:: Bideford College Online :: Welcome To The English Department ::

Welcome to Bideford College English
and Media Department.

Roles and Responsibilities

Head of English and KS5 Coordinator: Sam Whatley

Head Of Media Studies: Sarah Hewitt

KS4 Coordinators: Shelley Lawson

KS3 Coordinator: Anna Flaxman

Student Voice Co-Ordinator: Katie Hill

Teachers of English:

Neil McKernan-Lewis

John Harris

Nick Bose

Katie Hill

Emma Trew

Felicity Stewart

Nathalie Marquet-Georgiou

Vicki Hollister

Within the department we have a variety of passionate and dedicated practitioners who offer a range of experience and skills. We teach a lively and varied curriculum and provide many exciting enrichment opportunities. We seek to inspire, engage and ensure our students have an excellent understanding of the world around them.

We offer qualifications in Edexcel English, English Language and English Literature and Media. Most students aim to achieve two certificates at GCSE and many students study with us at post 16 level. We believe that good literacy skills – in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, are central to the process of thinking - and are the most useful skill we can offer our young people. The work throughout key stages is varied and interesting and develops both students’ skills and enthusiasm for the subject.

We have lively schemes of work and regularly use ICT and Media technologies to engage students in learning. We run yearly poetry competitions and encourage students to participate in a high profile Public Speaking competition. KS3 participate yearly in the Carnegie Book Shadowing project. We are also fortunate to hold author visits in the Autumn term where our Year Seven and Eight students meet children’s book authors and we also invite local primary schools to share the event.

We are always searching for new and interesting ways to engage students and our aim is to create true independent learners.

Autumn Term
Students begin the year with a transition module titled ‘New Faces, New Places’. There are frequent opportunities for students to get to know their teachers and also their peers through reading and writing about interviews and also role play activities. The outcome of this unit is an annotated interview or collection, a written formal interview and to have taken part in an interview.

Following this, students will explore poetry through the theme of feelings/me; another opportunity to explore their own identity and those of their peers. They will produce their own poems using a range of techniques, write a detailed response to a poem and have various discussions about a variety of poems.

Students will end autumn term studying ‘Modes of Writing’ where various types of texts will be examined paying particular attention to the language used. Students will use these language techniques in their own writing and also a present it to their peers.

‘Very often talking through something can help to clarify it – or even generate new ways of thinking about it. We can use talk to formulate ideas, to grasp at semi-perceived thoughts and bring them into existence’ (Howe 1994: 46).

“Think Tank” is a new initiative for our year seven cohort which prides endeavours to make our students metacognitive learners. It relies upon a special form of ‘talking to think’ based on an approach called ‘Philosophy for Children’ (P4C) as promoted within the “outstanding criteria” from OFSTED. Lessons are planned around our ethos of dialogic teaching that emphasises the development of critical and creative thinking through questioning and dialogue between children and teachers and between children and children. Researchers have reported striking cognitive gains through this approach in the classroom, since the socially collaborative dialogue allows the pupils to work together in order to resolve issues regarding a cognitive task set. Roggoff (1991) states:

“Interaction with other people assists children in their development by guiding their participation in relevant activities, helping them to adapt their understanding to new situations, structuring their problem-solving attempts, and assisting them in assuming responsibility for managing problem-solving” (191).

‘Philosophy for Children’ discussion develops the kinds of thinking that children may not use in other lessons, including philosophical intelligence – the capacity to ask and seek answers to existential questions. Secondly, philosophical enquiry provides a means for children to develop discussion skills – the capacity to engage in thoughtful conversations with others. Thirdly, philosophical discussion of complex objects of intellectual enquiry such as stories enhances critical thinking and verbal reasoning - the capacity to draw inferences and deductions from all kinds of texts. Fourthly, philosophical enquiry helps develop creative thinking - the capacity to generate hypotheses and build on the ideas of others. Fifthly doing philosophy with children helps develop emotional intelligence – the capacity to be self-aware and caring towards others, providing essential practice in active citizenship and participative democracy.

These sessions have no assessment but are a powerful tool which both excites the students and gives them the confidence to explore stimulating and challenging ideas and concepts through the framework of speaking and listening. It not only strengthens their academic learning but also encourages their empathy for others and gives them insights into the adult world, as promoted within our department vision.

Autumn Term
Students begin the year with ‘Reading Skills’ where they will read an extract from a text (Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Cosmic and Millions) and compare how the characters are presented on screen with the novel. They will also create a piece of transformational writing and create drama based activities in groups.

