Year 7

As girls move into the Senior School, we seek to increase the sophistication of their reading and writing and help them to acquire a critical voice, as well as re-enforcing their creative enjoyment of literature.

Girls create and develop their own book groups, refining and monitoring their literary responses. In the first term all students will study A Christmas Carol and Black Harvest and look at a range of ghost literature; as well as learning about the principles of analysis of literature (both poetry and prose) and beginning to assess how a writer creates effect through language and form.

Girls will study a novel and a range of poetry from two anthologies: The Song Atlas and Painting with Words. Texts available for study throughout the year include My Family and Other Animals, Little Women, A Cue for Treason and Warrior Scarlet. Girls will also learn about the history of the language, with an exploration of Middle English texts; Gawain and The Green Knight and Chaucer's The General Prologue.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is studied in the Summer term. The development of grammatical skills is embedded into students' study throughout the year.

Girls will also learn library skills through a library lesson once every two weeks.

The Year 6-7 Book Group is an important extra-curricular resource for girls to develop their literary tastes.