English
English lessons should be a highly creative and motivating experience for our boys. We aim to build upon the many skills that have been acquired during their primary education in order to ensure that they develop an excellent understanding of the English language; exhibit the ability to accurately utilize and apply English in all its forms and challenge conventional perceptions. Through a diverse experience of language and literature, we hope to instill a passion for learning in a learning environment which is both supportive and intellectually demanding.
Reading
Throughout KS3 and GCSE, our boys will have experienced a diverse range of text types and evolved into sophisticated readers themselves, recognising the conventions and language that are apparent in specific types of texts. A variety of fiction and non-fiction texts will be studied:
• Fiction: Prose, Poetry, Plays
• Non Fiction Texts: Information, Recount, Explanation, Instruction, Persuasion, Discursive
Students will also have the pleasure of reading five prose fiction texts annually and will be expected to study in detail at least three prose fiction texts during each academic year. Our current selection of texts is:
Year 1 Prose
Chinese Cinderella – (Autobiography) Adeline Yen Mah
Clockwork – Philip Pullman
Holes – Louis Sachar
Out of Nowhere – Gerald Whelan
The Boy with the Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne
The Daydreamer – Ian McEwan
Plays: The Amazing Maurice – Terry Pratchett
Drama: Skellig, Ghost of Thomas Kempe, Shakespeare
Pre C20th - The Pardoner’s Tale – Geoffrey Chaucer
Year 2 Prose
Across the Nightingale Floor – Lian Hearn
Beat of the Drum – Survivor Series
Out of Bounds Beverley Naidoo
Pig Heart Boy – Malorie Blackman
Star Houses – Survivor Series
The Giver – Lois Lowry
The Secret Diary of Ann Frank – Ann Frank
The Wish List – Eoin Colfer
Plays: Extracts from Macbeth
Poetry: Hawk Roosting - Ted Hughes
Tyger Tyger - William Blake
Year 3 Prose
Animal Farm – George Orwell
Curious Incident of the Dog... Mark Haddon
Noughts & Crosses – Malorie Blackman
The Declaration – Gemma Malley
Plays: Julius Caesar – Shakespeare
Poetry: Keeping Orchids – Jackie Kay
Refugee Mother and Child – Chinua Achebe
Boys will also be taught the literary sills required in order to produce a cohesive, analytical literature response to the text that is being studied.
Written Projects/ Homework
English homework requires extremely detailed written responses, essentially in the form of a project. The VLE gives further detailed information about many of the assignments that are set at St Ambrose. It is not possible to state the timing of each specific assignment because the books, which stimulate the written projects, are on a rota. However, at least one detailed written project is set every five weeks. Homework is therefore set in detailed blocks and is integral to the assessment criteria. The possible types of writing can be categorised in four triplets. Students will regularly experience an eclectic variety of written experiences during their time at St Ambrose.
• Explore, Imagine, Entertain
• Inform, Explain, Describe
• Analyse, Comment, Review
• Argue, Persuade, Advise
The majority of writing will be completed as homework, using the mini books. Additionally, a number of timed pieces will be completed in order to prepare the boys for future examinations.
Purpose, Audience and Context
Since the best writing is known to occur when there is a real purpose and audience, all written tasks should be in a conventional format that students recognise and can replicate. These are not exclusive but can include, leaflets, brochures, diaries, stories, newspapers, web pages, magazine articles as well as the more formal demands of analytical literature essays, written speeches, discursive essays and formal essays that exhibit comparative skills. Some writing will be specifically taught with no class reader as a stimulus. Other writing will emerge as a response to the reading that the students have been exposed to.
Speaking & Listening
For the majority of St Ambrose students whose future employment will be in a dynamic environment, the ability to articulate ideas, listen sensitively and evaluate the opinions of others, persuade others through a range of analytical and rhetorical devices and demonstrate the crucial aptitude of summing up concisely and judiciously are all attributes that will be essential requirements in the workplace of the future.
Speaking and Listening has equal status to Reading and Writing in Teacher Assessment at KS3 (Years 1 and 2) and it contributes towards 20% of the final mark at GCSE. It is therefore extremely significant and is carefully integrated into the curriculum that the boys are offered.
Oral presentations are an excellent way of getting students to work collaboratively in order to solve a problem by agreeing a solution. Technological developments, like the mini-books, are having an exciting impact in this area and the boys are constantly utilizing emerging technologies to further enhance the quality of their presentations.