British English CC

Reflecting on 'The Final Year'

English

Introducing the context of 'The Final Year'

Exploring characterisation in 'The Final Year'

Reading and responding to poems from 'The Final Year'

Exploring emotions in 'The Final Year'

In this unit, pupils read and explore the verse novel, 'The Final Year'. They will read and respond to the poems, exploring characterisation and relationships within the story. Finally, pupils will identify the key themes and share their personal responses.

'The Final Year': reading

Immoral behaviour or minor criminal offences, e.g. shoplifting, graffiti.

Depiction or discussion of upsetting content

Subjects which particular individuals may be sensitive to, eg, adoption, migration, bereavement or death, divorce, poverty, deprivation.

Depiction or discussion of sensitive content

Depiction or discussion of distress or humiliation e.g. bullying.

Depiction or discussion of peer pressure or bullying

Match the keywords to the correct definitions.

In the playground, a ball hits Nate and PS and Turner “snigger” at him.

The class start reading ‘Skellig’ and Nate gets “hooked”.

Dylan gets rushed to hospital and no one knows whether he will be okay.

Mr Joshua tells Nate he’s “proud” to know him and gives him a copy of ‘Skellig’.

Put the following events from Part 5 of ‘The Final Year’ in chronological order.

True or false? Themes are explicitly stated within a text.

Select the themes that may be inferred from 'The Final Year'.

Nate experiences intense feelings of love, anger and pain.

Characters experience self-discovery, change and self-expression.

Nate is very close with his mum, brothers and Auntie San.

Match the theme to how it is conveyed in the text.

True or false? Everyone will have the same take-away ideas from reading a text.

‘The Final Year’ is illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton.

The poems in the text are mainly written in free verse.

The poems are all written in standard English.

Nate is in his first year of secondary school.

Select the statements about 'The Final Year' that are true.

What does Nate call his inner emotions that he finds hard to control?

What does Nate do to control "The Beast"?

True or false? Matt Goodfellow uses the same layout for all the poems in the text.

He encourages him to express himself through music.

He encourages him to express himself through reading and writing.

He encourages him to just ignore difficult feelings and move on.

How does Mr Joshua encourage and support Nate?

Which text is Nate introduced to in Year 6?

This lesson will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Reflecting on 'The Final Year'

Lesson outcome

Content guidance

This lesson will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.