English consists of 3 subjects:

• English Language
• English Language
• Film Studies

Take a look at the Options Video and Long Term Learning plans for each subject.

Both English disciplines are taught at Park with a central aim of providing the best possible outcomes for our students through an aspirational, challenging, and creative curriculum. We aim to give students the skills and knowledge they need in order to succeed in whichever future path they choose. We will engage, inspire and captivate them with a wide range of texts from Shakespeare and Wordsworth to modern fantasy and dystopian authors. Students will be taught how to produce their own high quality writing – from formal letters and reports to a focus on developing their own range of creative writing.

All students, from Years 7 to 11, will be stretched through challenging and differentiated learning objectives to enable all needs to be successfully met through the classroom environment.

Extra-curricular opportunities are also widely encouraged. Recently students have been treated to inspiring talks by visiting authors from the Appledore Book Festival. Two of our students were winners in the writing competition run by ABF and were judged by professional and well-known authors such as Tanya Landman.

Aspirational opportunities this year alone have included the following: a trip to PoetryLive (Bath) in the Autumn Term where Year 9s and Year 10s travelled to Bath to see poets they will be studying for GCSE Literature; several students have also been participating in a creative writing weekend workshops with other schools hosted by West Buckland; two Youth Speaks teams have been working hard all academic year; and our Debate Club has provided opportunity to build discussion skills.

Our Youth Speaks teams have had considerable success in 2020, and at the time of writing, the Inters team are about to compete in the South West regional final.

The aim of the GCSE Film Studies course is to encourage students to explore diverse and engaging films through analytical, evaluative and production skills. A wide range of cultures will be explored through the medium of film. In addition, students will track the changes in how film production has altered and developed from the cinematography of classic Hollywood films of the 1930s, through to the explosion of the blockbuster movie in the 1980s, and to the technologically advanced films of the 21st century.

The course has a strong focus on analysing whole films and key scenes from classic movies: this analysis and evaluation includes soundtracks, lighting, mise-en-scene, costumes, props, dialogue and much more. Specialist writing such as film criticism will also be studied. Students also have a chance to develop some production skills and learn how to recreate and produce screenplays and shooting scripts adapted from current films. Students will also spend time focusing on the historical contexts in which key films were produced.