English

English at Trinity uses talk as its starting point and students are encouraged to express themselves and engage with others in debate and discussion. The school runs its own Public Speaking competition for students from Year 7-10 and all students take part in the preliminary rounds leading to a hotly contested grand final in the summer term. We also enter individuals and teams into external competitions. Drama is also used throughout the English curriculum both by the students themselves and by visiting theatre companies and trips to see performances.

Each year during KS3 students in English lessons study novels, poems and play and develop their own writing skills. We have an excellent stock cupboard, packed with interesting texts to read. Examples of texts studied include ‘The Hobbit’ in Year 7, ‘Holes’ in Year 8 and ‘The Tempest’ in Year 9. Students are taught to write in a variety of forms for different audiences and purposes. They are given a range of creative and transactional tasks, for example an anthology of their own poetry or the script for a TV news broadcast.

At GCSE students follow one of two paths:

  1. GCSE English – one GCSE
  2. GCSE English Language and English Literature – two GCSEs

All students study a Shakespeare play, poetry, including pre-20th century poets, and a novel. The Language and Literature course entails the study of two extra texts and an additional linguistics unit. Set texts include ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘An Inspector Calls’, ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. In addition, students study a range of non fiction texts and develop their writing skills for fictional and non fictional prose.
At A level, separate courses in Literature and Language are offered with many students following both. We are currently teaching A level Creative Writing to a small group after school.

Exam boards:

GCSE:

A-LEVEL:

A level Literature: www.ocr.org”

KS3 English Dept Reading List:

KS4-KS5 English Dept Reading List:

English News

Warwick Words Festival

October 18th, 2016

On 6th of October 2016, the Year 12 literature class enjoyed part of the Warwick Words Festival. The[...]

Visit by the Hornby Scholars

December 18th, 2015

On 3rd December the Communications Faculty hosted a visit from 11 post graduate students from the Un[...]

Leamington Rotary Club’s ‘Youth Speaks’

February 4th, 2015

On 4th February three teams competed in the Leamington round of the Rotary Club’s ‘Youth Speaks’ c[...]

At Trinity, the English department uses a range of methods to explore a variety of texts, ranging from Jane Austen to Wilfred Owen. For instance, we utilise the drama studio in order to understand and appreciate the texts that we are studying, acting out the concepts and motifs that are of central importance to the texts. Trinity is especially apt at prioritising each student’s own interpretation, giving us the space to engage with the texts ourselves (instead of being told what to think!).

Anna – Y13