What's happening in the English Curriculum?

This half term all of our Key Stage 3 students are studying poetry, a vitally important medium that directly links to several of our 'Big Ideas' in English, in particular how texts explore issues around identity and voice.

 Year 7 are being reviewing the fundamentals of poetry analysis through a focus on relationships, particularly family ones, while further developing their critical skills and understanding of meaning. Year 8, are studying a defining era of poetry in the English - Romanticism - and building a greater knowledge of context while exploring how values, social and historical attitudes often ideas.

Identity is a key theme of our Year 9 unit, where a more modern focus takes in texts from different cultures, exploring literature through a different lens by looking at poems such at 'Island Man', by renowned British Guyanese poet John Agard, that deals with issues of dual identity and migration.

 Our spiral curriculum deepens and develops these skills as preparation for GCSE and beyond. Assessment focuses on their critical, analytical skills in Year 7, their abilities to dissect unseen texts in YB while being able to compare different, difficult texts in Y9. Poetry is a challenging but immensely rewarding part of our English curriculum here at Bow.