English

Staff within the Department

Ms S Rushe- Head of Department 

BA (Hons) English Language and Literature 

Ms J. Manley – Second i/c of department/ KS5 Coordinator 

BA (Hons) English and Film Studies

Ms A. Qureshi- KS4 Coordinator 

BA (Hons) Comparative Literature

Mrs L. Dwyer – Director of Teaching and Learning

BA (Hons) English Literature; MA Victorian Studies

Ms C. McKinlay - Assistant Headteacher - Designated Safeguarding Lead

Mrs C. Rice – LLB (Hons) Law​, PGCE English, NASENCO, SENCO

Ms C. Gardner - Deputy SENCO

Mrs S. Stewart English Teacher/Sixth Form Leader 

Ms S. Drake English Teacher

Ms T. Zanka English Teacher 

Ms M Mugford English Teacher 

Ms Y Lim English Teacher 

 

English is a core (compulsory) subject at KS3 and KS4 and no wonder as the exploration and production of texts, confidence in spoken communication and the development of literacy skills are all integral to progress across the curriculum.  Beyond this, English is a fascinating subject taking pupils on a journey through functional texts to the very best of literature from across the ages.  The passion for English language and literature instilled in pupils by their enthusiastic English teachers continues at KS5 where our A Levels in Literature continues to be a popular choice. This year we have introduced a new subject, A Level English Language to give our students even more choice in the Sixth Form.

 

Curriculum

KS3

KS3 English offers lots of opportunities for students to develop their writing skills, engage in new and varied texts (both fiction and non-fiction) and explore written and spoken language.  Alongside our curriculum below we also teach literacy skills lessons to enable students to make progress in English and across the wider curriculum by improving their reading, writing and grammar skills. 

 

Enrichment activities to do at home

• Years 7s are part of our Accelerated Reader programme – remember to take a quiz within 2 days of reading your library book.
• Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects/z3kw2hv for tips, activities and games
• Read at least 2 non-fiction texts a week.  Have you tried articles, advertisements, newspapers, brochures, biographies?
• Use a dictionary when you come across a new word and try to use it that day!
• Join your local library and set yourself a reading challenge – have you read every book by your favourite author?
• Have a go at writing an article for the school website/newsletter.

  KS4

  Our KS4 programme covers 3 years, from Year 9 to Year 11.  All students are taught both English Language and English Literature and are now following the reformed GCSE (AQA specifications 8700 & 8702 http://www.aqa.org.uk). 

  Year 9 is used to introduce pupils to the literary texts they will respond to in the final exams, as well as being an introduction to the skills they will need to tackle unseen fiction and non-fiction texts, and practise their own writing for language.  In years 10 (and subsequently 11) pupils will revisit the literature texts, study a modern text (novel, short stories or drama) and continue to practise the reading and writing skills.

Enrichment activities to do at home

Across the whole of KS4 it is vital that students read regularly.  Students should read in advance any texts they know they will be studying (and in Year 11 they should be re-reading all texts!) but they should also get into the habit of reading non-fiction texts as well.  These might include: newspaper articles, blogs, reviews, letters, travel writing.  A good website to find all of the above is The Guardian where you can find archives of all sorts of writing which in the past have been used as material on the actual language exam.  

Pupils are also given a copy of a recommended reading list for KS4 pupils so they could be reading for pleasure from this – it all helps!

KS5

We currently teach A Level English Literature and A Level English Language.

Year 12 and Year 13 follow the OCR specification for Literature 

 

Year 12 and Year 13 follow the AQA specification for Language 

For English Language 'A' Level, we follow the AQA specification.

ENGLISH AND LITERACY WEBSITES

We subscribe to Doddle. Remember to log in to: www.doddlelearn.co.uk with the login details your teacher gives you.  You will find tasks that have been assigned by teachers and additional activities.

General English and literacy websites

BBC Bitesize: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects/zt3rkqt

Grammar: http://www.englicious.org/

Daily grammar blog: http://dailygrammarlessons.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.channel4learning.com/sites/waywithwords/index.html

Themed reading activities to complete (reading skills and sentence skills)

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/570/pulp/

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

For EAL pupils and parents

https://www.britishcouncil.org/english/kids-teens

Newspapers

https://www.theguardian.com/uk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

http://www.independent.co.uk/

A Level pupils:

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/e-magazine/ - ask your English teacher for our login details

https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?gclid=CO2hrvPa3s0CFVQ_GwodkpEO6A

Thinking of doing A Level?

http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/180149-anthology-of-texts-paper-1.pdf

Enrichment Activities and Trips

There are a range of clubs running throughout the year so make sure you check your form’s bulletin board.

 

Career Paths