The English Faculty is a big department which has a wealth of resources to help pupils with their learning. Here are a few key points for parents:

In Years 7-9 every pupil should be reading an Accelerated Reader book from the library, and should be reading at least one Accelerated Reader book every half term. If pupils are not set specific homework, pupils should be reading their Accelerated Reader book. Any assistance parents can give is appreciated. We strongly advocate listening to your child read a little every night if you are worried about their reading. The test scores for the Accelerated Reader are very revealing and can be obtained from your child’s English teacher or the librarian, Mrs Butler.

In Years 10-11, pupils study the OCR English and English Literature course. In Year 10 pupils will study: Romeo and Juliet, a post-1900 section from the Opening Lines poetry anthology (which changes from year to year), Ernest Hemmingway's Old Man and the Sea and prepare and practice the different units for the English GCSE. We recommend reading a variety of literature and a quality newspaper every day to assist with this . At the very end of Year 10 and during Year 11, pupils must read: Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy and Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' and a pre-1900 section of the poetry from Opening Lines. There is a coursework folder for the English and English Literature GCSE worth 20% written and 20% Speaking and Listening and 30% respectively. They are tested by two English GCSE exams and one English Literature exam at the end of Year 11..

We offer both English Language, English Literature and Media at A Level.