The Aims of the Department

• To develop and enhance pupils’ reading, writing and communication skills.
• To arouse an interest and enthusiasm for literary texts from the pupil’s own and other cultures.
• To encourage good spelling, the accurate application of rules of grammar and well structured writing in continuous prose.
• To develop oral communication skills that will facilitate informed discussion as part of a group, and that will enable logical argument and debate on a variety of issues.
• To promote an understanding of the link between writer and audience.
• To encourage an understanding of our cultural heritage through an appreciation of changing language as well as literature of the Past.
• To encourage an understanding of our society and cultural roots in all its diversity, thus giving a sense of identity and an appreciation of a multicultural background.
• To develop an appreciation of literature as it has developed through the ages.
• To develop qualities of self-discipline, confidence and independence gained through the ability to express thought and feeling clearly and logically while understanding a reasoned argument that might challenge previous convictions.
• To encourage the use of libraries as resource centres as well as places of recreation.

• Writing for different purposes and audiences
• Shakespeare
• Jane Austen
• Poetry
• Drama lessons in Years 7, 8 and 9
• The Media
• Texts from other times and cultures
• An integrated English and English Literature course leading to a separate GCSE certificate in each
• Outside-lesson activities such as trips, productions and national competitions

Year 7

• Transition Reading/Writing Unit: Autobiography
• Prose Study: Skellig by David Almond
• Oral tasks including speeches, discussions and drama
• Origins of Language
• Poetry
• The Media: Advertisements
• Mystery Tales/Poems: The Highwayman
• Prose Study: Goodnight Mister Tom By Michelle Magorian
• Non-fiction texts
• Drama

Year 8

• Prose Study (Other Cultures): The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo
• Oral: Argue, Persuade
• Poetry: Different Forms
• Prose Study: Holes by Louis Sachar
• Non-fiction Texts (2): Real Times
• Poetry: Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel T. Coleridge
• The Media: Newspapers & Magazines
• Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Oral presentation on topic of choice
• Drama topics: Interpreting a script, Greek Theatre, Improvisation

Year 9

• Drama Study: Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw
• Writing & Speaking to Argue, Persuade, Advise
• Pre1914 Short Stories e.g. The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe
• Shakespeare: Twelfth Night
• War Poetry
• Writing to Imagine, Explore, Entertain: The Man with the Yellow Face by Anthony Horowitz
• Texts from Other Cultures
• Prose: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Drama topics: Homelessness, World War I, Relationships

Years 10 and 11 – The AQA GCSE Course

• Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
• Lord of the Flies - William Golding
• An Inspector Calls – J.B. Priestley
• Pre and post-1914 Poetry
• Persuasion – Jane Austen
• Writing for different audiences and purposes
• Multi-cultural Poetry
• Print-based Media
• Oral tasks: speeches, discussions and drama

Please note that the AQA GCSE course is changing as of September 2010 and so texts and topics may also be subject to change. Further information will be updated in due course.