What’s on the roadmap: Journey through Key Stage 3 with English Curriculum Expert and GCSEPod Trailblazer, Jo Heathcote

Jo, what are your experiences of KS3 and what have you seen in your setting, or more widely?

For me, English at Key Stage 3 is an adventure. It’s a journey which leads students to the parameters of Key Stage 4 and examination specifications but with very few restrictions on us as practitioners. There is a real freedom for us at Key Stage 3. In that sense, it opens up so many possibilities to be creative and imaginative and make English purposeful, but also exciting and engaging for our students.

It’s a balancing act between ensuring the curriculum isn’t too difficult for some students to conceptualise fully, whilst creating breadth and challenge. All departments are now much more conscious of increasing diversity - but that can be challenging in terms of budgets for new texts and time to create resources.

Many departments I visit are struggling with the recruitment and retention of staff. This can significantly impact on Key Stage 3, with subject specialists focusing, as we might expect, on Key Stage 4, so that creates a delivery need at Key Stage 3, too.

I also feel that at times writing and the writing process can take second place to reading in the Key Stage 3 curriculum. Yet, this is such an important way for students to learn to express themselves and become confident communicators.

"I kept all those observations in mind when I was asked to map the KS3 English Curriculum for you at GCSE Pod. It was such an exciting opportunity, a real privilege." 

In your opinion, what could and should be delivered at KS3?

I think it’s important to consider the students first: Where they are at and where they need to be. We definitely should be looking at covering a wide range of skills and knowledge and a diverse and engaging range of texts at Key Stage 3, but there must be the time to cover those different aspects properly. That’s where this resource [GCSEPod] is so beneficial in my opinion. It creates so much variety and opportunity but in such manageable time slots - also perfect for homework or for non-specialist colleagues to facilitate.

I feel that we need to allow students access to texts that will engage them - yes, classic texts are important as part of our English literary heritage - but there is so much quality writing for older children and young adults available, I feel it’s an imperative to introduce students to that. That’s how we develop confident and engaged readers who become critical thinkers and strong communicators.

Our delivery should include time to engage with texts thoroughly, but also creatively. Time to explore ideas, themes, and issues meaningfully through discussion. Time to foster wider reading, and time for students to write, perform, and express their own individuality. 

What would you say is the value of a good KS3 curriculum, what would a utopian KS3 look like?

For me, on a practical level, a good Key Stage 3 curriculum steps seamlessly into Key Stage 4. It establishes all the skills a student will need so that Key Stage 4 becomes an enjoyable experience, not a constant pressure and a race against time, with an exam as the looming outcome.

It builds confidence in comprehension skill and teaches analysis meaningfully using terminology as a useful shorthand. It gives lots of opportunities for linked writing.

A utopian Key Stage 3 would meet students where they are at and would lack pretentiousness. By that, I mean it doesn’t pander to what particular voices consider to be ‘good for us’.

It embeds diversity and ‘sees’ the students themselves, allowing for many texts, many voices and many creative outcomes.

It would encourage and foster a love of reading and demonstrate that poetry is not a genre to be afraid of, but one that is inclusive. It would recognise the work of dramatists and the importance of texts in performance. It would encourage students to embrace the art and craft of writing and see it as enjoyable, a form of self-expression and not a chore.

More than anything, it would also be a means of connection, a way of joining the dots with the wider curriculum. English as a subject has the unique ability to make meaningful connections across the curriculum.

The texts we study and the topics we ask students to write about link to the wider world, to the past, to places, to discoveries, to issues, to experiences.

That is something we can really make the most of and is, or should be, one of the true joys of English teaching.

Can you tell us about how you shaped our GCSEPod content to support in delivering a positive KS3 learning experience?

Well, first of all, I was really excited by the thought of this project, and I wanted to do something very, very different than has been done before or has been seen elsewhere. One of the things which I wanted to address - as well as all of the ideas mentioned above - was of contextualising texts for students.

"One of my pet hates is when context is taught for a text in a ‘death by Powerpoint’ didactic fashion. Rather than choosing texts which would be difficult for students to contextualise, I sought to make direct links with their other Humanities subjects. History and Geography, for example, have very specific topics that are taught at Key Stage 3" 

History draws on very distinct time periods in chronological order. In this brand-new curriculum map, I sought to make the topics and texts covered in English directly match with the learning experiences students will have had in their other Humanities subjects.

For example, in Year 8 History, students learn explicitly about the Industrial Revolution and Child Labour, so our English Unit is called ‘Please sir: I want some more.’ I had a lot of fun coming up with the titles for each unit.

However, I didn’t make it easy for the writing team either! I was determined to introduce more diverse texts and new fiction, poetry and non-fiction into the plans, so as well as extracts from the classics, you will find contemporary young adult fiction in this unit too.

Across the Year 7 units in a logical sequence, you’ll find students exploring their own language roots, making steppingstones into exploring medieval kingdoms via fantastic stories, before exploring the world of Shakespeare.

Year 9 allows us to explore more mature, age-appropriate themes and ideas. Again, this directly link to the eras and topics studied across the curriculum, such as the civil rights movement and ideas about migration from Geography. Here, students will have the opportunity for an introduction to a real breadth of diverse texts you won’t see elsewhere and opportunities to craft their own writing in individual voices, from dystopian narratives to performance poetry.

Mindful of the need for clear progression, I’ve curated the lessons into secure opportunities to Read and interpret texts using prose; Explore and expand your knowledge using poetry and drama; then Create and improve your accuracy with a writing opportunity.

Every unit is also underpinned by the trademark Check and Challenge style questions consolidating learning in each lesson which provides meaningful feedback for progress, too, with stretch activities and suggestions included.

I’m now really excited to see what the writing team and the fantastic technical team have made of the initial map. I feel certain this will stimulate lots of creative thinking in departments for Key Stage 3 English provision too.  

Unlock the Full Potential of Key Stage 3 with GCSEPod!​ 

Discover a game-changing resource designed to revolutionise your teaching approach and enhance student learning at Key Stage 3. 

An overview of our updated features and benefits: 

• Transition assessments for English and maths for incoming Year 7 cohorts. Completely self-marking maths assessments and partially self-marking English assessments, with marking support provided for written answers, these assessments will save teachers valuable time and provide an accurate view of knowledge and ability at the start of KS3.
• Structured content in a course format that actively engages students, with quick knowledge checks throughout the lesson, and formative assessment to test deeper understanding.
• End of unit assessments that will flag need for intervention to teachers.
• Mastery activities to stretch pupils learning and to practice application of the skills and knowledge learned.
• Introduction of course reporting, which will show a student’s progress throughout a course – assessment scores and the number of videos watched. Teachers will also be able to drill down and see answers to individual questions, to enable intervention where required.
• Content and assessment based on the principles of learning science, that is easily assigned, and supports in-classroom teaching.
• Perfect for independent learners, courses can be studied at a student’s individual pace or assigned as homework or in-class learning.
• Key vocabulary defined at the start of each lesson to prevent understanding of essential words being a barrier to learning.