HECC

English

The English Department actively seeks opportunities for students to be publicly rewarded for their work. Do check to see if a student you know has been nominated for our weekly award 'English Pupil of the Week'. Recently 34 Year 8 students have had their poetry 'Talking About my Generation' published after their work was successful in a national competition. We are no stranger to this success as almost 100 of our students have also been published in the last couple of years.

We also enjoy providing students with extra-curricular opportunities for enrichment in this subject. Last year we took a group of students to Shakespeare's world famous Globe Theatre in London where they participated in drama workshops and a guided tour of the theatre in preparation for their Year 9 SAT's exams. Whilst on the subject of Year 9 SAT's, students are currently enjoying our interactive drama workshop approaches to studying 'Richard III'. We believe the students are particularly enjoying these approaches as the staff have also been fortunate to participate in a recent teachers' workshop ran by actors from The Globe Theatre. Just to remind you the SAT's exams will take place during the week commencing 5 May.

Last year we successfully trialled Year 10 students sitting their English Literature exam in Year 10 and we will continue to adopt this model this year. In order to support the students, they were given an opportunity to attend the GCSE Poetry Live event as this gives them an opportunity to watch the poets Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy recite their work. This is an extremely positive and worthwhile event as the students answer a question on these poets in the exam and due to the department putting a successful bid together, we were able to subsidise the cost of this event for the students.

Forthcoming Events:

• Watch this space for 'Book Week'. We are hoping this will be as successful as last year's 'Word Week'.
• Year 11 English Language revision continues to run Thursdays, 2.45-3.30.
• Holiday revision for Year 11 ran during Easter and will also run in May.