Deeper reading, more purposeful writing.

Where we are heading

• Read appropriately demanding prose, whole short poems and short dramatic extracts accurately, repair a loss of meaning and distinguish explicit information from inference.
• Explain how carefully selected words, viewpoint, form and the order of information contribute to an interpretation, testing it against more than one detail.
• Connect a whole short story’s ending with earlier developments and follow selected Shakespeare scenes using factual plot bridges; distinguish a narrator, poetic speaker, character and author.
• Use a small body of relevant contextual knowledge to illuminate a text without replacing close reading or making unsupported claims about an entire period.
• Compare representations in two texts, represent competing positions fairly and distinguish a persuasive assertion from adequately supported reasoning.
• Plan, draft and revise a compact coherent narrative and a developed viewpoint for a defined audience; select detail and structure deliberately rather than accumulate devices.
• Maintain sentence boundaries, clear reference and tense; use subordination, contrast, direct speech and embedded quotations when they serve meaning.
• Retain and use taught general academic words and literary/grammatical terms in new contexts, including related word forms; explain meaning before relying on terminology.
• Use written feedback to make a demonstrable change and transfer a target to later independent work; explain a small number of substantive revisions with evidence.
• Show readiness for greater Year 9 text complexity and independence, with separate evidence about understanding/evidence, interpretation, vocabulary, sentence control, composition and revision; no GCSE grade is predicted from this map.

Your child’s starting point

Use the existing Week 1 pack, The Last Seat, independently before models or word teaching: literal understanding, inference supported by detail, change across the passage, a context word and a short new narrative. Record actual working time, assistance and completion. Read the separate post-baseline vocabulary practice only afterwards. If word reading or fluency prevents access, replace part of a subsequent lesson with a short teacher-reviewed oral-reading check and targeted practice; record that extra diagnostic separately from the baseline and do not infer a standardised reading age. Year 7 participation is not a prerequisite.

Support and stretch tasks replace part of the standard work. Plan for around 60 minutes of learning and practice, then 15–30 minutes to read and act on the feedback. Additional activities and wider reading are optional. The map guides teaching; feedback and, at GCSE, the confirmed exam specification determine the immediate priorities.