Mac Barnett
• ‘The Planet in a Pickle Jar’ by Martin Stanev
• ‘The Proudest Blue’ by Ibtihaj Muhammad
• ‘Wide Open’ by Rachel Rooney
• ‘If You Could See Laughter’ by Mandy Coe
• ‘The Magic Box’ by Kit Wright
• ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’ by Jill Tomlinson
• ‘Don’t Cross the Line’ Isabel Minhós Martins
• ‘And Tango Makes Three’ by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
• ‘Emmeline Pankhurst: Little People, Big Dreams’ by Lisbeth Kaiser
• ‘The Children of Lir’, traditional
• ‘The Morning Rush’ by John Foster
• ‘Home Time’ by Rachel Rooney
• ‘Please Mrs Butler’ by Allan Ahlberg
• ‘Please do not feed the animals…’ by Robert Hull
• ‘What Did You Do at School Today?’ by James Carter
• ‘Grandad’s Island’ by Benji Davies
• ‘Leaf’ by Sandra Dieckmann

Year 3

• ‘Mulan’, traditional
• ‘The BFG’ by Roald Dahl
• ‘Miss Flotsam’, ‘There are things that lurk in the library’, ‘MORERAPS’, ‘If All the World were Paper’, ‘I am a Writer’ by Joseph Coelho
• ‘Swallow’s Kiss’ by Sita Brahmachari
• ‘The Pebble in my Pocket’ by Meredith Hopper
• ‘The Moon Dragons’ by Dylan Sheldon
• ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes
• ‘Anasi and the Antelope Baby’, traditional
• ‘The Journey’ by Francesca Sanna
• ‘The Sheep Pig’ by Dick King-Smith
• ‘Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx’ by Joe Todd-Stanton
• ‘It’s All About… Rushing Rivers’ by Kingfisher
• ‘The Firework Maker’s Daughter’ by Phillip Pullman
• ‘Varjak Paw’ by S. F. Said
• ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ by Drew Daywalt

Year 4

• ‘Curious Creatures Glowing in the Dark’ by Zoë Armstrong
• ‘Hansel and Gretel’, traditional
• ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, traditional
• ‘The Borrowers’ by Mary Norton
• ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens
• ‘El Deafo’ by Cece Bell
• ‘Walter Tull’s Scrapbook’ by Michaela Morgan
• ‘Into the Forest’ by Anthony Browne
• ‘Granny’s Sugarcake’, ‘Happy Hummingbird Food’, ‘Tadpole Comets’, ‘Carib Nightfall’ and ‘Carnival Dance Lessons’ by John Lyons
• ‘A Journey Through Greek Myths’ by Marchella Ward
• ‘Jabberwocky’ by Lewis Caroll
• ‘Escape from Pompeii’ by Christina Balit
• ‘The Wild Robot’ by Peter Brown
• ‘Arthur and the Golden Rope’ by Joe Todd-Stanton
• ‘The Happy Prince’ by Oscar Wilde
• ‘Greenling’ by Levi Pinfold
• ‘Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths’ by Maisie Chan
• ‘The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane’ by Kate DiCamillo

Year 5

• ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ by Cressida Cowell
• ‘Crazy about Cats’ by Owen Davey
• ‘The Viewer’ by Gary Crew
• ‘The Unforgotten Coat’ by Frank Cottrell-Boyce
• ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes
• ‘The Listeners’ by Walter de la Mare
• ‘Mirror’ by Jeannie Baker
• ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare
• ‘Front Desk’ by Kelly Yang
• ‘Oliver Twist’ by Charles Dickens
• ‘Curiosity: the story of a Mars Rover’ by Marcus Motum
• ‘Princess Sophia Duleep Singh: My Story’ by Sufiya Ahmed
• ‘Wonder’ by R. J. Palacio

Year 6

• ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare
• ‘The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
• ‘Coming to England’ by Floella Benjamin
• ‘Blackberry Blue’ by Jamila Gavin
• ‘The Girl of Ink and Stars’ by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
• ‘Shackleton’s Journey’ by William Grill
• ‘Beowulf’, traditional
• ‘When Stars are Scattered’ by Omar Mohamed and Victoria Jamieson
• ‘A Kind of Spark’ by Elle McNicoll
• ‘When the Sky Falls’ by Phil Earle
• ‘No Country’ by Patrice Aggs and Joe Brady
• ‘Frizzy’ by Claribel A Ortega
• ‘Cloud Busting’ by ​​Malorie Blackman

Year 7

• ‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare
• ‘The Speckled Band’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
• ‘The Boscombe Valley Mystery’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
• ‘The Twisted Tree’ by Rachel Burge
• A selection of poems, fiction extracts and non-fiction articles and speeches in other units, including ‘Island Man’ by Grace Nichols and ‘The Dark Lady’

Year 8

• ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by William Shakespeare
• ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’, ‘I Know Where the Caged Bird Sings’, ‘Phenomenal Woman’, ‘Equality’, ‘Still I Rise’, and ‘Caged Bird’ by Maya Angelou
• ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe
• ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe
• ‘The Haunted Palace’ by Edgar Allan Poe
• A selection of fiction extracts and non-fiction articles and speeches in other units, including extracts from ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte and ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley

Year 9

• ‘The Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding
• ‘Propping up the Line’ by Ian Beck
• ‘The Fly’ by Katherine Mansfield
• ‘Testament of Youth’ by Vera Brittain
• ‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke
• ‘In Flander’s Fields’ by John McCrea
• ‘The Gift of India’ by Sarojini Naidu
• ‘Small Island’ by Andrea Levy
• ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare
• A selection of fiction extracts and non-fiction articles and speeches in other units

Year 10 and Year 11

• ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell, or ‘Leave Taking’ by Winsome Pinnock
• ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare, or ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare
• ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson, or ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens
• AQA World and Lives Poetry Anthology, or AQA Power and Conflict Poetry Anthology, or AQA Love and Relationships Poetry Anthology, or Edexcel Belonging Anthology, or Edexcel Conflict Anthology, or Eduqas Poetry Anthology
• A range of fiction extracts and non-fiction articles and speeches throughout GCSE English Language units.
• A selection of poems for unseen study in ‘Unseen Poetry’

Do you provide phonics resources?

We do not provide systematic synthetic phonics as part of our curriculum as the DfE already validates phonics programmes for schools to use, but our English curriculum has been developed to sit alongside all of the available phonics providers. At key stage 1, we provide fewer lessons than the teaching time available so there is more curriculum time to teach phonics. This is particularly evident in year 1 because of the crucial role of phonics to this year group.

How do I use your handwriting resources?

Our handwriting lessons normally contain three learning cycles, with each learning cycle focused on a different letter. These lessons can be taught in a single lesson lasting 50 minutes to an hour, or split into three shorter, 15 minute lessons focused on one learning cycle. In key stage 1, it is preferable to do the latter, and teach each handwriting learning cycle separately to prevent pupils from becoming overloaded.

When and how do pupils read the book?

With shorter picture books in primary, pupils will read the text within the lesson. However, with longer books in primary it is expected that they are read outside of lesson time in class reader time. Some units, such as ‘When the sky falls: reading’ require pupils to have finished reading the book as the lessons focus on comprehension, understanding and thinking around the text. At secondary, pupils will read the book as a class during the lessons.