War Horse Complete SoW

A complete KS3 English scheme of work for Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse, designed to build reading confidence, develop analytical skills and encourage thoughtful discussion through a structured sequence of engaging lessons.

The scheme contains 26 lessons plus a fully designed Movie Passport booklet to accompany the film adaptation, making it suitable for approximately 8 weeks of teaching.

Each lesson follows the same clear structure to reduce cognitive load while gradually increasing challenge throughout the unit. Reading skills are explicitly taught and revisited using a wide range of activities, ensuring pupils move beyond simple comprehension towards inference, evaluation and thematic analysis.

Included:
24 fully editable PowerPoint lessons
Context lesson introducing Michael Morpurgo, World War One and the novel
21 chapter-by-chapter lessons
Final review lesson revisiting themes, characters and messages
8-page print-ready War Horse Movie Passport

Every lesson includes:
Retrieval and literacy starter
Key vocabulary
Guided reading questions
Reading skill activity

Reading strategies covered:
Predict
Identify
Connect
Infer
Visualise
Question
Evaluate

Throughout the scheme, pupils complete a wide variety of engaging tasks including:
Character journey
Theme trackers
Role on the Wall
Emotion graph
Freeze frame
Diamond 9 ranking
Writer’s toolbox activity
Comparison grid
Visualisation tasks
Evidence finding
Retrieval practice
Structured discussion activities

The accompanying Movie Passport provides an engaging way for pupils to record predictions, responses and reflections while watching the film adaptation. It has been designed to print in A4 or A5 booklet format and encourages pupils to compare the novel and film while reinforcing key themes and characters.

Activities are fully editable, making it easy to adapt for different classes or abilities.