Welcome to the English Department!

Here you will find information on English at Bethany School. I hope you find it useful.

English is a subject which is vital throughout all aspects of school and for the rest of your life.

Our English department aims to:

• develop pupils' abilities to communicate effectively in speech and writing and to listen with understanding
• enable pupils to be enthusiastic, responsive and knowledgeable readers
• provide entitlement to the full range of opportunities necessary to enable them to develop understanding, use and competence in standard English

Mr Hart Dyke, Mr Cullen, Mrs Dorey and Mrs Alder are all extremely experienced full-time members of staff who teach English at Key Stages 3-5. Our personal aim is to make English both enjoyable and accessible.

Key Stage 3 (Years 7, 8, 9)

There are three sets in Years 7 & 8 and four in Year 9. The English Department works alongside the Framework of the National Curriculum for English.

GCSE (Years 10 & 11)

There are four sets in Years 10 & 11. The English Department teaches English and English Literature as an integrated course over two years. At the end of Year 11, all pupils will sit a GCSE in English and the top two sets are usually entered for a separate GCSE qualification in English Literature. We follow the AQA A 3702 syllabus in English and the AQA A 3712 in Literature

A LEVEL (Years 12 & 13)

At A Level we will be studying the EDEXCEL course 6ET01-4. The course is an exciting one and involves 40% coursework and 60% examination at AS level and A2 level.

Recent English Department Initiatives

Gothic Tales

 

We have organised for visiting actors to come to Bethany to perform their plays. We have had two Gothic plays performed, to support a topic of work on horror and we have also had Macbeth performed to Year 10.

The Year 10's were captivated by Simon Floyd's performance of Macbeth

In addition to other theatre trips, Year 10 has been taken to see the ghost story of The Woman In Black in London.

We have a High Flyers Activities group in Year 7 & 8. They have read many books in this club and have been taken to see the plays ‘War Horse', ‘To Kill a Mockingbird' and ‘Frankenstein' and the film, ‘The Golden Compass', after discussing the books.

Many pupils in Year 7-10 took up the library challenge to read novels in the Kent competition ‘From Page to Screen.' They were invited to a gala premiere and award presentation of the film ‘Stormbreaker'.

There is an annual trip to Shakespeare's Globe. In 2007 we saw ‘As You Like It' and this year we saw ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream' in May, as well as visiting The London Dungeon.

In May award winning children's author Jill Hucklesby visited the school to talk to the Year 7 & 8 students about her first novel 'Deeper Than Blue'.  She read exerts from her book and spoke to them about her writing career to date.

Sixth Formers have attended two day courses in London. One involved the authors Carol-Ann Duffy and Michael Frayn and the other targeted revision for Unit Six (World War 1).

The Sixth Form are often taken to the theatre and the most recent trip was to ‘The History Boys.'

Our Sixth Formers enter the annual Rotary Club Youth Speaks Competition…and win!