English

What is English?
English is a vital way of communicating in school, in public life and internationally.

Literature in English is rich and influential, reflecting the experiences of people from many countries and times.

Our aim is to enthuse pupils about all aspects of speaking and listening, reading and writing whilst building up their skills and understanding. We broadly follow the National Curriculum for English, although the pupils do not sit Key Stage 3 Tests.

Each lesson begins with 10 minutes of silent reading. During this time, your child will be encouraged to develop his or her own interests in reading.

The department is keen to encourage pupils' use of ICT: the use of word processing and desk top publishing is planned into our schemes of work to ensure that all pupils can develop their skills whilst engaged on meaningful tasks.

Homework is designed to reinforce or develop the work which has taken place in the lesson.

Your child will learn
To speak clearly, fluently and appropriately in different contexts adapting their talk for a range of purposes and audiences
To listen, understand and respond to others in group discussions
To read with fluency, accuracy, understanding and enjoyment
To develop their understanding of fiction, poetry and drama
To become discriminating, responsive readers who understand layers of meaning
To develop confidence and skills in writing for a range of purposes and audiences

What will your child study?

Year 7 - your child will...
Read and write poetry, creating a class anthology
Study a 20th century novel e.g. Skellig by David Almond
Read and re-write myths and legends
Read and perform a play script
Analyse a variety of non-fiction texts

Year 8 - your child will...
Read a variety of short stories and write their own
Look at ballads and narrative poems
Read and perform a playscript
Read a 20th century novel e.g.  "Holes"
Analyse a variety of non-fiction texts including newspapers
Explore the spy writing genre

Year 9 - your child will...
Read and watch a play by Shakespeare
Read a pre 20th century short story
Study poetry, including the sonnet form
Read a 20th century novel e.g. 'Animal Farm'
Analyse a range of non fiction texts including brochures and autobiographies

How will your child be assessed?
Your child's classwork and homework will be regularly assessed
Your child will be aware of the criteria against which assessments of their work are made
Your child will be praised with constructive comment from teachers used at every opportunity

Homework is used to support work done in class
Your child may be asked to:
Answer questions
Read independently
Complete worksheets
Learn a few lines of poetry or script
Do research

What activities will your child take part in?
We arrange theatre visits for each year groups when suitable productions are advertised.
We encourage pupils to enter creative writing competitions.
We participate in the Carnegie Shadowing and pupils review the short listed fiction.

Most pupils take two GCSEs - English and English Literature

How are English and English Literature taught?
The two subjects are taught as a combined course over two years. The skills demanded by the two subjects are closely related and both are designed to help you learn how language works. The four main skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing are developed during the course. The coursework and examination units are designed to improve and assess your learning in these areas and to give you a broad experience of the many different ways language is used.

GCSE English

GCSE English allows you to demonstrate your ability to use English in real life contexts and uses an investigative and analytical approach to language topics, drawing on personal experience.

The course is assessed through a combination of Controlled Assessments and External examination. The Controlled Assessments account for 40% of the total marks.  These cover Extended Reading, Creative Writing and Spoken Language Study.  The External examination, also worth 40%, is two hours long and involves a Reading task and a Writing task based on Non-fiction texts.

Finally oral work is assessed through Speaking and Listening Controlled Assessments that cover the final 20% of the course marks.

English Language GCSE provides you with the essential skills and knowledge that you need in order to communicate in speech and writing in a range of situations.  It encourages you to be an active and discriminating reader.  Above all it promotes curiosity and enjoyment of language in all its aspects.

Specification: AQA English Language 4707
Click here to download the current specification for this GCSE course.

GCSE English Literature

English Literature GCSE is taught alongside, and as an integral part of, English GCSE. The aims of the course are to promote and encourage the enjoyment of reading a range of literary texts and to develop a sense of the personal, social and cultural significance of what you have read. You will be helped to develop the skills needed to write coherently and creatively about literature.

You will study texts from Shakespeare, poetry from the AQA anthology and modern prose or drama.  The course is assessed through a combination of external examinations and controlled assessments.

Unit 1:  Exploring Modern Texts accounts for 40% of the marks.  This is an External examination of 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Section A:     Modern prose or dramaSection B:     Exploring cultures.

Unit 2:  Poetry Across Time is also assessed by an examination of 1 hour and 15 minutes and is worth 35% of the total GCSE mark.
Section A:     Poetry cluster from the anthology.
Section B:     Responding to an unseen poem.

Unit 3:  The Significance of Shakespeare and the English Literacy Heritage.
This is a controlled assessment and worth 25% of the total GCSE mark.
You have up to 4 hours to write your essay.

The anthology will be available in both print and digital versions with interactive resources to encourage thematic approaches to the poetry studied.

We want to encourage your enjoyment and appreciation of literature through independent enquiry, reflection and clear expression of thoughts and opinions.

Specification: AQA English Literature 4712
Click here to download the current specification for this GCSE course.

AS and A Level English Literature

The aim of the English Literature course is to enable you to develop as an informed, independent reader and confident critic of literary texts.

You will develop careful and close reading strategies that provides you with appropriate and specific evidence to support your own opinion. You will consider and understand other possible readings and research into the contexts of both reading and writing.

The wider reading requirement of the course, beyond the set texts, provides an opportunity to explore your own interests in a variety of genres. A detailed Reading Log will provide a useful revision tool.

We visit the theatre to enhance the study of drama texts.

Specification: AQA AS 1741 A level 2741. We follow the AQA English Literature Specification A.
Click here to download the current specification for this A Level course.

AS - AQA English Literature A: World War One Literature

Unit 1: LTA1B Texts in Context
The aim of this unit is to encourage:

Wide reading across all three genres, across time and across genders.
Close reading of a poetry text.

The examination will take the form of a two hour paper. The paper will consist of two sections and candidates will answer one question in each section.

Candidates may bring their poetry text into the examination room but it should be clean and free from annotation.

This unit counts as 60% of AS or 30% of A Level

Unit 2: LITA2 Creative Study - coursework
Two texts are chosen, one prose, one drama. For example ‘Birdsong’ by Sebastian Faulks, and ‘Journey’s End’ by R C Sherriff.

In this unit, candidates will have opportunities for the exploration of creative interpretations, for transformational writing and for tracing connections between texts.

This unit is assessed by means of coursework. The folder will contain two pieces of writing, 2000 – 2500 words in total

This unit counts as 40% of AS or 20% of A Level

A2 - AQA English Literature A

At A2, the course builds on the AS foundation and both widens and deepens students’ literary studies by:

Moving from a defined area of study to the whole of English Literature from Chaucer to the present day.
Developing the informed, autonomous reader by providing opportunities for choice and the development of students’ own interests.

Unit 3: LITA3 Reading for Meaning
This unit has the theme of ‘Love through the Ages’ and counts for 30% of the A level.

It is assessed by a 2½ hour closed book written examination with 2 questions involving unprepared extracts and wider reading on the unit theme of Love Through the Ages.

Unit 4: LITA4 Extended Essay and Shakespeare Study - coursework
Candidates select 3 texts with a shared theme. One text will be a Shakespeare play; the other two texts will be under reading texts of any genre. Candidates will write an extended comparative essay of 3,000 words on the three texts.

This unit counts for 20% of the A level.