English

Introduction

The English Department is a thriving and successful team of practitioners. We consistently achieve excellent GCSE and A-level results and are a very popular A-level choice amongst students. The English staff are an experienced team of teachers who all want the very best for the students that they teach. Due to the quality of staff in the department, many have responsibilities both within and outside of the department. We have a very good record of helping new staff develop their practice so that they too are able to deliver ‘outstanding’ lessons. A real strength of the team is the positive relationships that are formed between staff and learners.

Curriculum Intent

In this subject we aim for students to be effective communicators who are clear and accurate in their use of grammar and linguistics through both the written and spoken medium; successful learners who are literate and creative; confident individuals who can develop logical arguments and responsible citizens who are compassionate and understand the world in which they live. Detailed planning across each year group ensures the specific skills of punctuation, vocabulary, increasing level of challenge in the texts selected for study and understanding of an increasing number of unfamiliar contexts etc. are planned sequentially exploiting the links between units of work and revisited over the course. Underpinning the approach is a fundamental College belief that students are encouraged and supported to be keen and frequent readers.

Art

Facilities

The English department are based in a suite of rooms off the central College corridor. We have computer projectors and visualisers in all rooms and interactive whiteboards in most. We also have several kindles that some students will be able to work with. We have a large array of prose, drama and fiction texts for use with classes too.

Enrichment

We tend to offer different things each year as we respond to current events and opportunities. Examples from recent experience include: a Year 7 trip to see Matilda in conjunction with the Drama department); the Year 8 Spelling Bee; Creative Writing club; writing for The Heathfield Vine; a touring company production of A Christmas Carol; a wide variety of theatre experiences for Years 12 and 13.

Revision

All information and resources needed for revision are available on the subject pages of Firefly: Click Here: http://heathfieldcc.fireflycloud.net/browse-resources/subjects