KS3 & KS4 English curriculum

This unit uses and builds on pupils' understanding of fiction and creative writing from the Year 7 unit 'Step into the unknown'. In this unit, they build on their understanding of how writers create vivid descriptions by looking at how they utilise powerful imagery and symbolism to make their writing more impactful. This unit prepares pupils for a number of units, including their first reading of 'Animal Farm' in Key Stage 4. In 'Animal Farm', pupils will learn more about how symbolism and allegory can be used to carry powerful messages.

1. Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus: how the myth inspired the painting
2. Exploring William Carlos Williams’s poem ‘Landscape with the fall of Icarus’
3. Exploring W.H. Auden's poem 'Musée des Beaux Arts'
4. Exploring William Carlos Williams's poem 'The Hunters in the Snow'
5. Exploring Walter de la Mare's poem 'Brueghel's Winter'
6. Comparing poems: 'Brueghel's Winter' and 'The Hunters in the Snow'
7. Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shalott': understanding the ballad
8. Symbolism in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's ‘The Lady of Shalott’
9. Exploring enjambment in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's ‘The Lady of Shalott’
10. Descriptive writing using Lord Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shalott' as stimulus
11. Effective sensory language using ‘The Execution of Lady Jane Grey’ as stimulus
12. Third person omniscient writing: ‘The Execution of Lady Jane Grey’ as stimulus
13. Writing a full descriptive piece: ‘The Execution of Lady Jane Grey' as stimulus
14. Reviewing and refining descriptive writing: alliteration, plosives and sibilance
15. Natasha Bowen's ‘Skin of the Sea’: understanding the extract
16. Writing inspired by ‘Skin of the Sea’: varying sentence types to create rhythm
17. Use of flashback in Natasha Bowen's 'Skin of the Sea'
18. Geoffrey Chaucer's ‘The Canterbury Tales’: compelling characterisation
19. Creating convincing characters using ‘The Canterbury Tales’ as stimulus
20. Pat Barker's 'The Silence of the Girls': understanding the extract
21. Madeline Miller's 'The Song of Achilles': understanding the extract
22. Comparative paragraphs: 'The Silence of the Girls' and 'The Song of Achilles'
23. Hanan Al-Shaykh's ‘The Fisherman and the Jinni’: understanding the story
24. Exploring the theme of power in Hanan Al-Shaykh's ‘One Thousand and One Nights’
25. The five part narrative structure
26. Planning a narrative using the five part narrative structure
27. Writing a full narrative piece using the five part narrative structure
28. Improving and proofreading a piece of narrative writing