Skip to content ↓
The Jubilee Academy

The Jubilee Academy

English

Curriculum and Assessment Maps

KS3

KS4 Years 9-10

KS4 Year 11

Introduction/Course Overview:

All students at The Jubilee Academy receive innovative and engaging English lessons, and our Key Stage 3 curriculum is planned around creating a strong foundation for core literacy skills and preparation for GCSE examination in Key Stage 4. All lessons are differentiated to both support and challenge our students and progress is regularly assessed using a range of teacher assessments for reading, writing and speaking and listening. Students are also regularly required to assess their own learning and review their own progress towards their targets to encourage them to take ownership of their own learning.

Years 7/8 Key Stage 3 Curriculum:

Our Key Stage 3 schemes of work are designed to embed necessary skills for the reformed GCSE syllabus. Texts such as ‘Teacher’s Dead’ are used to maximally engage students whilst providing a firm basis for the development of reading, writing and spoken language skills. Students complete a broad range of activities, from creating their own newspaper reports and diary entries to designing comic strips and hot-seating characters.

Students study War Poetry, looking at the context, reflecting on historical information and interpreting poets’ representations of war. They also explore genre and themes such as stereotyping through the well-known modern film Shrek.

Year 9/10 Key Stage 4 Curriculum:

Our Key Stage 4 programme aids students in acquiring the knowledge and skills they need to sit their Eduqas Literature GCSE paper at the end of year 10. This allows students to focus on one exam per year, encouraging maximum engagement and motivation.

This GCSE in English Literature enables students to:

  • read a wide range of classic literature fluently and with good understanding, and make connections across their reading
  • read in depth, critically and evaluatively, so that they are able to discuss and explain their understanding and ideas
  • develop the habit of reading widely and often
  • appreciate the depth and power of the English literary heritage
  • write accurately, effectively and analytically about their reading, using Standard English
  • acquire and use a wide vocabulary, including the grammatical terminology and other literary and linguistic terms they need to criticise and analyse what they read.

year 11 KS4 Curriculum:

The Year 11 course focuses on the preparation for the English Language GCSE building on skills developed in Year 10.* The syllabus covers a range of reading, writing and speaking and listening tasks that are outlined through the Eduqas GCSE specifications (Graded 9-1).

The aims of the GCSE English Language course are that students will:

  • read a wide range of texts, fluently and with good understanding
  • read critically, and use knowledge gained from wide reading to inform and improve their own writing
  • write effectively and coherently using Standard English appropriately
  • use grammar correctly, punctuate and spell accurately
  • acquire and apply a wide vocabulary, alongside a knowledge and understanding of grammatical and linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.

In addition, the GCSE English Language course enables learners to:

  • listen to and understand spoken language, and use spoken Standard English effectively.
  • Spoken language will be reported on as part of the qualification, but it will not form part of the final mark and grade.

*(Where students join The Jubilee academy in Year 11, they may take the GCSE Literature Paper in the summer series and suitable study will take place alongside the Language component preparation.)

Assessment:

Summary of Assessment - GCSE English Language

Unit title and description

Assessment and duration

Weighting

Component 1

20th Century Literature Reading and Creative Prose Writing

Written examination

1 hour 45 minutes

40%

Section A: Reading, 20% of the qualification

One extract (approximately 60-100 lines) of literature from the 20th century

Total marks: 40

Section B: Writing, 20% of the qualification

Prose Writing, One creative writing task selected from a choice of four titles

Total: 40 marks

Component 2

19th and 21st Century Non-Fiction Reading and Transactional / Persuasive writing

Written examination

2 hours

60%

Section A: Reading 30% of the qualification Two extracts (approximately 900-1200 words in total) of high-quality non-fiction writing from the 19th and 21st centuries

Total marks: 40

Section B: Writing 30% of the qualification Two compulsory transactional / persuasive writing tasks

Total marks: 40

Component 3

Spoken Language Non-examination assessment unweighted

Non-examination assessment

Unweighted

One presentation / speech, including responses to questions and feedback Spoken language will be reported on as part of the qualification, but it will not form part of the final mark and grade

 

Summary of Assessment - GCSE English Literature

Unit title and description

Assessment and duration

Weighting

Component 1

Shakespeare and Poetry

Written examination

2 hours

40%

Section A (20%) 

One extract question and one essay question based on the reading of a Shakespeare text ‘Macbeth’

Section B (20%)

Poetry from 1789 to the present day

Two questions based on poems from the WJEC Eduqas Poetry Anthology, one of which involves comparison

Component 2

Post-1914 Prose/Drama, 19th Century Prose and Unseen Poetry 

Written examination

2 hours 30 Minutes

60%

Section A (20%)

Post-1914 Prose/Drama

One source-based question on a post 1914 prose/drama text ‘An Inspector Calls’

Section B (20%)

19th Century Prose

One source-based question on a 19th century prose text ‘A Christmas Carol’

Section C (20%)

Unseen Poetry from the 20th/21st Century

Two questions on unseen poems, one of which involves comparison