English: at the heart of the curriculum. From the day you begin school until the day you leave compulsory education at sixteen, you have to study English language and literature. Why? In English you learn how to express yourself whoever is listening. You learn how to listen attentively, how to be a critical friend and how to communicate an important point, to explain your feelings, to ask questions. This takes time, as well as skill, so in Year 7 you will have four hours of English per week. After that you have only three hours per week to become the world’s best communicator – as a reader, as a writer, a speaker and a listener.

English is structured, interesting, pupils are lively, engaged and we love the enthusiasm the new Year 7 bring to secondary school – each year! We will read novels with you, study and write poetry, read and perform plays, write stories. However, English is not just about fiction. We spend lots of time creating and reading non-fiction. These texts are all around us, in magazines, newspapers, on the world wide web, in autobiographies and in texts which aim to persuade us (such as advertisements). Some texts aim to convince us by force of argument and reason.

Although lots happens in the classroom we also make a point of getting outside, going to the theatre or the cinema and inviting writers here to Lacon Childe. Simon Armitage, Melvyn Burgess and Pete Posthlewaite (the actor) to name but a few!