Oxford Smart

Curriculum Service
English
 Introduction to the Oxford Smart
Curriculum Service for English
Curriculum intent and pillars in English
Curriculum intent
The Oxford Smart Curriculum Service connects content, pedagogy, assessment and data
to deliver a coherent and responsive learning experience. The curriculum has been built
on a strong foundation of pedagogical research and will generate its own evidence and
impact from experts, educators and learners. Over time, this portfolio of evidence will inform
and inspire future curriculum evaluation and development, supported by a programme of
Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Oxford Smart English is aligned to and develops the skills and knowledge essential for
accessing the KS3 and KS4 National Curriculum for English. Data insights and research
help teachers to understand their learners’ progress and misconceptions, and assessments
provide next steps to ensure learner progression.
At the heart of Oxford Smart English are high quality, diverse texts that support all
learners and enable them, and teachers, to experience the awe and wonder of learning.

Curriculum pillars in English

The Oxford Smart Curriculum for English is underpinned by six core curriculum pillars.

 rovide clear curriculum pathways within subjects as well as improve

P
coherence across subjects. The scope and sequence of the curriculum
content are informed by a sound body of pedagogical research,
Coherence insights from schools, and assessment data.
• Oxford Smart English has been carefully sequenced to build on the
skills and knowledge from KS2, to support progress across KS3 and
KS4, and to lay the foundations for further study and employment. The
skills and knowledge needed are clearly identified and revisited across
the curriculum, building on what students have learnt and ensuring that
students understand what they are learning and why they are learning it.

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 • Choices provided within the curriculum allow teachers to tailor it to the needs
of their students, while remaining confident that they are still covering the
essential skills and knowledge needed for success.


Hold equally high expectations, aspirations and ambitions for all
learners. Identify strengths and opportunities for challenge and also
address learning ‘gaps’ resulting from transition or disrupted learning.
High
expectations • Throughout Oxford Smart English there is a focus on English as a distinct
discipline, building on what students have learned at KS2 and exploring
what is different about English at KS3 and KS4.
• Challenging texts, concepts and ideas are introduced to students in an
accessible way through a thematic approach in the supporting student
materials.
• Paper-based and digital assessments provide purposeful formative
assessment, identifying both strengths and areas for development for all
students.

 o deliver responsive teaching and learning, curriculum, assessment,

T
lessons and resources need to be planned coherently – this supports
meaningful feedback and next steps.
Responsive • Across Oxford Smart English, skills and knowledge are revisited in fresh
teaching and
learning and different ways, and in different contexts, to help with intervention and
enable teachers to support students where needed.
• Regular low-stakes assessments test students’ knowledge and help to
identify any misconceptions and gaps in understanding. Next steps will be
automatically generated to support or extend students’ learning.
• Areas of improvement for learners are identified through use of the
curriculum, which directly feeds into iterative improvement of the
curriculum and its resources.


Support engaged, self-regulated and metacognitive learning. Equip
learners to succeed with a long-lasting understanding of learning
techniques and strategies, and the ability to utilise them facilitating the
Metacognitive
learning
development of independence and resilience.
• Metacognitive strategies are embedded throughout Oxford Smart English
to promote student independence and develop self-regulated learners, and
students are encouraged to become self-aware during the reading, writing,
speaking and listening processes.

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 • On-demand CPD videos and resources are provided to help teachers to
successfully implement metacognitive strategies in an English context.


Engender learners’ confidence, self-awareness and pride in their own
identity; promote understanding of inclusion and difference; foster the
Learner
identity
ability to recognise and manage emotions with a focus on wellbeing.
• Oxford Smart English aims to develop students’ identities as readers, writers
and communicators, encouraging them to draw on their own contexts,
knowledge and ideas.
• Students will encounter a diverse and representative selection of texts,
writers, themes and issues that reflect, challenge and broaden their
understanding.
• A choice of source texts provides teachers with the opportunity to tailor
their lessons to meet the needs of their students.

Inspires learners with a love of learning, unlocking joy, fascination and

wonder in themselves and the world around them.
Awe and
wonder
• Oxford Smart English is based around ‘Big Questions’ that help to engage
students with concepts that are central to the study of English language and
literature, while encouraging and stimulating debate and ideas.
• The source texts around which the curriculum is structured have been
chosen in order to unlock new worlds and offer insights into alternative
experiences. Along with the themes and topics covered, they will help
students to build their hinterland knowledge and discovery of self.
• Suggestions for class readers and further reading are provided to help
expand students’ knowledge and boost their wider understanding of texts
and the world around them.

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 Coherence across the curriculum
The Oxford Smart Curriculum Service is a fully comprehensive and responsive curriculum
for learners from age 11–16 and their teachers designed around a rich and expanded
interpretation of curriculum that incorporates pedagogy, assessment, CPD, data and
evaluation. The resources, assessment and CPD components work seamlessly together to
support teachers to deliver the best for their learners.

Coherence in the Oxford Smart Curriculum for English has been implemented through:
• the sequencing of concepts, knowledge and skills across the curriculum,
resources, assessment, and professional development in order to build on what
students have studied at KS2 and ensure progress across KS3 and KS4
• components that work together to enable learners to develop and consolidate
knowledge and skills, enabling them to practise and apply their learning, and
make connections
• support to diagnose learner strengths and weaknesses, the misconceptions
that are being held and learning gaps, and enabling easy interventions with
relevant teaching or resources.

