Welcome to English

"Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.” Barbara W Tuchman

At The Long Eaton School English and Media are taught using a variety of teaching and learning strategies that aim to stimulate interest in all aspects of communication, both within and beyond the classroom. At the heart of our department are dedicated and enthusiastic members of staff, offering a wide range of skills and interests. English is clearly a core subject within the school, and we believe it is also the foundation of each student's future. It is therefore paramount that we offer an appropriate challenge for all students within a supportive atmosphere.

The English and Media curriculum team aim to enable all students to achieve a command of the English language which allows them to communicate, learn and interact effectively in a full range of contexts, both within school and as members of the community. We will support and encourage the study, understanding and appreciation of literary, non-literary and media texts, including private reading for pleasure.

Examination Courses:

All Year 10 and 11 students study for AQA GCSE English Language and AQA GCSE English Literature. Examinations for these take place at the end of Year 11.

AQA GCSE Media Studies can be taken as an option from Year 9 onwards.

Key Stage 3:

At the start of their English career at The Long Eaton School, students engage with schemes of work that explore the breadth of the skills they'll need in future years. Starting with a unit on creative writing, students will also read the novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Shakespeare's The Tempest as well as developing their understanding of non-fiction texts through a range of texts on the theme of science and technology. Students' speaking and listening skills will also be nurtured through a number of activities based on classic texts and topical issues.

Continuing their journey in English, at the beginning of Year 8 Students explore a modern novel. Following this, students develop their non-fiction writing skills, and then expand their understanding of pre 19th century literature with a collection of Victorian literature and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. At the end of the year, students engage with a unit on poetry entitled Times and Places.

Key Stage 4:

Aiming to prepare students for the start of their GCSE's in the following year, Year 9 introduces students to increasingly challenging themes and texts beginning with a classic novel and then a study of non-fiction texts which explore different perspectives. This is followed by the well-known play script Blood Brothers and then a unit on non-fiction writing. Students then explore Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet before ending the year with an introduction to some of the poetry they'll be studying at GCSE.

Across Year 10, students are introduced to a broad range of skills, genres and question styles that they will need for their examinations at the end of Year 11 as well as the bulk of literary texts they will need to know. Beginning with the play An Inspector Calls and the classic novella A Christmas Carol, students will then study a range of non-fiction and fiction extracts to develop their skills of inference, analytical writing and original writing. They will also study a collection of poetry on the theme of Power and Conflict.

After studying the play Macbeth during the first term, Year 11 is focused on preparing students for their exams at the end of the year, teaching any poems not explored in Year 10 and returning to and revising all the core texts. The year will also be heavily focused on developing students' creativity, idea development and responses to previously unseen texts. Assessment becomes a real focus as students take an increasing number of mock exams to prepare them for their final exams.

Faculties:

The faculty has a suite of dedicated teaching rooms which are all equipped with projectors and interactive whiteboards. Four rooms have sets of laptops for student use and another is a dedicated Media Suits, complete with a 'chromakey screen'.

Accelerated Reader:

Accelerated Reader is a reading scheme designed to create a culture of reading and to accelerate learning through reading. This programme is used with Years 7, 8 and 9.