English at Helenswood Head of Faculty: Mr C Richards Second in Faculty: Miss P Proctor The teaching of English at Helenswood has one aim: to achieve excellence at all levels. The English Faculty is focused on ensuring that every student is equipped with the literacy skills and knowledge needed to achieve to the very best of their ability. Over each of the two Key Stages, your daughter will be taught how to develop her grammatical and analytical skills, widen her reading skills and strategies and will learn to be an independent thinker and researcher. By the time your daughter completes her GCSEs, we hope to have created a love of English and English Literature within her which will see her apply to study the subject at AS Level at Parkwood. We are consistently proud of our results at all three Key Stages. In the academic year 2011 – 2012, our Year 9 students achieved excellent results, with 85% of students obtaining a Level 5 or above, 22% of whom achieved a level 7 and 5% of whom achieved a level 8. At GCSE level, 78% of students left with a grade A* - C in English and we are proud of the fact that this is our highest ever result for Language at Helenswood. For English Literature, 68% of students achieved a grade A* - C. Finally, we continued our 100% pass rate at A2 Level and 90% of students left with a grade A*-C with two students leaving with an A*. These are standards we are determined to continue, and we look forward to congratulating your daughter when she receives her well-deserved grades. Within the classroom, our students can expect to learn English through a variety of means. As a faculty we utilise a range of teaching styles, including peer work and assessment, group work, drama, speaking and listening tasks, extended writing and analysis, creative writing and ICT to name but a few. We believe that successful learning can only be achieved through aiming our lessons, and therefore the activities completed within them, at the needs of each student within a class. Key Stage 3 English Within English at Key Stage 3 students are given the opportunity to access a creative, engaging and enjoyable curriculum. They will learn a broad range of skills within the three different elements: reading, writing and speaking & listening. We will equip them with the tools to develop their abilities in all three of these aspects of English, thus enabling them to become effective and successful communicators with their peers and within society. Students will cover a broad range of topics each year including: poetry, creative writing, Shakespeare and media, alongside many more. All of these topics will be taught in an active and engaging way to enable students to develop and enhance their skills within the subject. Students’ learning within KS3 will ensure they receive the best possible grounding in preparation for KS4 and beyond. Students’ learning within KS3 English will enable them to become proficient in all aspects of communication, ensuring they stand the best possible chance of succeeding within the wider world. GCSE English Language and English Literature At Upper School we personalise the curriculum to ensure students achieve the best possible grades in the English qualifications needed for their academic and professional progression. Students in K and L bands study for two English GCSE qualifications – English Language and English Literature. Students in M band study a single award in GCSE English. Each qualification will incorporate external assessments (exams) and controlled assessments (coursework completed under exam conditions). Students need to achieve a grade A* - C in either GCSE English Language or GCSE English, so all students have the opportunity at Helenswood to achieve qualifications essential for their future. 2010 brought with it major changes to the structure of the GCSEs. For English, the biggest change is the removal of coursework. Due to the increase in plagiarism across the country, coursework has been replaced by Controlled Assessments. Under the new rules for Controlled Assessments, students are to study a range of different texts and writing skills before completing assessed work under exam conditions. This means that they will be allowed a limited amount of guidance in the assessment but will not be allowed to rewrite a piece of assessed work.  Because of this, your daughter will need to ensure that she is focused and working to the best of her ability if she is to achieve well within the assessments as there will be no opportunity to improve a piece of work later in the course. The exam board has also stipulated how much time we are allowed to spend in the teaching of each Controlled Assessment, meaning that learning will be at a quick pace. The English Language and English Literature GCSEs will consist of the following work: Controlled Assessment: English Language (60% of GCSE): Studying Written Language: Reading and response to a text; Using Language: One piece of Creative Writing and one piece of Descriptive Writing; Spoken Language: Three Speaking and Listening tasks; Studying Spoken Language: Studying the spoken language of others.   English (60% of GCSE): ·         Reading: two extended responses – one to a text from a different culture and another comparing a Shakespeare play with poetry. ·         Writing: two creative responses – one in the 1st person narrative and the other in the 3rd person narrative. English Literature (25% of GCSE): Poetry and Drama: Comparing a Shakespeare play with poetry. External Assessment: English/English Language (40% of GCSE): Written Paper 1: Reading of non-fiction texts; Written paper 2: Two writing tasks. English Literature (75% of GCSE) Exam 1:         Part 1: Study of a novel from a different culture; Part 2: Comparison of two unseen poems; Exam 2:         Study of a drama text; Study of a novel. To access the specifications for Year 10 and Year 11, please follow the links below: Year 10 – English Language: http://www.wjec.co.uk/uploads/publications/8317.pdf Year 10 – English Literature: http://www.wjec.co.uk/uploads/publications/8319.pdf Year 11 – English: http://www.wjec.co.uk/uploads/publications/2178.pdf Year 11 – English Literature: http://www.wjec.co.uk/uploads/publications/2180.pdf Texts at Key Stage 4 In Year 10 you daughter will be studying the following: Poetry and Drama: a Shakespeare text with a selection of poetry from the exam board anthology. Studying Written Language: ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck. In year 11, depending on her class, your daughter will be studying the following: K Band: ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen and ‘A View from the Bridge’ by Miller; L Band: ‘Heroes’ by Cormier and either ‘Hobson’s Choice’ by Brighouse or ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B.Priestley; Should you or your daughter require any further information or support at any level of their English studies at Helenswood, please contact your daughter’s classroom teacher or Mr Richards (Upper School) or Miss Proctor (Lower School).