Welcome to the English Department

Staff

Mrs M. Liddane	Director of English
Miss D. Bizley	KS5 Lead
Mr J. Fleming	KS4 Lead, Lead Practitioner
Miss B. Gorman	KS3 Lead, Year 9 English Lead, School Literacy Lead
Mrs L. McGrory	English Teacher, KS3 Teaching and Learning Lead
Miss T. Khatun	Year 7 English Lead
Miss Y. McManus	Year 8 English Lead
Mr W. Bullow-Iredale	English Teacher
Miss J. Compton	English Teacher
Miss A. Adams	English Teacher
Miss P. Masasu	English Teacher

 

Introduction

The department vision is to nurture and develop a love of literature, language and words for all students, taking into account the needs and styles of all students so that everyone experiences success. We want to foster ‘reader wonder’ with students by demonstrating this ourselves and sharing it with students to create an aspirational high achievement culture.

The English department aims to empower students – when they write essays or in creative pieces of writing, they give themselves a voice to give opinions and share thoughts and ideas drawing on morals and values. This creates successful learners and confident individuals who enjoy learning and have pride in their achievements. Our vision is to give students a profound appreciation of the spoken and written word and equip them with the skills to express themselves confidently in a variety of situations, both in and outside of the classroom. Knowledge acquired in English has a positive influence on all other curriculum subjects and is vital in any walk of life. All students have access to a rich foundation of knowledge with high challenge. There is a culture of learning and a passion for literature and language that extends beyond the classroom across all Key Stages. Students are helped to become fluent writers who can use language with confidence. They are introduced to a wide range of texts which they will read, analyse and perceptively compare throughout their years of study.

 

Key Stage 3

At KS3, students are engaged through a diverse curriculum that fosters a love of literature, develops social awareness and hones our students’ ability to express themselves through writing and speech. 

Year 7:

Dystopian Literature: The Hunger Games
The History of English
Shakespearean Comedy: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Love and Relationships: Poetry
Gothic Literature: Frankenstein
Greek Mythology

Year 8:

A Christmas Carol
Victorian Extracts (exploring famous Victorian characters and settings)
Tragedy: Doctor Faustus
Biblical and Mythical Allusions in Literature
The Young Adult Novel – Ghost Boys
Literary Timeline Poetry

Year 9:
Shakespearean Tragedy: Romeo and Juliet
Gothic Short Stories
Global Literature
Social Commentary
Animal Farm
Political Poetry

 

Key Stage 4 English Language & Literature 

English Language 

English Language develops articulate, knowledgeable young people who can express viewpoints confidently and concisely.  Indeed, students develop a profound appreciation of the written and spoken word and become equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to express themselves with confidence, both in and outside of the classroom.  This specification develops students’ abilities to read a wide range of texts fluently and with critical understanding that in turn will improve their own writing.  

Students will follow AQA English Language and will sit two exam papers: 
Paper 1- Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing 
Paper 2- Writers’ Viewpoints and Perspectives 

English Literature: 

English Literature develops students who can confidently engage with, and independently interpret, a range of literature texts.  English Literature aims to nurture and develop a love of literature, language and words, taking into account the needs and styles of all students so that everyone experiences success. Students gain an understanding of a range of different social and historical contexts and make links between literature texts and topical modern issues.  This specification develops students’ ability to read a wide range of classic literature fluently to develop critical understanding and make connections across their reading.  

Students will follow AQA English Literature and they will sit two exam papers: 

Paper 1- Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the 19th-century novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 
Paper 2- Modern texts An Inspector Calls and the Poetry Anthology: Power & Conflict 

 

Key Stage 5

Studying A-Level English at Trinity is all about exploring different genres, different ways of reading and different ways of writing.

English as a field of study is about thinking divergently and in an open-minded way, a vital skill and something that surpasses examinations. 

Our A-Level students enjoy the fact that there is a large emphasis on different interpretations, that they can have their own opinion, and their own way of expressing it. For us, English is all about broadening our minds and getting a better understanding of humanity. Both the courses we offer, English Literature and English Language and Literature, have creative writing components, and we believe (and research shows) that writing creatively about a text is a valuable and effective way of learning about it, and showing critical appreciation of it. We also believe that every text has something to teach us, and as such is valuable: we aim to define texts by what they taught us and revealed, not only by how much we liked them. 

 

English Literature: 

We study the AQA Literature B specification.

Students will learn to read creatively and express their own ‘voice’. They will learn to discover their own thoughts and ideas in texts. One way of doing this is by reading texts through different lenses, such as a Feminist lens, or an Eco-Critical lens. Multiple interpretations are encouraged. In essays students will get better and better at conceptualising an argument and constructing it. 

 
Our study includes:
Creative Readings
Independent Theory and Independence
The Genre of Tragedy
Othello
Death of a Salesman 
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
The Genre of Crime
Atonement 
Poems containing Crime elements from: Crabbe, Wilde and Browning
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd 
Crime extracts in preparation for an unseen question 

 

English Language and Literature: 

We study the AQA Language and Literature specification. Students learn that one way of studying texts is through stylistics: close linguistic analysis can be used to draw out meaning from texts. This course sees literature and language as interwoven. Students will also study Spoken Language, focusing on how people use speech to communicate, persuade and even manipulate. They will also study how English is always in a state of flux, and always changing. 

 
Our study includes: 
 Fantasy Genre
The Lovely Bones
The Five Language Levels
Poetic Voice through Browning poems
The Paris Anthology (with a variety of texts, ranging from YouTube adverts to blogs, spoken language transcripts to travel memoirs)
The Great Gatsby 
Writing from a new perspective 
A Streetcar Named Desire