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, Mrs Chrysanthou, Mrs Healy, Miss Zanger and Miss Wood are all experienced 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.

Gothic Tales

Emphasis is placed on spelling and reading as well as targeting all the other very necessary skills to equip pupils for GCSE's and for life in general.  In addition the Department organises an annual Year 9 trip to The Globe and trips to any plays and films relevant to topics being tackled.  We encourage authors to visit Bethany to talk about their craft and visiting actors come to perform their plays.

There are many challenges in which pupils can take part.  The Spelling and Reading Challenge, The West Kent Themed Book Awards, the chapel reading competition, public speaking competitions and the junior essay writing competition, amongst others.

GCSE (Years 10 & 11)
There are five sets in Years 10 and 11. The top two sets usually sit GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature, AQA 4705/4710.  The remaining sets sit GCSE English AQA 4700.  During the two year course pupils will have regular controlled assessments, speaking and listening tasks and will sit an eternal examination at the end of Year 11.

Where possible we organise for visiting actors to perform plays relevant to the courses being studies and we travel to see productions in London.

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.

At AS level in Unit 1 (exam) pupils answer short questions on an unseen poetry or prose passage, analyse poems by poets such as Larkin, Tennyson and Wordsworth and study 'Clockwork Orange'  and 'Brighton Rock'.  In Unit 2 (coursework) pupils study two plays and write a 2000-2500 word essay.

At A2 level the structure of the course is very similar but the emphasis is very much on modern poems and poets in Unit 3.  Unit 4 (coursework) involves a further and more indepth study of Shakespeare.

Further information about A level English can be found in the Sixth Form Curriculum area.