As part of the Oxford Smart Curriculum Service, Oxford Smart Quest provides a
complete 11-14 curriculum, with extensive support for learners of all attainments, as well as
experienced and non-specialist teachers.

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 Assessment framework
The Oxford Smart Curriculum Service for English is structured around learning
objectives and learning outcomes: what the students need to know and how they can
demonstrate that.
Regular low-stakes assessments help to ensure that students are secure in their knowledge
and understanding, before moving on to the next topic. Auto-marked mini-checkpoint
quizzes provide teachers with accessible real-time data on student understanding and
provide students with automatically assigned support or extension work, based on their
individual scores, saving teachers valuable time. In addition, more holistic skills assessments,
based on the skills assessment framework, will allow teachers to record and track the
progress of all students. The skills assessment framework builds on knowledge and skills
from KS2, looks ahead to the demands of KS4, and is divided into the three connected
areas of English: reading, writing, and speaking and listening. It will allow teachers to assess,
record and track the progress of all students.
These regular assessments help to identify and assess where students are developing,
secure and extending in their knowledge and skills.
• Developing: learners at this stage are working towards secure knowledge and
understanding but need more support to achieve this. For students who are
deemed to be developing, we have provided additional support to help them
to progress to a secure level.
• Secure: learners at this stage have a secure knowledge and understanding;
this is the aspiration for all learners to achieve, prior to moving on to the
next topic. For students who are deemed secure in their knowledge, we have
also provided extending content designed to deepen that knowledge and
understanding.
• Extending: learners at this stage are working beyond age-related expectation, and
their knowledge and understanding can be stretched and challenged.

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 KS3 Long-Term Curriculum Pathway
Year 7
Chapter
1 Texts All Around Us
• What is a text?
• How have language and texts evolved
over time?
• Whose voices have been heard and how
can you use your voice today?
2 Crime and Consequence
• What lies behind readers’ fascination with
crime?
• What makes a great detective?
• How has crime writing changed over
time?
3 Journeys and Discoveries
• How has English literature been shaped
by stories of journeys of discovery?
• How is character revealed by the
challenges and dangers faced?
• Why do we undertake journeys? How
can they help us to better understand
ourselves?
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Options for texts to read alongside
each chapter
• Rollercoaster: The Unforgotten Coat
• Super-Readable Rollercoaster: Out of the
Rubble
• Oxford Playscripts: Anansi
• Rollercoaster: Enola Holmes: The Case of
the Missing Marquess
• Super-Readable Rollercoaster: I am the
Minotaur
• National Theatre Playscripts: Emil and the
Detectives
• Rollercoaster: Boy, Everywhere
• Super-Readable Rollercoaster: Edgar &
Adolf
• National Theatre Playscripts: Treasure
Island
• RSC School Shakespeare: The Tempest
 KS3 Long-Term Curriculum Pathway
Year 8
Chapter Options for texts to read alongside
each chapter
1 Influence and Power • Rollercoaster: Ghost Boys
• Do you rely on your emotions or • Super-Readable Rollercoaster: Lightning
intelligence when making decisions? Strike
• How do writers/speakers appeal to • Oxford Playscripts: One of Us
an audience’s emotions when trying to
influence or persuade?
• Who are the influencers – both now and in
the past?
2 Terror and Wonder • Rollercoaster: Sawbones or A Monster
• How does fear fuel the imagination? Calls
• Are terror and wonder two sides of the • Super-Readable Rollercoaster: Dark Peak
same coin? • Oxford Playscripts: Flesh and Blood
• How has Gothic fiction shaped English
literature over the past 250 years?
3 Wild Places and Urban Landscapes • Rollercoaster: Scavengers
• How have different landscapes and • RSC School Shakespeare: A Midsummer
cityscapes inspired writers’ imaginations? Night’s Dream
• How have writers expressed ideas about • Oxford Playscripts: The Garbage King
the relationship between humans and
their environment?
• How do writers explore the spaces in
between?

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 KS3 Long-Term Curriculum Pathway
Year 9
Chapter Options for texts to read alongside
each chapter
1 Truth and Lies • Rollercoaster: The Skin I’m In
• What is the news and what makes a good • Oxford Playscripts: Billy Liar or The
journalist? Crucible
• How can we recognise truth from lies? • RSC School Shakespeare: The Tempest
• How has the way news is gathered
and distributed affected language use,
presentation, objectivity?
2 Utopia and Dystopia • Rollercoaster: Noughts and Crosses
• Can the perfect society ever exist? • Oxford Playscripts: Noughts and Crosses
• Is one person’s utopia another person’s
dystopia?
• How have utopias and dystopias been
depicted in fiction?
3 Youth and Age • Rollercoaster: Half a Creature from the
• Does age bring wisdom or do the young Sea
see the world more clearly? • Super-Readable Rollercoaster: Rat
• How do writers comment on adult • National Theatre Playscripts: War Horse
experiences through the more innocent • RSC School Shakespeare: Romeo and
eyes of a child? Juliet
• How has the ‘coming-of-age’ genre
developed over time?

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