ENGLISH

This year has been an incredibly exciting one in the English department developing our curriculum, fostering a love of reading and literature among the students and working hard to challenge our girls to meet their full potential. For many of our pupils, this year has been their first time exploring the imaginative world of literature and has opened up a new range of skills for them to develop and practice.

The department were delighted with the successful launch of Accelerated Reader in Senior School and the girls have enjoyed challenging themselves to improve their reading ages and they have been amazed at how their word count has increased each time they complete a book. Covid restrictions did not prevent the girls from reading their favourite material and they quickly took to our online reading platform MyOn.

In Key Stage 3 students have worked hard to refine their skills in reading, writing and speaking and listening throughout the year through a range of both classical and exciting units in addition to cross curricular topics and activities that promote critical thinking and global citizenship. Shakespeare and Modern Drama units provided pupils to showcase their theatrical flair and become familiar with key terminology for understanding dramatic performance. Non-Fiction units saw girls using the green screen in the VR to film news reports and get creative by developing and advertising their own imagined islands for travel writing projects. Literature units enabled the girls to focus on their ability to interpret and analyse how writers use language to create a specific effect. Exploring literature inspired the girls to write their own descriptive stories.

Our Key Stage 4 pupils have worked incredibly hard to work through challenging IGCSE content in two examinations. The girls have demonstrated resilience and perseverance when covering difficult material and shown a real enthusiasm and passion for the literature topics particularly Of Mice and Men.

I am proud at how far our students have come in English and look forward to their continued positive engagement next year.