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The Regents Review
Winter 2015
10
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.
In addition, Year 10
had the opportunity
to participate in the
school’s ‘Poetry by
Heart’ final. This is
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.
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.