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English Language

Introduction to Department:

English at BWS seeks to embed knowledge, develop skills, and enrich understanding through reading purposefully and insightfully so that all students can attain the language capacity to navigate and succeed in courses of their own choosing. All students will be able to explore all methods of communication and be able to confidently engage in texts and situations which have wide-ranging ‘voices’ and represent the culturally diverse society in which we live. Students will have a sense of empathy and belonging through our enrichment opportunities of visits, performances and clubs students will develop a sense of service and commitment to the school and wider community.  

The overarching concepts for English Language at Bishop Wordsworth’s School are: 

  • Reading and writing fiction and non-fiction 
  • Exploring the contexts of texts  
  • Learning and practising skills of analysis and evaluation 
  • Learning and practising skills of inference and deduction 
  • Considering writer’s viewpoints and perspectives 
  • Exploring writer’s choices of language devices 
  • Developing skills of communication in both writing and speaking 

The English Department has a distinguished history of over a third of our students at Year 13 going on to study English or closely related fields including at Oxford and other Russell Group Universities. In Public Speaking, over the past 7 successive years, the department has qualified for the regional finals and has always hosted the competitions yearly. 

Recommended Reading List 

KS3 

Year 7 

  • Autobiography/Memoir: My family and Other Animals Gerrald Durrel 
  • Classics: Watership Down Richard Adams 
  • Humour: Cosmic Frank Botteril Boyce 
  • Historical Fiction: Private Peaceful Michael Morpurgo 
  • Fantasy Fiction: Harry Potter Series J.K. Rowling 
  • Mystery: Revolver Marcus Sedgewick 

Year 8 

  • Adventure and Journeys: His Dark Materials Trilogy Philip Pullman 
  • Classics: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy J.R.R Tolkien 
  • Historical: Coram Boy Jamila Gavin 
  • Injustice: Refugee Boy Benjamin Zephania 
  • Fantasy: A Monster calls Patrick Ness 
  • Science Fiction: Mortal Engines Philip Reeve 

Year 9 

  • Action and Adventure: Hatchet Gary Paulson 
  • Modern Classics: War of the Worlds 
  • Coming of Age: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime Mark Haddon 
  • Dystopia: Noughts and Crosses Malorie Blackman 
  • Horror: The Woman in Black Susan Hill 
  • Humour: The Secret Diary of Adrien Mole Sue Townsend 

KS4

  • Action and adventure: The Life of Pi Yann Martell 
  • Classics: Nineteen Eighty-four George Orwell 
  • Coming of Age: Boy in the Maze Joseph Coelho 
  • Crime: S.T.A.G.S M A Bennet 
  • Historical: Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 
  • Injustice: The Hate You Give Angie Thomas 

 

Extra and Super Curricular 

In the English Department there are a plethora opportunity to participate in Public Speaking Competitions, Poetry by Heart and debates. We arrange for visiting speakers and authors to come into school and there are also visits to theatres both local and national as well as a planned Literary Residential.

Learning by Key Stage

Key Stage 3 

Students are taught in 5 sets and are assessed each half term on the key assessment objectives of reading, writing and speaking and listening. There are 6 units of work across the year. Year 9 students have SOWs which are planned and assessed as a foundation Year to GCSE. 

Students will be mostly taught by one teacher, although in Year 7 and 8, they may have another English teacher to teach them for their Literacy and Library lessons. 

  • Year 7 Topics include: Descriptive Writing; non-Fiction Autobiography and Biography; narrative Writing. 
  • Year 8 Topics include: Non-fiction travel writing; creative reading and writing ‘Tales with a Twist’ 
  • Year 9 topics include: GCSE Language Paper skills including: reading skills through the genre of dystopic literature; ‘The Art of Rhetoric’, writing a speech for a debate and practise of the GCSE Speaking Endorsement; non-fiction comprehension on the theme of Crime and Punishment; writing skills through the genre of the gothic. 

Key Stage 4 GCSE Language 

All students will follow the AQA English Language Specification 8700. The course will be studied over the course of two years and integrated with the teaching of GCSE English Literature. Assessments will happen every half term based on the GCSE unit studies using past paper exam questions. Students are graded 9 to 1. There are 5 mixed set classes who will have one primary English teacher for the whole two years. 

In Year 10 of the summer term students must also complete their speaking endorsement which is graded at a Pass, Merit or Distinction. 

Year 10:  

  • Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing  
  • Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing  
  • Writer’s Viewpoints and Perspectives including completing the Speaking and Listening GCSE Endorsement. 

Year 11 

  • Writer’s Viewpoints and Perspectives revision 
  • Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing revision 
  • Individual revision of questions and skills based on class audit and prior assessment data. 

Staff

Head of Department: Rachel Sammons rls@bishopwordsworths.org.uk 

Second in Department: Sally White snw@bishopwordsworths.org.uk 

English Department 

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