English

English is all about being able to think for yourself, being able to talk and to listen, to read and to write. With English, you learn how to communicate with others, you learn how to express your ideas clearly.You learn how to think about an important subject and to work out what your opinion is. At Waltheof, we want you to be getting better at all of these things in each lesson. We want you to be learning how to be an independent learner, thinking for yourself.

What does that mean in practice? Well, of course, a lot of your time will be spent working on your reading and writing skills. You will read a wide range of different sorts of texts, fiction and non-fiction. You will read and maybe act out plays. You will study poetry from people who wrote a long time ago, as well as people still rather younger. You will also read novels chosen not only because they are great stories but also because they give you the opportunity to think about some important issues that are relevant to all of us, young and old. You will spend a good part of Year 9 studying a play by William Shakespeare. Students usually start off rather worried that they won’t understand a word of it, and end up gripped by the timeless characters and storylines. In addition, you will read a range of non-fiction; travel writing, autobiography, newspaper articles amongst others.

You will be building on the writing skills that you will have been developing at Primary School. We want you to be getting better at thinking about two questions: what do I want to say, and, how am I going to say it? So, you will need to get your head around writing stories, poems, letters, arguments, newspaper articles, persuasive leaflets and speeches. You will be working on making your writing more accurate as well as learning how to expand ideas into detail and developing a lively imaginative style that will make the reader gripped by what you are saying.

You will have three hours a week of English until Y10, when you will have four hours a week. In year 7 you will also have a Literacy hour. In this hour you will be grouped with other students who need to work on the same sorts of things as you do. The emphasis will be on improving the accuracy of your spelling and punctuation as well as improving the way you put your ideas together into clear paragraphs.

If you find English hard, if you find reading really difficult, you may well get special help to build up your skills in reading. This might be in a small group with a specially trained teacher to help you.

Waltheof English Department has eight teachers with a huge wealth of experience, commitment and enthusiasm to pour into your English lessons. Your lessons will all be in our rooms with bright yellow doors at the top of the Tower Block; so you get good views and you also get very fit, climbing the stairs!

Students in English know that they are expected to work hard and to put everything into their lessons. We know that a student who commits him or herself to working hard in English will do very well. We are very proud of the excellent results students get in English at GCSE. We can guarantee that we will do all we can to help you get the best result you can get, if you are prepared to work with us to achieve that.