Over the last term, the English department has been exploring a range of literary topics. From Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ and ‘The Tempest’ to R.C. Sherriff’s ‘Journey’s End’, we have engaged in discussions, debates and written tasks. To mark the end of the year, we have included some examples of pupil work from each of the year groups to celebrate all their hard work and efforts throughout a difficult year.

Year 7

Covering Shakespeare in Year 7 can be a challenging task for our students; however, they have not backed away from the challenge!

The English Department staff are very proud of our pupils in how they have focused on developing their analytical skills through exploring high-level language, vocabulary and concepts.

On top of this, we have challenged the pupils creatively, with pupils forming the opening of their very own story. This encouraged pupils to awaken their inner author and write the opening of a story inspired by a spooky image.

Year 8

Our Year 8s have continued their exploration of Shakespeare by focusing on ‘The Tempest’.

Like our Year 7s, the pupils have focused their attention on deciphering Shakespeare’s high-level texts – focusing on context and discussion to pick apart how the themes link into society today.

From speeches to debates, the pupils have explored a variety of forms of communication to engage with the topics.

Year 9

‘Journey’s End’ by R.C. Sherriff is one of the newest texts added to our curriculum this year. Exploring the intense warfare on the frontline during WWI, our pupils have been focusing their attention on closely analysing the impact, fallout and repercussions of the war on soldiers.

Their analytical lessons have focused around exploring the author’s impact and how personal context can help shape meaning in a text. As a department, we are very impressed with how perceptive, sensitive and engaged our pupils have been whilst exploring this topic.

Year 10

Year 10 pupils have been focusing on revising key topics in preparation for their year end mocks – which they have all worked extremely hard for. We are proud of the efforts of all our pupils, and hope they are as proud of themselves as we are!

We look forward to seeing their continued effort into Year 11 and continuing to watch their progress throughout their final year in their GCSEs.