English

Welcome to the English Department webpage. We have are a vibrant and exciting department with 5 members of staff. Students at Huntcliff enjoy the wide range of activities, and the breadth of the curriculum we offer means that students gain excellent results in English.

Curriculum

Students are taught in mixed ability teaching groups in English throughout both Key Stages 3 and 4. We believe that this approach to grouping allows all students to achieve the very best grades they can.

Year 7: a transition project on desert island that links with the Literacy work they have done in Year 6; Drama work based on a script; a Media unit looking at advertising and persuasive language; Pre-1914 poetry including 'The Lady of Shallot'; a unit on Myths and Legends; 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by William Shakespeare.

Year 8: a comparison of two short stories; a non-fiction unit looking at persuasive language; a Media unit focussing on advertising; a Poetry unity which explores a range of poems and looks at poetic techniques writers use; a unit looking at the 'Marie Celeste' and the narrative poem, 'Flannan Isle'; a piece of scripted drama; a modern novel, either 'Holes' or 'Whispers in the Graveyard'

Year 9: 'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare, War Poetry including 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' by Tennyson and 'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen. Year 9 also looks at Gothic Horror, and The Red Room by H G Wells, a non-fiction unit based on Extreme Sports, the study of a play, including 'Our Day Out' by Willy Russell and Poetry from Different Cultures from the GCSE Anthology.

The GCSE English Literature and Language course is based on a mixture of coursework and examinations. 30% of students' final mark is based on their Literature coursework and 40% is based on their Language coursework. The Literature exam accounts for 70% of the final mark whilst 60% is based on two Language exams.

The 5 pieces of written coursework includes Shakespeare, Original Writing, Media, pre-1914 literature and 20th century Drama. Oral skills are also assessed, where students perform 3 pieces: as a group, individually and within a pair.

Students sit their Language exams where, in Paper 1 they are tested on their reading of non-fiction and media texts, and in Paper 2 they are tested on their understanding of poems from other cultures. Their Literature exam includes responding to a novel ('Of Mice and Men') and comparing poetry.

Student work

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