The Regents Review - Winter 2015

The Regents Review Winter 2015

Departmental News

English Key Stage 4 Key Stage 4 students have made an incredible start this year. Year 9 students were given a taste of Media Studies as they started the year studying ‘Films outside of Hollywood’. They were introduced to media terminology, including mise-en-scene and cinematography, and explored these techniques in a range of clips, trailers and films, such as The ‘Woman in Black’ and short films such as ‘Love Field’. Some classes even went on to plan and pitch their own film ideas, planning for characters, setting, plot, posters and trailers. 9GY even went on to film their own short movies. If you enjoyed this unit, remember Media Studies is an option later in the year! Year 10 had an intense start to the year studying the first literature text for GCSE: either ‘An Inspector Calls’ or ‘Lord of the Flies’. They are our first cohort to undergo the new GCSE specification and have embraced this challenge. Upon completion of the novel/play the cohort sat a mock exam in the style of the new GCSE. This meant students were not allowed copies of the text to assist them with finding quotations or ideas – they had to learn these in advance. Year 10 approached this in a very mature manner and the English Department are incredibly proud of them. part of a national competition where students across the country learn and recite poems. Each class had a winner from their heats who then competed against the winners from the other classes on the 27th November. The winner will go on to represent RPCC at the regional competition in Winchester in the spring. Look out for further news of the winning students in the next edition of our termly newsletter. It’s been all go for Year 11 this term, who have completed their final controlled assessments – a total of 20% of their final language grade. Students have had to study spoken language and how we use and adapt talk in different contexts. They then went on to create either a monologue or a podcast, showing they could write for the spoken voice taking into account a specific audience. In addition, Year 10 had the opportunity to participate in the school’s ‘Poetry by Heart’ final. This is

Welcome The English Department would also like to welcome Miss Woolhouse, who comes to us with a wealth of experience teaching English in the North of England. She joined us in September and we are very pleased to have her.

10