English & Citizenship

Citizenship is addressed by the English Department in many schemes of work covered at Key Stage 3. The following is a list of examples that identify where we target the key elements from the National Curriculum. Schemes of work are in the ERR. Students are given a document to put in their portfolios that helps them record where they have covered Citizenship issues in English.

• Reading, viewing and discussing texts that deal with different issues, and with relationships between groups and between the individual and society.
• Learning about the social, historical, political and cultural factors that shaped and influenced texts studied.

Year 7:
Youth Crime (The Runaways)
Advantages and disadvantages of home education (Skellig)

Year 8:
Youth Crime (Holes)
Friendship issues (Holes)
Poems from other cultures/scheme of work on a selection of prose, poetry and non-fiction on the theme of different cultures/slavery/equal rights/folklore/customs and traditions (Christmas Carol) looking at poverty in 19th Century/writing to organise a charity event/analysing text for moral issues of selfishness and greed/thinking of others

Year 9:
Awareness of homeless issues (Stone Cold)
Care of the old/death (The Granny Project)
The religious history and situation in Northern Ireland (Across the Barricades)
Morality and individual responsibility (Macbeth SATS)
Discussion on the subject of non-standard English/dialects/accents using poetry, autobiographies (Kes)

• Developing the ability to put forward a point of view, question, argue and discuss, adapting what you say to the needs of your audience and the effect you wish to achieve

Year 7:
Debates/individual presentations on fox hunting, smoking, drugs and animal rights issues

Year 8:
Discussions/formal debates on such topics as: capital punishment, the monarchy, disciplining children, boxing, abortion, euthanasia and privacy rights

Year 9:
Discussing and writing to argue; war against terrorism, gay bishops and homelessness. Individual talks by the students who went to Melbourne/visit of Australian students to speak to our students

• Critically evaluate what you her, read and view, paying attention to explicit and implied meanings, bias and objectivity, and fact and opinion

Discussion: dangers of advertising/Media bias in TV adverts and newspapers/Health & Safety - wearing sun lotion/skin cancer

• Become a competent user of spoken and written Standard English, enabling you to participate fully in the world beyone school, in public life and in decision making

Year 7 write and present a talk on a subject of their choice. All year groups fulfil a portfolio of written and speaking assignments that all require competent use of Standard English and prepare students for the world around them, eg. formal letter writing, writing newspaper articles, writing to argue, persuade, advise, review, describe, explain, inform, imagine etc

• Other Citizenship issues and opportunities that may arise in English Lessons

Years 7 & 8:
Discuss cultural differences between British Society and that of a visiting teacher from Sri Lanka/ Fair Trade chocolate poetry (whole school event).

| english homepage |