English
| Staff | Mrs M Bromfield | -
Head of English |
| Mr J Eaton | - Assistant English Team Leader and KS3 English Co-ordinator. Associate member of Leadership team. |
|
| Ms L Renshaw | - Teacher of English and KS4 English Co-ordinator | |
| Ms H Gadd | - Teacher of English | |
| Mr C King | - Teacher of English and Year 11 Leader | |
| Ms L Latchmore | - Teacher of English | |
| Miss L Kilshaw | - Teacher of English | |
| Mrs K White | - Teacher of English | |
| Ms S Oakman | - Teacher of English | |
| Mr S Davies | - Teacher of English | |
| Mrs C Kleinstuber | - Department Assistant |
English Department Philosophy
The English Department endeavours to value individuals and inspire self-belief in students that will enable them to flourish; to challenge students so that they always achieve their potential.
Our aims are to:
| | enable students to become confident speakers, able to articulate their thoughts and values |
| | nurture an enthusiasm for reading through a wide variety of texts through the ages. |
| | develop their critical awareness of the world around them, empowering them to write accurately, expressing their ideas in a wide range of written forms. |
| | prepare students for the literacy demands of adult life. |
| | foster an understanding of spirituality, morality, society and cultural identity. |
KS3
Year 7:
Students follow the National Curriculum for English. This involves experiencing all forms of English expression and literature including speaking and listening exercises and practice and modules on Shakespeare, Writing to argue, Writing to instruct / advise and creative writing through a short stories assignment. Their reading and comprehension is also developed in the Summer Term through their study of a novel.
Year 8:
Students follow the National Curriculum for English. They will again have an opportunity to improve their reading fluency and comprehension at the beginning of the year; they will also do modules based on a media assignment, war poetry, Shakespeare, Chaucer and continue to practice persuasive devices in writing through an assignment to practise travel writing.
Year 9:
For the first two terms of Year 9 students will follow a programme of work which includes a study of a themed poetry anthology, a Shakespeare play, a modern novel and a unit which will focus on developing writing skills in preparation for GCSE. We are currently awaiting the publication of the new specifications for 2010 GCSE and hope to begin working towards them after Easter of Year 9.
KS4
Year 10.
The majority of students follow a GCSE course in Year 10. This focuses on the AQA specification and will lead to either one or two GCSEs at the end of Year 11. Students will complete a common assessment piece at the start of the year. This, along with teacher assessment and other data, will be used to place them into either a single or dual award group for the remainder of their course.
Dual award students will focus on the English Language GCSE. They will undertake four pieces of Controlled Assessment, with tasks focusing on ‘Reading and Understanding Written Texts’ and ‘Spoken Language Study’. There will also be a range of opportunities for Speaking and Listening assessment, which constitutes 20% of the final GCSE English Language grade. Year 10 culminates in the Unit 1 modular exam, based on analytical reading of unseen non-fiction texts alongside two writing tasks.
Single award students will complete two pieces of Controlled Assessment, with tasks taken from the GCSE English specification. Tasks will focus on ‘Prose Reading’ and ‘Creative Writing’. There will also be a range of opportunities for Speaking and Listening assessment, which constitutes 20% of the final GCSE English grade. Year 10 culminates in the Unit 1 modular exam, based on analytical reading of unseen non-fiction texts alongside two writing tasks.
A small group of students will be following the AQA Entry Level Functional English specification.
Year 11
There are two progression pathways in Year 11. The route that your child will follow is dependent on performance in Year 10.
GCSE English
Students following the single award course of GCSE English will study the AQA specification. During the year, they will undertake five pieces of Controlled Assessment, involving the study of poetry, prose and Shakespeare as well as writing in a range of styles. At the end of the year, students will resit the Unit 1 modular exam in order to have the chance to improve the grade achieved at the end of Year 10. The exam constitutes 40% of the final grade, with Controlled Assessment providing 40% and Speaking and Listening making up the final 20% .
GCSE English Language and Literature
Students following the dual award course of GCSE English Language and Literature will study the AQA specification. The course begins with the completion of a Controlled Assessment based on the comparison of a Shakespeare play and another text from the English Literary Heritage. Students will then study a range of poetry, including cultural and heritage texts, along with unseen poetry analysis. This is in preparation for a modular exam in January. The final unit of the course sees students studying two prose and/or drama texts in preparation for their final modular exam in summer. At the end of the course, students will receive two separately graded GCSEs. The weighting for components is as follows:
English Language: 40% Unit 1 exam (assessed in Year 10), 40% Controlled Assessment (completed in Year 10), 20% Speaking and Listening.
English Literature: 25% Controlled Assessment; 35% Unit 2 ‘Poetry Across Time’ exam; 40% Unit 1 ‘Exploring Modern Texts’ exam.
For the Year 11 Literature course, the college will provide blank copies of the two set texts for use in the Unit 1 examination. Students will be asked to provide their own copies of these two texts for use in class. This will enable them to produce annotated copies of the text during their course of study.
Textbooks are available to support all GCSE routes.
All are published by Nelson Thornes and available from bookshops and Amazon.
AQA GCSE English and English Language Higher Tier Study Guide -
ISBN-10: 1408505959
AQA GCSE English and English Language Foundation Tier Guide –
ISBN-10: 1408505967
AQA GCSE English and English Language Higher Revision Guide –
ISBN-10: 1408506912
AQA GCSE English and English Language Foundation Tier Revision Guide-
ISBN-10: 1408506920
AQA GCSE English Literature Poetry and Anthology -
ISBN-10: 1408505991