English

The English Department at Bryntirion is thriving on the many exciting curriculum changes taking place at every level. A mixture of old and new heads, the Department has a strong team ethic based on hard work and commitment to the pupils. We look for every opportunity to make the delivery of the subject as dynamic as possible within the classroom whilst also strongly believing in the value of a range of stimulating activities such as cinema and theatre visits, drama and writing workshops, visiting authors and external speaking and writing competitions.  Most popular recent events have been the now annual Hay-on-Wye trip, the 'Rotary Club' debating competition as well as a vareity of theatre trips. 

 

Key Stage 3

The Department teaches 6 theme-based schemes of work across the key stage, encouraging pupils to engage in a broad programme of activities in oracy, reading and writing whilst also ensuring consistent, coherent and progressive coverage of all of the literacy skills in the LNF. Pupils are given opportunities to:

  • develop their communication skills across the curriculum;
  • read a wide variety of texts in order to develop a clear understanding of different reading skills and the purpose of different text types;
  • develop their writing skills for a variety of purposes;
  • write with accuracy in terms of grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Key Stage 4

The English Department has enjoyed notable recent success at this level and is developing a range of exciting and engaging resources to help engage with the literature and language specifications. The Department maintains a high standard of academic achievement and pupil engagement by providing the following:

  • opportunities for flexible teaching approaches;
  • questions and tasks designed to enable candidates to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do;
  • accessible and engaging lessons;
  • opportunities for breadth of study and subject specific learning and knowledge;
  • ‘unseen’ material for practice of analysis in external assessment;
  • focused assessment of specific language skills;
  • opportunities for producing extended writing;
  • high-quality examination and resource materials.

Key Stage 5

The English Department has successfully developed the new GCE AS and A Level specification in English literature. As a result the outcomes are excellent and have provided students with the opportunity to progress to undergraduate study at a range of universities, including successful Oxbridge applicants. We really want to encourage our pupils to develop their interest in and enjoyment of literature and literary studies as they:

  • read widely and independently both set texts and others that they have selected for themselves;
  • engage critically and creatively with a substantial body of texts and ways of responding to them;
  • develop and effectively apply their knowledge of literary analysis and evaluation;
  • explore the contexts of the texts they are reading and others’ interpretations of them;
  • undertake independent and sustained studies to deepen their appreciation and understanding of English literature, including its changing traditions.

The study of literature should encourage enjoyment of literary studies based on an informed personal response to a range of texts. We aim to provide our learners with an introduction to the discipline of advanced literary studies by giving them a range of experiences inside and outside the classroom, including theatre visits and lecture trips, in order to present opportunities for reading widely and for making creative and informed responses to each of the major literary genres of poetry, prose and drama.