A fully sequenced, exam-targeted 25-lesson A-Level scheme of work on Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, built specifically for AQA English Literature A (7712), Paper 2B: Texts in Shared Contexts, Modern Times, Section A. Top Girls is one of two core drama texts available for this section (alongside A Streetcar Named Desire), examined via the fixed “examine the significance” or “examine this view” question, open book, with this paper’s distinctive AO weighting: AO1 28%, AO2 24%, AO3 24%, AO5 16% (AO4 does not apply to Section A).

• Lessons 1 to 5: Foundations, structure and the dinner party. The task and the AOs, the play’s reverse-chronological structure, the dinner party’s non-naturalistic guests in depth, Marlene at work and the Mrs Kidd confrontation, Angie and Kit’s backyard scene
• Lessons 6 to 10: Context, the agency and the revelation. Thatcherism and 1980s feminist debate, the agency’s clients (Jeanine, Louise), Marlene’s office encounter with Angie, the Act Three revelation of Angie’s true parentage, a consolidating seminar
• Lessons 11 to 15: Methods, language and exam writing. Overlapping dialogue and role-doubling, Marlene and Joyce’s political rhetoric, the ambiguous final line “Frightening”, writing the Section A essay, mid-unit assessment
• Lessons 16 to 20: Character and criticism. Marlene, Joyce as foil, Angie’s full significance, critical perspectives, synthesising interpretations
• Lessons 21 to 25: Genre, synthesis, exam mastery and assessment. Political theatre and Modern Times, building a conceptualised argument, exam technique masterclass, final assessment preparation, final assessment and reflection

Five companion Word documents:

• Medium Term Plan (landscape): full 25-lesson table with objectives, sequenced Rosenshine activities, outcomes and the dominant AOs per lesson, plus accurate notes on this paper’s distinctive AO weighting and explicit guidance reflecting AQA’s own “no right answers” examiner stance on this play’s central debates
• Knowledge Organiser (portrait): play summary, ten characters, six themes, seven methods, five key quotations, substantial AO3 context, a critical interpretations table, terminology, and the Section A answer method
• Retrieval Practice Grids (portrait): three interleaved grids with a full answer key, spanning plot, method, context, interpretation and terminology
• Critical Perspectives and Wider Reading pack (portrait): the major critical debates in depth, a worked escalation in deploying interpretation, conceptualised essay questions, and independent study tasks for AO5
• Assessment and Mark Guidance (portrait): best-fit band descriptors reflecting this paper’s actual AO weighting, the description-versus-argument lever, the open-book context, an annotated A-Level model answer, a two-response comparison, and AO-mapped success criteria