Next, students will develop their media skills through analysing comic books with a superheroes theme. Using the codes and conventions learned, they will produce their own comic strip and then pitch their comic to the audience in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style scenario.

Before Christmas, students will begin a drama unit focussed on ‘Expressions and Feelings’. There are opportunities to read and annotate monologues, produce their own monologue and then perform in role to their audience.

Autumn Term
Students begin the year with a media focus through analysing and comparing TV quiz shows. They will produce a written analysis of an opening title sequence as their reading assessment. Next, they will create their own quiz show and also design the set, opening title sequence and prepare a speech to pitch it to others in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style scenario. There will also be opportunities to utilise the green room by staging their own quiz show in small groups.

The media theme is continued as they progress onto ‘Reading Non-Fiction’ through studying tabloid and broadsheet newspapers. They will study the front covers and the way articles are shown in various types of media. They will write their own article in the same style and also present their own front cover. Following from this, ‘Writing non Fiction’ will be explored through the mode of ‘Travel Writing’. Students will read travel guides and produce their own which will then be used as a stimulus as a presentation for their own ‘Wonder’. Until Christmas, students will read a variety extracts from the openings of novels to identify narrative hooks and features of description. The skills identified will then be applied to their own writing where they write an opening to an original story. Drama opportunities exist through role play of their characters in groups.

“There is good evidence to suggest that young people who read for pleasure daily perform better in reading skills tests than those who never do.” Department for Education.

An Ofsted report looking at best practice in English teaching in schools says that high quality English teaching combined with an innovative curriculum enables schools to create good writers and turn average readers into keen ones. They showed that creating the right curriculum involves teachers and staff encouraging pupils to read, express themselves and become independent learners.

Here at Bideford College we strive to encourage all students to develop the kind of independent learning skills that will benefit them throughout their academic careers and into the adult world. One of the elements of our curriculum is a new programme of study called Chat Room. The focus of this unit is on promoting reading for pleasure and therefore the only assessment that takes place in these lessons will be done through speaking and listening. Chat Room is taught once a fortnight to Year Seven, Year Eight and Year Nine through the use of progressively more challenging texts designed to stimulate thought and discussion. For example, in Year Nine, students may study such texts as Catcher in the Rye, The Glass Menagerie and Frankenstein, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations.

We aim to foster thinking skills in all our students and endeavour to incorporate texts that will appeal to students of all abilities. Chat Room is focused on reading for pleasure but also helps students to become efficient listeners, proactive learners, more accurate writers and more confident students overall.

At GCSE level we offer two courses:

Edexcel English Language and Literature and English.

The Language and Literature course is a dual qualification and is offered to most of our students.
The course comprises of a mixture of contemporary language studies, cultural understanding and literary heritage prose in the form of Shakespeare, Jekyll and Hyde and Rani and Sukh. The English GCSE single qualification consists of a combination of language and literature studies, but in a more supported way by using both years at Key Stage 4 to cover the course content. There are fewer controlled assessments to complete and just one exam at the end of Year 11. Currently, both route options involve controlled assessments which students complete throughout their studies.
The courses also consist of a speaking and listening element which is assessed throughout, but also on a dedicated day where Year 10 students are off timetable and participate in various activities.

At ‘A’ Level the department offers two popular and very successful courses:

English Literature is ideal for students who love reading and studying literary texts. The course is designed to develop students’ understanding of the way that writers shape meaning through the use of form, structure and language. It encompasses psychology, philosophy, sociology, media, history and politics- all expressed in the glorious language of our greatest and most fascinating writers. Students study texts from different genres and historical periods including Shakespeare, other classic authors and more modern contemporaries. Units are a mixture of coursework and examinations.

English Language is designed to develop an understanding of the way the English Language works. The main areas of study are language variety and language change. Whilst exploring these areas students will also study the systematic framework of language, which includes looking at the components that make up our language.

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We are based in the Abbotsham Block of the new College.


Our Home in A Block	The Library	Media Suite	Student Study Area

We have access to plenty of computers – the department has its own set of laptops exclusively for student use in the classroom, and the library is on the third floor, which also has two teaching spaces and computers, as well as the usual extensive selection of books and magazines.

As well as the library, level 3 is also home to the College’s very own media production studio where we can create a virtual newsroom, ‘chat show’ studio, anything really!
In common with every other classroom across the new college, every room has an interactive white board which includes video facilities.

The Developing Reader - How parents, carers and mentors can help. Find out more HERE