YEAR SEVEN CORE SUBJECTS PARENT SUPPORT EVENING English Department

PARTNERSHIP Teachers, parents and pupils… working together to ensure that your child is happy, secure and supported… and so is enabled to achieve their full academic potential at North Chadderton School.

Throughout Year Seven, pupils are exposed to a variety of challenging topics and texts, chosen to support excellent progress throughout the year. We would encourage you to discuss reading materials with your child to motivate their interest outside of the classroom setting. Autumn 1Autumn 2Spring 1Spring 2Summer 1Summer 2 Year 7 Culture and Identity Anita and Me Poetry from other cultures Epics and Myths Beowulf The Iliad and the Aeneid Greek Myths Archetypal characters Story structures Star Crossed Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare’s Sonnets Exploring War The Diary of Anne Frank The Mozart Question War Horse The Boy in Striped Pyjamas Grammar Year 1 The parts of speech: verbs, nouns, articles, adjectives, prepositions. Subject- verb agreement. Tense. The elements of a sentence. Simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences. Listing and bracketing commas. Topic sentences, paragraphs, introductions and conclusions. COURSE OUTLINE

ASSESSMENT IN ENGLISH In English, your child’s teacher will assess their standard at the end of every term using National Curriculum Sublevels. Just as in primary school, a sublevel ‘a’ (e.g. 5a) would mean that your child has a secure understanding of the concepts and skills required at that particular National Curriculum Level. A sublevel ‘c’ would mean that your child is only just starting to develop an understanding of some of the concepts and skills required at that Level. A sublevel ‘b’ would represent an intermediate standard somewhere in between an ‘a’ and a ‘c’.

We expect that pupils make a minimum of two sublevels’ progress over the course of an academic year. Using your child’s termly assessment and their CAT predictions together, we will be able to identify whether your son/daughter is on target to achieve their end of year targets. Where your child is underachieving, we will share this information with both you and your child and offer suitable support strategies to help them improve and achieve their full potential. ASSESSMENT IN ENGLISH

ENGLISH ASSESSMENT MILESTONES Year 7: Autumn 1 Homework Project set: Culture and Identity APP 1: Culture and Identity READING HOMEWORK SPELLING HOMEWORK Core assessment: Culture and Identity READING HOMEWORK SPELLING HOMEWORK Homework Project due and assessed: Culture and Identity READING HOMEWORK Feedback in English (the marking of class work and homework) uses: WWW (What Went Well; strengths shown) EBI (Even Better If; a target for future work) Show me (a task to consolidate skills and understanding) This FORMATIVE feedback takes place every two weeks. In addition to this, levelled feedback is given on a regular basis on key tasks and end of unit assessments. The Autumn 1 schedule gives an example of this process.

YEAR SEVEN HOMEWORK Year 7 pupils are set half-termly home learning projects which provide a range of tasks for pupils to work on in the own time. These are typically set at the start of a new half term and the deadline is the beginning of the following half term. Pupils have access to this on the school VLE. Tasks will also be stapled into pupil planners. In addition to project-based homework, Year 7 have reading homework(using Accelerated Reader), spelling lists and grammar tasks to support their basic literacy skills. All pupils will be provided with a homework book, a spelling book, a literacy and grammar workbook and a home learning folder.

ACCELERATED READER AR is a trusted programme used in schools across the country to motivate and inspire young readers. It gives pupils advice on the right books for pupils to read according to reading age and ability. AR has been proven to raise literacy standards amongst students of all ages and abilities from Years 7 to 13. Pupils who take part should develop a lifelong love of reading.

HOW ACCELERATED READER WORKS After completing a STAR Reading test, Accelerated Reader will work out your child’s Reading Age and Reading Level. This tells you and your child the kinds of books that they should be reading (according to level of challenge). Pupils can then go to the School Library and pick out books according to their level. All of the fiction books in the library have stickers on the spine and in the cover. Pupils can use these to guide their reading. After reading a book, pupils complete an online quiz and achieve progress points. Quiz No The Lake of Souls Shan, Darren B.L.: 5.9 Points: 8.0 Stickers on the spine show the book level (B.L.) Stickers on the inside of the cover provide information on the Quiz No and Points available

SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD IN AR All parents have been provided with a password to AR; all details are on your AR letter. This service allows you to check your child’s Reading Age, AR Level and progress on the scheme (how many books read, words read, quizzes passed etc). You can also use the service to request quizzes for books your child has read that are not currently quizzed.

AVAILABLE SUPPORT Homework Club Reading Club Writing Club Catch-Up Literacy

Literacy Targets LITERACY TARGETS/MARKING CODES V use ambitious/topic specific vocabulary C use an appropriate connective to link sentences and paragraphs CAPS use capital letters correctly O vary your sentence openers P punctuation contractions correctly SP spell common homophones correctly SS use a variety of sentence structures P use apostrophe for possession correctly // use paragraphs to organise your ideas

Literacy Lessons All KS3 pupils will have a fortnightly literacy and library lesson. Please encourage your child to discuss the book they are reading as part of the Accelerated Reading Programme.

We hope you found this evening’s session informative, helpful and welcoming. Thank you for coming.