ENGLISH

The aims of the English department are:

a)    To equip students with the maximum competency in language by developing and exercising the skills of     listening, talking, reading and writing.

b)    To present books as an essential source of pleasure and information and to encourage reading as a habitual     activity.

c)    To enable students to use language effectively to investigate, discriminate and seek the truth.

d)    By promoting a) (b) and (c), to encourage students to value academic excellence and to pass exams.

e)    To enable students to understand themselves, their relationship with others and with the world around them.

f)    To enable students to understand the history and growth of their language so that they may appreciate the contribution of other cultures to their own.

g)    To allow students to whom English is a second language to become confident communicators.

h)    To educate students in the uses of language in media other than the written word.

Staff  There are ten full-time teachers of English in the school. One senior teacher also teaches in the Department.  

Organisation and Courses

A transition unit is taught in the first two weeks of term in order to support the move from Primary to Secondary school. We have taught a transition unit for the last three years and this year are part of a town-wide scheme involving Primary schools as well.

Students are taught in mixed ability groups in Years 7 and 8. In Year 9 we seek to extend the more able students through teaching them in a separate group. The English syllabus in Years 7 - 9 takes account of the full range of knowledge and skills required by the revised National Curriculum and is in line with the National Framework for English.

After the NC tests Year 9 students will begin studying for their English Literature GCSE. They will take this exam in Year 10 and therefore achieve one of their GCSEs before their final year. Students will then begin their English GCSE in Year 10 and take the final exams in Year 11.