Welcome to the English Department

 Click Here for the English Department Team

Extra Help With Literacy:

Miss H Opie - Specialist Reading Support

Mrs D Forbes - Successmaker Programme

Pupils at work in the SuccessMaker suite working on the Readers Workshop program.

KEY STAGE 3 ENGLISH

Extra-curricular Activities

Poetry Workshop with Paul Henry: November 2006

Selected pupils from Years 8 and 9 were lucky to be chosen to participate in a morning’s poetry workshop led by poet Paul Henry.  Paul Henry is a lyric poet who has had several collections of poetry published.  He is currently a tutor at Ty Newydd, a centre in North Wales dedicated to encouraging creative writing.

Click here for examples of the pupils' poetry

Year 8 visited GlamLit Festival in December 2006
[Report by L Williams]

Keith Gray Visit – March 2006
Author Keith Gray visited the school to talk to Year 9 pupils about his novels.  He read extracts and answered questions.

Lit Quiz 2006
We hold an annual quiz with our feeder primary schools to test Year 6 in their knowledge of children’s literature. The winners from each round choose books as prizes and the audience are able to win £1 each in the ‘pound rounds’.

This year the overall winners were from St Gwladys Primary School.

Previous Years' Lit Quiz Winners:

Gilfach Fargoed Primary School 2005

Rime of the Ancient Mariner  

Gwent Theatre visited and performed to Year 6 and 7 pupils in May 2005

Weird Tales from the Storyteller

We were very lucky to have author Daniel Morden come to school in May 2005 to present our Bronze Reading Award certificates to Year 7 – 9 pupils.  60 pupils received the certificates.  Each pupil had to read 6 books and complete different activities on each book to win the Bronze Award.

Daniel Morden is an established storyteller and he entertained the Award winners with gruesome and funny tales.  Everyone really enjoyed the morning, as one pupil later commented, “I enjoyed his story – it was really funny.  I liked the way he used his voice to create the characters – it made it more interesting than reading a book.”

Transition Writing Project
We worked closely with our feeder primary schools to develop drama into writing approaches.  A portfolio of creative writing was produced as a result of the project. 

Many thanks to Walter Humphries, LEA Adviser, for his support.

 Click Here for Key Stage 4 information and Guidance

TARGETS

To give you a clear idea of your ability in English, you should aim to improve by two National Curriculum Levels between your Key Stage 3 results in Year 9 and your GCSE results in Year 11. Therefore:
if you were awarded Level 7 at KS3, you should achieve Grade A* or A at GCSE
               Level 6                                              Grade A or B
                            Level 5                                              Grade B or C
                            Level 4                                              Grade C or D
                            Level 3                                              Grade D or E

How to succeed

• Take careful notice of the advice that your teacher gives you.  This may come in the form of comments to the class as a whole, or in your exercise book, or on your coursework.  Use this advice to shape your approach to the next piece of work.  Above all, don’t be afraid to ask what you need to do to reach the next grade.
• Remember your target for GCSE and make sure you strive to achieve it in all your work
• Complete all work in the given time, whether that is a week, a lesson or twenty minutes.  Some pupils find it difficult to work to a time limit and have problems in exams, so you need to train yourself to show your skills in the available time.
• Keep up your general reading, not only fiction but also non-fiction including newspapers, magazines, travel writing, autobiographies etc.  Analyse adverts on television or leaflets.  All of these will hone your comprehension skills and also improve your writing.  Look at the recommended reading list for suggestions of reading material.
  

Extra-curricular Activities

Blood Brothers – December 2006
We take a group of Year 10 and Year 11 students annually to see this acclaimed musical, which is one of the set texts for GCSE English Literature.  This year the highlight of the visit was watching Anthony Costa perform the leading role of Mickey.

A LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE

 
Examination Board: WJEC

Course Content:
Eight texts are studied, spanning a range of periods and all three genres. The emphasis is on developing keen critical skills, accurate and imaginative use of language and a real enjoyment of literature.

Teaching method:
There will be diverse opportunities for learning. Oral work will feature strongly as students will learn through discussion in pairs or small groups. All lessons will involve whole class discussion and there will be occasions when the students will be expected to ‘lead’ the lesson. Regular research and preparation work will be necessary; students will need to use libraries, the internet and CD ROMs as resources. Texts may be explored through creative responses as well as through the more traditional essay. A variety of theatre and lecture visits are arranged to complement the course.

Examinations:

The full A level course consists of six units. In year 12 four texts, two pre 1900 and two modern, are studied, leading to an AS qualification. In year 13 the pattern will be the same for A2, leading to a full A level qualification. However, it should be noted that the A2 part of the course will be examined at a level higher than AS.

AS level Year 12

E Lit 1 : Shakespeare: King Lear 
E Lit 2 : 2000 word coursework essay: The Color Purple (Alice Walker)                   

E Lit 3 Modern poetry and pre 1900 prose: Carol Ann Duffy’s Selected Poems and The Awakening and Other Short Stories (Kate Chopin) 

A2 level Year 13

E Lit 4: Pre 1900 poetry: The Nun’s Priest’s Prologue and Tale (Chaucer) 
E Lit 5: 2000 word coursework essay comparing two texts: 1984 (George Orwell) and The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) 
E Lit 6: Pre 1770 Drama and one unseen prose or poetry appreciation: The Duchess of Malfi (John Webster) 

Mode of assessment:
One of the AS units may be taken in January of year 12 (E Lit1); the rest will be taken in June. In Year 13 students may wish to retake some units from Year 12; one new unit may be taken in January of Year 13 (E Lit 4). If students wish to resit a unit for the third time, they will have to pay for their exam.

Extra Curricular Activities

A Level Literature Study Lectures

English Literature students in the Sixth Form have been given a taste of what university education would be like.  In November they attended three lectures in Cardiff on topics associated with their set texts for English Literature A Level.  Each session is presented by a university lecturer and gives the students a different perspective on the set text studied in class.  Year 12 attended a day’s lectures on King Lear, a text studied for the January 2007 exam and an afternoon lecture on Carol Ann Duffy’s Mean Time poems.  Year 13 attended an afternoon’s lecture on Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest’s Tale, a text studied for the January 2007 exam.

Carol Ann Duffy visit

We were very fortunate to have Carol Ann Duffy give a poetry reading to our A Level students in April 2006.  She has become one of Britain’s most renowned poets and the students were able to ask her questions about the background to some of her poems, which are studied at AS level.

Click Here For More Information about the Demands of Sixth Form Study

Last Updated: 16/11/2008 11:32:28 By System Administrator