Talk to me about Year 7 English

[Dancergirl]

Dd is in Year 7 at an indie selective girls' school. I have been v happy with the school so far but I am a little disappointed with the English tuition and wondered what the norm is.

She has had 3 different teachers so far; the first one went on long term sick leave, second one was a v academic man but not necessarily a good teacher. I was told he would be taking them for the rest of the year but at the end of last term dd said they had yet another new teacher!

They have only studied 3 books so far - Why the whales came by Michael Morpurgo, Greek myths and they have just finished The Boy in the striped pyjamas. Bearing in mind they break up on 5th July and some of this term is taken up with exams etc, that doesn't leave much time for doing a lot more.

Would you expect more books to have been covered in Year 7?

Also, they haven't been taught any grammar. I am aware of grammar targets for both KS3 and KS4, don't they teach it in schools any more?

That is exactly the sort of list, breadsandbutterfly,I'd love school to encourage DD2 with. She won't read anything I suggest and is rereading twilight again.

DD1 reads teen fantasy of all types, I think she might like TP, she read HGTG. She's dyslexic and finds real literature very heavy going as do I.

School doesn't help because the syllabuses are so fixated on a very few exam set books they do year after year that the staff are totally fed up too. Of mice and men and Lord of the Flies are utterly depressing surely there are better less dated and more inspiring novels out there.

I'm a scientist I read fiction either to escape, or to learn something about a different culture or a different period of history. As a teen I fell in love with James Clavel's Shogun with did both. Compared with that the set books seem totally lacking in imagination.