St. Joseph's
Boys' High School
> Departments > English
Aims
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The English Department in St Joseph’s builds effectively on work undertaken in our catchment primary schools.
We aim to enable our students to become effective communicators in both written and spoken forms. Through exploring a wide range of texts, students gain the confidence to express themselves in new ways. English lessons develop the awareness of the power of words and promote qualities such as insight, imagination and critical inquiry, as well as broadening students’ cultural perspectives.
The English Department strives for, and achieves, high academic standards. We strongly believe that the teaching of English goes far beyond the classroom. We promote English across the curriculum, and involve our pupils in as many theatre and other relevant visits as possible. Already this year pupils have enjoyed a trip to celebrate National Poetry Week at the Navan Centre, working with acclaimed poet Maura Johnston. We have held a year group writing session in our Assembly Hall, where we collaborated with the music department on an Anti-bullying rap. Our year 9 students will visit the Titanic Museum in Belfast as part of their work on non-fiction texts.
Staff
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Ms G Brannigan (Head of Department)
Mrs J Muckian
Mrs M McGuigan
Mrs J McCrory
Mr B Fearon
KS3
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At Key Stage 3 pupils are taught in mixed ability groups, following schemes of work which include a wide variety of novels, plays and poems, ranging from Shakespeare to the language of text messaging and the internet.
KS4
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In years 11 and 12, all pupils are prepared for the CCEA English Language GCSE examinations; these involve spoken and written language and the study of a wide variety of poems, novels, plays, non-fiction and short stories. We build on the work from Key Stage 3 and aim to assist the pupils’ language development and to encourage them to read widely and with discrimination. At GCSE level, students can also choose to study English Literature.