Key Stage 3
In Year 7 and 8 English, we foster in our pupils a love of reading and give them the tools they need to be competent, confident writers. Our curriculum is designed to cover a broad range of fiction, non fiction and poetry from classic to contemporary. Pupils have three main curriculum lessons a week and two skills lessons; this is to ensure that pupils are equipped with the necessary expertise to both enjoy the subject and achieve exam success.
We have high expectations of our pupils as learners and expect engagement outside the classroom as well as inside. Each week, we encourage daily reading at home, vocabulary activities on the online Bedrock programme and revision of a key spelling, punctuation or grammar skill.
In Years 7 and 8, we following a thematic curriculum; this underpins our constant rotation of fiction, non fiction and poetry, allowing breadth and depth in terms of the content that we study. As an example, two of our thematic units are ‘Heroes and Villains’ and ‘Love and Relationships,’ but within each of these, pupils study them through the lens of fiction, non fiction and poetry. In essence, whilst we are proud that our curriculum is engaging, it is also underpinned by a clear framework of knowledge that we would expect our pupils to have acquired when they commence their Year 9 studies.
Alongside our thematic curriculum, for two periods a week, we also teach the core knowledge required to read and write accurately and with flair. Based on reading age and grammar test data, we place pupils on one of two pathways: Core and Mastery. In our Core pathway, pupils revisit the fundamentals of grammatical and punctuation knowledge, and in our Mastery pathway, pupils consolidate and move into more challenging concepts that will underpin their reading and writing.
For further information on KS3 English at Kettlethorpe, please contact Lead Teacher Miss Sophie Joyce at sjoyce@nullkettlethorpe.wakefield.sch.uk
You can support your child by:
- ensuring they complete their Bedrock Learning lessons (two per week)
- ensuring they have read a minimum of 20 minutes per day and recorded this in their Accelerated Reader log book
- supporting them with their weekly spelling and grammar exercises
discussing and encouraging them to read books from our recommended KS3 list here