Our English Department Mission…

Inspired by the teachings of Don Bosco, our mission is to cultivate well-rounded English scholars by the end of KS4/5, equipping them with a robust set of skills and qualities essential for both academic success and personal growth.

We aim to develop students who:

• Show a genuine enthusiasm for English and reading, appreciating a wide range of genres and forms.
• Communicate effectively both in writing and orally, with technical accuracy and a rich vocabulary.
• Write proficiently across various forms and structures, tailored to different purposes and audiences.
• Think critically and with empathy, understanding and addressing diverse global issues.
• Demonstrate strong listening and debating skills, articulating their ideas with clarity and confidence.
• Approach challenging learning experiences with resilience, creativity, and imagination.
• Exhibit an inquisitive, reflective, and ambitious mindset, fostering independence in their learning journey.

Guided by Don Bosco’s emphasis on creating “good Christians and honest citizens”, our curriculum and our teaching is dedicated to nurturing these attributes. We strive to ensure our students leave as insightful, capable, and passionate individuals ready to engage with the world thoughtfully, embodying the spirit of compassion and intellectual curiosity that Don Bosco championed.

Key Stage 3 Overview

The aim of English at KS3 is to extend students’ knowledge of the world and its literature. Students are guided through classic texts from English literary heritage alongside a range of contemporary poetry, novels and plays. Through regular writing challenges they learn to become expressive, creative and precise in the use of the written word. In addition, we are committed to developing students’ oracy skills through discussion, debate and individual presentations.

 

Year 7 - Identity and Beliefs

The Year 7 English curriculum at Thornleigh focuses on identity and beliefs and how these are communicated through literature and creative writing. These stories may be from those with similar experiences to them, or from different backgrounds entirely as the students begin to explore and examine the world in which they live and their place within it.

• Myths and Legends
  Within this unit, students explore myths and legends from around the world to see how they influence the society they live in and the stories they know. Initially, students focus on Ancient Greek myths and legends that have influenced European society, considering the stories of Medusa, Pandora’s Box and Persephone. Students then cast their gaze to other parts of the world, looking at myths and legends from England to as far away as Polynesia to better understand the world in which they live.
   
• Fairy Tales
  Fairy tales are the foundation of so many stories that our students will go on to read and study in their lives, and here students have the opportunity to look in more depth at texts like Hansel and Gretel, or learn a new way of looking at an old favourite, such as Cinderella. Our students really begin to develop their critical lens here too, as they start to consider how gender influences the stories that shape our society.
   
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  Students start their high school journey of studying Shakespeare by looking at this magical comedy by the great bard. Looking at the conventions of a comedy and the role that fairies have to play in the plot, students think about how these plays could be staged in the Globe Theatre, past and present.
   
• Identities
  Students begin to consider how identities are created, and what the term ‘identity’ means to them, through poetry, how people speak and how they represent their identities in their own writing through autobiographies.
   
• Iconic Speeches
  Through some of the most famous speeches in the English language, students look at how history affects society and how their own voices can cause change as they create their own influential speech on something important to them.
   
• The Bone Sparrow
  Our Year 7 students read a full novel in their English lessons, looking at the important themes and ideas that appear in Zana Fraillon’s The Bone Sparrow. They consider the construction of the novel, and how the ideas that appear are relevant to their own lives and experiences, and the world around them.
   

Year 8 - Right and Wrong

In Year 8, our students continue to explore and develop their belief systems as they consider what is right and wrong. Students look at a range of texts from different eras to consider how morality has evolved and how our reasonings have evolved along with it.

• Gothic Literature
  Students will study a collection of extracts from famous gothic texts including Frankenstein, The Woman in Black and Dracula to establish conventions of the genre and apply a gothic style to their own creative writing.
   
• Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
  Building on their understanding of Shakespeare and the conventions of comedy from ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’, students will read Romeo and Juliet and study the drastic change that play takes into the realm of tragedy. By looking at the issues that Romeo and Juliet face, our students will be able to read empathetically and increasingly consider what is right and wrong in emotional situations.
   
• Blood Brothers
  After reading Romeo and Juliet and understanding the divide of the families, students here will look at how the twins are separated in Blood Brothers and how they decide what is right and wrong for different people and their beliefs. Through reading Blood Brothers, students will develop their skills for analysing drama and will consider dramatic techniques such as dramatic irony and symbolism.
   
• Noughts and Crosses
  Often referred to as a modern classic of our time, one which The Guardian claims will ‘will make you cry, laugh and cry some more’,  Noughts and Crosses is our Year 8 novel which will take students on an emotional rollercoaster. As students read the novel, they will deepen their understanding of what is considered wrong and right within society and develop a more evaluative approach to Literature.
   
• Crime Literature

In this unit, students encounter and develop an understanding of the genre of crime and mystery. They will study a selection of prose and poetry, considering how the crime genre has changed and developed over time.

 

Year 9 - Individual and Society

Our Year 9 curriculum builds upon the themes of our Year 7 and Year 8 curriculum by bringing together identity and beliefs, morality and choices, and considering how those beliefs can be manipulated, oppressed or adapted when part of a larger society.

• Dystopian Fiction
  Students will study an assortment of extracts from across the genre of dystopia, identifying key conventions and searching for inspiration for their own creative writing. Taking in all types of dystopian fiction from the classic 1984 by George Orwell, to more contemporary blockbuster dystopian worlds like ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘Ready Player One’ and ‘I Am Legend’.
   
• Animal Farm
  With a greater focus on socio-historical knowledge and how this impacts our understanding of a text, students explore authorial intent and allegory in Orwell’s classic novel.
   
• Write like a…
  Grounded in ‘real world’ application, students explore up to four different disciplines of writing: Journalism, Screenwriting, Poetry Writing and Comedy Writing. Students will create their own portfolios of written work in response to ‘real world’ briefs and style guides preparing them for future careers as writers.
   
• A View from the Bridge
  Students complete a full read through of this modern drama, exploring the idea of family and masculinity and how this can impact the individual.
   
• KS4 Transition - War and Words
  Students will study and analyse a range of war poems, letters, diary entries and experiences from both historic and modern-day wars. This unit includes some poetry from the Eduqas Poetry Anthology and a range of contemporary poems and articles about conflict.