Twelve weeks · Edexcel International GCSE

Scheme of work

A teaching sequence that follows the structure of the text and builds deliberately towards the exam: narrative method first, themes as they arise, assessment writing threaded through every fortnight.

Wk	Focus	Reading	Teaching content	Written outcome	Site resources
1	Introduction and context	Pre-reading	Ishiguro’s life, style and recurring concerns; speculative fiction as a genre (links to Never Let Me Go, The Handmaid’s Tale, Frankenstein); key questions: what is consciousness? what does it mean to love?	Context research presentation; personal response: “Could a machine be your friend?”	Context
2	Klara’s voice and narrative method	Part 1 (first half)	First-person restricted narration; the naïve/reliable narrator problem; dramatic irony; Klara’s idiolect and the “boxes” vision; the store as world-building.	Narrative analysis paragraph: how Ishiguro makes the reader see more than Klara sees.	Part 1 guide
3	The store and human behaviour	Part 1 (second half)	Consumerism and obsolescence; the Sun and the Beggar Man “miracle”; the Cootings Machine; Manager’s lessons; what Klara misunderstands vs what the reader understands.	Comparison chart of Klara’s assumptions vs human reality; extract response on the window.	Part 1 guide
4	Josie, trust and new worlds	Part 2 (first half)	Josie’s characterisation and vulnerability; Melania and Rick; the house as setting; AF–human relationship dynamics.	Essay paragraph: how is Josie presented in her first interactions with Klara?	Part 2 guide
5	The social setting: lifted and unlifted	Part 2 (second half)	The interaction meeting as microcosm; coded adult snobbery and children’s cruelty; Sal and buried grief; Morgan’s Falls and the imitation request.	AO4 research log: gene editing, privilege, inequality; debate, “Lifting divides more than it helps.”	Part 2 guide Context
6	The Sun as symbol; illness and foreshadowing	Part 3 (first half)	Annotating Sun references across Parts 1–3; religious symbolism; the bubble game; tension, tone and foreshadowing around Josie’s decline.	Symbol-tracking annotation task; analytical paragraph on the Sun.	Part 3 guide Themes: faith
7	Faith and the barn	Part 3 (second half)	The barn as sacred space; prayer, bargain, contract diction; Miss Helen and chosen loneliness; the night scene (“Don’t want to die, Mom”).	Extract essay: Klara’s faith in the barn scene; debate, “Faith is more powerful than logic.”	Part 3 guide
8	The portrait: identity and ethics	Part 4 (first half)	Capaldi’s studio and the revelation; the soul debate (Capaldi vs Paul); the Mother’s plea; ethics of continuation, can consciousness be copied?	Essay: “Ishiguro questions what it means to be human.” Discuss.	Part 4 guide
9	The city: sacrifice and society	Part 4 (second half)	The scrapyard sacrifice; Paul’s substitution and the displaced community; anti-AF hostility; Helen and Vance, gatekeeping and regret.	Character comparison: Paul and the Mother; extract response on hope and despair.	Part 4 guide
10	Crisis, the miracle and the “winner” speech	Part 5	The second barn prayer; the Mother’s gambling metaphor and Rick’s reply; the recovery scene’s deliberate ambiguity; dramatic irony and pathos.	Evaluation task: “An ordinary life lived with love is the greater achievement.” How far does Part 5 agree?	Part 5 guide
11	Endings and meaning	Part 6	The Yard; the answer to Capaldi (“inside those who loved her”); the slow fade; mirror structure with Part 1; tone, pathos and abandonment.	Evaluation essay: “Klara is more human than the humans around her.” Discuss.	Part 6 guide
12	Revision and exam writing	Whole text	Quote banks, thematic maps, character arcs; question interrogation and planning; timed writing under exam conditions.	Full timed exam essay (45 minutes); redraft after feedback.	Exam skills Quotation bank Feedback tool

Assessment rhythm

Paragraph outcomes in weeks 2, 4 and 6 build the five-gear paragraph habit before the first full essay in week 8. Weeks 10 and 11 are evaluative, the top-level discriminator, and week 12 is exam-conditions writing. Route drafts through the feedback tool between lessons so classroom time goes to redrafting, not first marking.

Flexible pacing

Part 3 is the longest and most heavily taught section of the novel; if your timetable allows a thirteenth week, split week 6 into two. For a shorter unit, weeks 1 and 3 compress into neighbouring lessons, and week 9’s character-comparison outcome can move into week 8’s essay.