English

The English Department team consists of eight members, who teach in or near the English block, where the departmental office is situated. We have a wide range of resources, including computer programs and videos, as well as a large book stock. All rooms have electronic whiteboards.

Our students are highly able and highly motivated. Pupils are setted from Year 7. In Years 7 and 8 this is in two parallel half-year groups; in Years 9 to 11 the setting is across the whole year group. Edexcel examinations in English and English Literature are taken at GCSE. At A Level, OCR English Literature is offered.

The department offers a range of extra-curricular activities for boys throughout the School. In Year 7 we co-ordinate the house poetry-reading competition, the spelling bee and the house drama competition, which is also run in Year 8. For Years 8 and 9, there is a house creative writing competition, while for Years 8-13 debating is a valued activity. The department also co-ordinates the School play.

We run a weekly English clinic to help students with revision and problem areas. In the Sixth Form, boys are prepared on an individual basis for the Advanced Extension Award and for Oxbridge entry.

The department also encourages external involvement in teaching and learning. Poets and novelists are invited to speak to year groups. Drama groups come in for Key Stage 3 and GCSE to present dramatisations of set texts, while theatre workshops on set Shakespeare texts at Key Stage 3 take place both in and out of School. We have forged links with outside drama bodies, such as the artsdepot theatre in Finchley, and organise a two-day public speaking workshop called Speakers Bank, which is run through the borough. Sixth Form groups attend lectures with other schools on their set texts. These are usually held in Central London and take the form of talks from university English lecturers. Visits to the London theatres are regularly arranged.

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