THE DUKE OF YORK’S ROYAL MILITARY SCHOOL

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

STAFF

There are three full-time and two part time members of this Department. The department usually share the teaching of A Level English in Years 12 and 13. The Department has been totally reorganised in the last five years, with all staff being involved in the planning and piloting of programmes of study and assessment schemes. There is an ongoing and successful INSET programme on which considerable emphasis is placed, leading to a high level of professional development.

CLASSROOMS AND EQUIPMENT

The English Department classrooms are adjacent to each other along one corridor, allowing easy and frequent communication between English staff. The rooms are spacious and well furnished.

The English Department is particularly well resourced, housing several thousand books (there is a wide range of fiction, drama and poetry), and is well supported by the School library. It has its own computer network, seven of its own video recorders or DVD players and a large stock of videos and DVDs.

MEETINGS

These are held once a week during a timetabled period, but on virtually any day of the week English staff have short informal discussions on a wide range of topics. The members of the Department work harmoniously as a team but also believe in retaining their individual teaching approaches and styles; and so although schemes of work govern what is taught there is considerable freedom for each teacher.

EXTERNAL EXAMINATIONS

All pupils in Year 11 sit GCSE English, OCR syllabus, and the vast majority sit GCSE English Literature, OCR syllabus. Each year about 15 Upper Sixth pupils sit AS Level English Literature (AQA 5741) and A2 Level English Literature (AQA 6741).

CLASSES AND LESSONS

Currently, the average class size in Years 7-11 is 16, but higher sets have rather more pupils than lower sets. There is no streaming in Year 7; in Years 8-11 the top set will be the strongest, the lower sets the weaker, but the difference between any two adjacent sets is not very marked. Members of the Department have a fair share of top and lower sets.

Classes in Years 7, 8 and 9 receive six, thirty-five minute lessons of English per week and one, seventy-five minute lesson of Drama. In Years 10 and 11 classes are taught English for five lessons per week whilst the Drama option operates within two, seventy-five minute lessons. GCE A Level classes receive the equivalent of eight, thirty-five minute lessons per week.

Classes are run in a purposeful but relaxed fashion. Every effort is made to improve each pupil’s command of written and spoken English and to foster interest in a wide range of literature. We believe that although pupils should be required to work hard, the work ought to be presented in a way that yields enjoyment.

Work in the English Department embraces four main activities - reading, writing, speaking and listening - and from the beginning of their time in this school pupils are involved in all four. Although occasionally the focus will be principally on one of these activities, in most lessons pupils will be practising at least two of the activities, often simultaneously, as in reading aloud from a book.