English

English concentrates on three key skills that your child needs to get the most out of all their learning at school - speaking and listening, reading and writing. During key stage 3, develop confidence in speaking and writing for public and formal purposes. They read classic and contemporary texts and explore the social and moral issues they raise.

1. Speaking and Listening

Children are taught to:

• speak and listen confidently in a wide variety of contexts
• adapt what they say and how they say it to different situations and people
• be articulate and fluent in their use of spoken standard English
• structure their speaking so that listeners can follow their line of argument clearly
• use techniques such as gesture, pace, anecdotes and visual aids to make their speaking lively and colourful
• take leading and other roles in group work
• play an active and helpful role in group discussions
• evaluate the contributions they, and others, have made to discussions and drama activities
• listen carefully, picking out the main points of what a speaker is saying as well as the details and any underlying meanings
• how to convey different emotions and moods through drama
• write and act in plays
• understand how language changes in different situations
• understand the development of the English language and its importance in the world
• understand the differences between speech and writing

At the end of Key Stage 3 (age 14), most children are able to:

• use standard English fluently in formal situations
• adapt the style of their speaking to suit different situations
• hold the interest of listeners by varying their vocabulary and expression
• take an active part in discussions while being sensitive to the opinions and feelings of other people
• take on and sustain a role in drama

2. Reading

Children are taught to:

• uncover different layers of understanding and meaning
• understand how writing can be open to different interpretations
• appreciate the full scope and richness of complete novels, plays and poems
• explore how writers make up characters and plots
• understand that the viewpoints of a character in a story may not necessarily be the same as the author's.
• compare different styles and themes in writing
• see how writing can be presented in different ways

Children study a wide range of plays, poems and books, both fiction and non-fiction, including:

• at least one play by Shakespeare
• plays by other important playwrights
• works of fiction and poetry from different times, including works by contemporary writers
• drama, fiction and poetry by writers from different cultures
• non-fiction writing

At the end of Key Stage 3 (age 14), most children are able to:

• find different layers of meaning in texts and comment on them
• discuss their views and feelings about works of literature
• refer to different aspects of a piece of writing to justify their views about it
• summarise information they have gathered from different sources

3. Writing

Children are taught how to:

• draw on their experience of fiction and non-fiction to compose their own stories, poems, scripts and reviews
• use different styles of writing to suit their purposes and to meet the needs of different readers
• develop their knowledge of grammar, spelling and punctuation
• proofread their work
• judge how successful their work is and redraft it accordingly

At the end of Key Stage 3 (age 14), most children are able to:

• structure their work clearly
• organise their ideas into paragraphs
• write in a way that captures the reader's interest
• write in different styles
• use different sentence structures and a varied vocabulary
• spell and punctuate their writing accurately
• write neatly and legibly, and present writing on screen