English
The English Faculty at Belle Vue Girls’ School works hard to reflect the Specialist Language College status of the school. As classroom practitioners our vision is:
- to encourage independent learning and ownership of English as a language, a discipline, and a shared culture
- to use our expertise to enable and guide students to become efficient, effective communicators
- to promote English as a source of personal, creative expression and fulfilment
- to augment students’ vocabulary and inference skills
- to regularly review our methods and practices as a faculty to ensure students’ learning is at the core of all our decisions
- to encourage a love of literature
- to build on and expand the cultural capital our students bring to their studies .
Key Stage 3
Students will be encouraged to enjoy and explore a wide variety of different texts in years seven to nine. Firstly, we believe that it is important to study whole novels and plays; therefore classes will read and discuss great works of literature, such as Shakespeare plays and ‘Animal Farm’. We also promote students’ own reading by introducing them to more modern fiction, such as ‘Skellig’ and ‘Holes’. However, it is important to introduce students to as many non-fiction genres as possible, too. Throughout Key Stage Three students will investigate and analyse: the differences between tabloid and broadsheet newspapers; different types of travel writing; advertising campaigns and much more.
Key Stage 4
All our students follow the AQA Specification for English Language and English Literature. Students study a range of texts, fiction and non-fiction. Assessment is by exam and Controlled Assessment; students are also required to participate in a range of Speaking and Listening tasks.
