Preparing for Next Year - What we do.

Useful Guide for Parents Old and New - HEY STAGE 3

“What is the National Curriculum for England and why does it matter to parents?”

The National Curriculum:

• sets out the most important knowledge and skills that every student has a right to learn;
• is a framework designed so that all students are taught in a way that is balanced and manageable, but hard enough to challenge them;
• gives standards that measure how well students are doing in each subject - so teachers can plan to help them do better.

The National Curriculum isn’t just for teachers and schools: it belongs to everyone. This guide will help you understand it, so you can help your child as they continue their journey.

 

“I don’t always follow talk about year 7, key stage, National Curriculum, tests and levels. How does it all work?”

The National Curriculum says when things should be taught by describing broad ‘key stages’.

Key stages are blocks of years:

• Key stage 3 covers National Curriculum learning in years 7 to 9.
• Key stage 4 covers National Curriculum learning in years 10 and 11.

Key stage 3 - teaching for students in years 7 to 9

These years of your child’s time at school are called key stage 3.

At the end of each key stage, each National Curriculum subject has a target: your child should have reached a particular level of skills, knowledge, understanding and application, though many students will go beyond the National Curriculum targets.

‘Why have targets and tests?’

• Students get a sense of achievement from reaching each milestone in their learning, and going beyond it.
• Teachers use them to check on students’ progress, so that they can match their teaching to each student’s needs and abilities.
• The school uses them as part of ongoing quality assurance and self-evaluation processes. We can get a picture of where we are doing well as a school and where there may be problems which we need to tackle.

Of course, some students may not make as much progress as others and some have special educational needs.

As a parent or carer, you have a very important role to play in helping your child learn. Some parents are afraid of doing the wrong thing. (If you are unsure about how to help, you can always ask your child’s teachers.)

The most important things you can do are:

• take an interest in what your child is learning at school, and encourage them to tell you about it;
• praise them when they have done well;
• give them a quiet space to do their homework.

There are other things you can do, too: this guide gives ideas and tips about homework, revision and how to develop your child’s thinking skills. Don’t feel you have to do all of them, but any you can do will support your child’s learning.

English

Why do we teach English?

English concentrates on four key skills that your child needs to get the most out of all their learning at school - speaking clearly, listening closely, reading carefully and writing fluently. English helps students express themselves creatively and boosts their confidence about speaking in public and writing for others. Students read classic and contemporary prose, poetry and drama from around the world, look closely at the way writers use language and explore the social and moral issues they raise.

Teaching for every student

Students are taught:

Speaking and listening

They speak to different audiences, adapting their style to suit the audience and the purpose of what they are saying. They structure their speaking so that listeners can follow their line of argument clearly, using techniques such as pace, gesture, anecdotes and visual aids to make their speaking colourful and lively. They learn how to listen carefully, picking out the main points of what a speaker is saying as well as the details and any underlying meanings. They play an active and helpful role in group discussions. They learn how to convey different emotions and moods through drama, and write and act in plays. They learn about how language changes in different situations, about the development of the English language and its importance in the world, and about the differences between speech and writing.

 

Reading

Students studying English at this age read a wide range of plays, poems and books, both fiction and non-fiction, including:

• at least one play by Shakespeare;
• plays by other 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 (for example, diaries, travel writing and science writing).

Students learn how to get more out of their reading at this age, uncovering different layers of meaning and understanding how writing can be open to different interpretations. They appreciate the full scope and richness of complete novels, plays and poems. They begin to explore how writers make up plots and characters, realising that the viewpoints of a character in a story may not necessarily be the same as the author’s.

They compare different styles and themes in writing from the English literary heritage and from different cultures. They look at how writing can be presented in different ways, exploring how the use of print, images and sometimes sound can affect how we read texts.

The non-fiction texts students study include information and reference texts, both in print and in electronic format such as web pages.

Students also look at how text can be presented in different kinds of media. For example, they may explore how words and images work together in magazines or television advertisements, or look at how a film based on a novel compares with the original text.

Writing

Students draw on their experience of good fiction and non-fiction to compose their own stories, poems, scripts, articles, brochures and reviews. They learn how to use different styles of writing to suit their purposes and to meet the needs of different readers. They develop their knowledge of grammar, spelling and punctuation, learning how to proof-read their work, judge how successful it is and redraft it accordingly. They write quickly and fluently, presenting their work neatly and clearly.

Targets for every student

Around age 14, most students are able to:

Speaking and listening

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

Reading

• 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 - such as structure and theme - to justify their views about it;
• summarise information they have gathered from different sources.

Writing

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

‘Learning English has helped me to read literature, analyse it and also write my own creative pieces. I still write creatively when I have a spare moment and I certainly read a lot. I find that I’m writing all the time at work. Learning English language helps you to communicate clearly, both in speech and on paper - and literature can bring people together: it crosses boundaries and gets people talking.’ Heidi Gilchrist, 24