ENGLISH

Up to GCSE, we attempt to balance the nurturing of creativity and literary sensitivity with the development of written accuracy and appropriateness of register over a wide variety of tasks. To this end, all pupils in Years 7-9 are regularly tested, with a balance of test and coursework results combining to produce a comprehensive picture for tracking purposes.

English is taught for three periods a week, and there are two homework sessions on set days, of about thirty minutes each. Work set to do at home may involve focused reading, making notes, creative writing, preparing for a talk, learning spellings and grammar rules, etc. etc. Pupils will be expected to have at least one fiction or non-fiction book ‘on the go’ all the time, and on the rare occasions when no specific task is set for homework, pupils should read their current chosen text for half an hour.

Pupils are in mixed ability sets. However, we might feel that it is necessary for a pupil to have extra English lessons in place of another subject, such as a CDT or German. If we feel that this is the case, then the matter will be discussed with the parents before any decision is made.