English
"The English language is the property of the imagination."
What makes English excellent at Chulmleigh?
The English Department at Chulmleigh Community College prides itself on it's ambitious and nurturing approach to the study of language and literature, achieved through teaching rich and interesting texts and a broad range of teaching experiences which develop and challenge all pupils. Alongside our English lessons, the English Department delivers a comprehensive reading program, which sets high expectations for pupils to develop and make progress in their reading whilst being supported by the professional expertise of our staff.
Assessment
Pupils are assessed in line with the National Curriculum at Key Stage Three and Four. We deliver a broad range of assessments which cover a range of skills which pupils are introduced to, and develop at Key Stage Three to enable them to achieve their potential at Key Stage Four in the GCSE examinations. During Key Stage Four we have end of year exams in Year 10, when pupils complete mock GCSE exam papers in both Language and Literature. In Year 11, pupils complete two sets of mock exams, before Christmas and again in the Spring.
Year 7 Content
Term 1
In the first term of Year 7, pupils read, study and respond to the canonic nineteenth century text 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens. Pupils learn about powerful contextual factors which influenced the novel, such as Religion and poverty. We develop reading skills such as retrieval, inference, prediction and evaluation.
Term 2
Pupils study a modern novel 'The Breadwinner' by Deborah Ellis. This thought-provoking novel, set in Afghanistan in the 1990's allows pupils to explore and consider alternative life experiences and points of view and explore powerful themes such as Power and Repression.
Term 3
In the summer term, we begin with a study of characters from two Shakespeare plays, 'Macbeth' and 'The Merchant of Venice' with our focus being on using contextual and textual evidence to evaluate whether the characters are presented as villains or victims.
In the second half of the summer term we study Romantics poetry, learning about what inspired the 'Big Six' Romantic poets. Pupils are introduced to how to analyse and respond to poetry in an academic style.
Year 8 Content
Term 1
In Year 8 pupils begin with the study of a modern novel, either 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas', 'Once', or 'Private Peaceful'. We build on pupils' reading skills from Year 7, further developing their skills of inference and analysis whilst fostering an appreciation of writer's craft.
Term 2
In the Spring term Year 8 study a range of texts from the Gothic genre. A popular text year-on-year is 'Thornhill' by Pam Smy which captivates pupils' imaginations through the use of a dual narrative, where the story is told through diary entries and images, spanning two different time periods. Following this, we study extracts from more traditional Gothic texts such as 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein' focusing on the writer's craft and the effect of Gothic conventions on the reader.
Term 3
We finish Year 8 with the theme of Travel and Exploration. First, we study Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', looking at the presentation of character and themes. Then, we study a range of non-fiction texts around Travel and Exploration including travel writing and writing to persuade.
Year 9 Content
Term 1
In Term 1 of Year 9 we study the structure and craft involved in writing short stories. Pupils will read a range of short stories from popular writers. Using Freytag's Pyramid, pupils are taught to explicitly identify and appreciate the stages of telling a short story, which they go on to reproduce themselves in writing the exposition stage of their own short story.
Term 2
Year 9 study Dystopian Fiction in the Spring term. The challenging texts we teach, including George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and Malorie Blackman's 'Noughts and Crosses' engage pupils' curiosity and encourage powerful responses to the ideas they explore, such as Power and Freedom.
Term 3
In the final term, Year 9 study Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'. Always a popular text, pupils are challenged and inspired by Shakespeare's presentation of themes such as Love and Conflict, which pupils recognise as still being wholly relevant today. Pupils are supported to respnd to the text in a critical academic style, to help prepare them for their study of set English Literature texts in Year 10.
Year 10 Content
Term 1
We begin Year 10 with an introduction to GCSE English Language Paper 1 Section A, which builds pupils' reading skills of understanding implicit and explicit meaning, inference and evaluation.
We also study a Literature set text in this term: Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls'.
Term 2
In the Spring term Year 10 study the Shakespeare set text 'Macbeth'. Pupils build a secure knowledge of the context, plot, setting, themes and characters and are taught how to respond to the exam question for their GCSE.
Term 3
During the Summer Term we begin studying the poems in the Power and Conflict cluster of the GCSE anthology for English Literature. We return to English Language Paper 1 to recap Section A and work on Section B, which assesses Narrative and Descriptive writing in preparation for the end of year exams.
Year 11 Content
Term 1
In Year 11 we study the pre-nineteenth century novel 'The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson, another English Literature set text. Through this classic novella pupils are exposed to complex ideas including Duality and Nature v. Nurture.
Term 2
In the Spring term pupils finish the Power and Conflict poetry in preparation for their GCSE exam. We study English Language Paper 2 which is the non-fiction paper.
Term 3
In the Summer term we teach the Unseen Poetry element of Literature Paper 2, enabling pupils with the skills and confidence to analyse and write about an unseen poem.
Thereafter we revise for the examinations in both English Language and English Literature.
Future Careers
Studying English prepares you for a diverse range of professional fields, including teaching, journalism, law, publishing, medicine, and the fine arts.
Curricular enhancement opportunities (e.g. Fieldwork, trips, competitions etc)
The English Department offers a broad range of enrichment opportunities for pupils including visits from published authors who deliver inspirational workshops and whole-cohort sessions with our Key Stage Three pupils. Our Creative Writing club is well attended and runs a competition every half term, inviting pupils to submit entries in response to a particular theme.