YEAR GROUP QUICK LINKS
Key website content for Year 9
There’s a lot of content on the website now, so we’ve created these pages to give an overview of the key content for each year group. They’re not the only pages that are relevant, but they’re the ones you’ll want to see multiple times this year.
Key information for your Knowledge Checks
Glossary of terminology
You should look at this regularly to revise for your Knowledge Checks.Assessments in the current round
This page tells you what assessments are coming up soon; it also tells you exactly what terminology you need to learn for your next Knowledge Check.List of all the Year 9 terminology
This is just a reproduction of the list in your Progress Book, in case you need to check it when you don’t have your book.
Key information for your Skill Checks
Essay writing skill guides — this will be your focus at the start of the year
You should have fairly good understanding from Year 7 and 8, but here are some of the most important guides for you in Year 9.
Embedding and contextualising evidence guide 2 — 2nd guide in the 2-part series
You should be comfortable with the 1st guide in the series after Year 7 and 8.Making an argument guide 2 — 2nd guide in the 3-part series
You should be comfortable with the 1st guide in the series on, on PEA, after Year 7 and 8.Analysing language, form and structure guide 2 — 2nd guide in the series
You should be comfortable with the 1st guide in the series and what it means to analyse methods.Analysing language, form and structure guide 3 — 3rd guide in the series — NEW FOR YEAR 9!
You should be moving towards mastery of the fundamentals of this skill this year, so you should look at this guide, which you didn’t really need to worry about in Year 8.Linking analysis to big ideas guide
Well worth revising if you didn’t quite pick it up in Year 8 - it’s extremely important for GCSE.Linking analysis to context and the writer’s perspective — NEW FOR YEAR 9!
Creating a conceptualised response around a clear thesis — NEW FOR YEAR 9!
Creative writing skill guides - you’ll move onto this after Christmas
It’s all change this year, as you move from fiction writing to non-fiction writing. You’ll return to fiction writing again in Year 10. As such, all the skills are new to you, and they’ll be introduced in your lessons in the spring term. The guides you need are:
How to write argue/persuade non-fiction — NEW FOR YEAR 9!
You should read this one when you first start studying this unit.Writing an opening and matched closing for a given text text 1 - 1st guide in this 2 part series — NEW FOR YEAR 9!
Writing an opening and matched closing for a given text text 2 - 2nd guide in this 2 part series — NEW FOR YEAR 9!
Writing an opinion paragraph for a given text type — NEW FOR YEAR 9!
Creating an effective structure (non-fiction) — NEW FOR YEAR 9!
Assessment criteria and WAGOLL
Skill Check assessment criteria and WAGOLL
This area shows you what you need to do to get equals, plus and star for each skill. Alongside the assessment criteria there is an example of what a good one looks like (WAGOLL). You should check this before each Skill Check to make sure you know what you need to do to succeed.
Other useful pages for assessments
Key Skill quizzes
This page has a link to all the quizzes for each key skill. You can take them to check your understanding before each Skill Check.Year 9 assessment schedule for 2025-26
This page shows you what assessments are coming up in the future so you can can make sure you are always prepared.
Other useful pages for Year 9 students
Our grammar and punctuation guides
Useful to help you with style and accuracy in your non-fiction creative writing assessments.Our vocabulary building resources
Useful for expanding your vocabulary for both essay writing and non-fiction writing.