Year 12 Shakespeare performance

English

English at Western Springs College is compulsory from Years 9-12.

The English programmes at all levels are organised around module themes that cover the visual, oral, written and reading strands of the curriculum.

The department philosophy is to focus on skills that are needed for success at each level and are intended to build on the skills students arrive at the College with.
We work very closely with the Media Studies Department and use many different text types in our teaching.

Junior English
In the Junior school, all of the classes are mainstreamed and students are identified from within these classes for short term extension or remedial programmes as needed.
Students have four hours of English each week with one of those periods given over to Sustained Silent Reading in the library. Each term has a different module focus around a theme.

Year 9 Modules
Survival - an exploration of literature about surviving in the environment

Whodunnit - a module about the crime/mystery genre

Quest - a module on the fantasy genre

Wild Thing - a visual module looking at how comicbook characters are developed.

Year 10 Modules
House of Horrors - explore the horror genre

Blackboard Jungle - a visual module exploring portrayal of teachers and students in film over the decades

Elizabethan Times - a writing module looking at magazine writing in conjuntion to a study of Romeo & Juliet.

In year ten we have also completed a brief 'Careers' module in term two where students completed a short research assignment into a career they may wish to study.

NCEA Level 1 English
All students complete a full programme of 24 credits towards NCEA Level 1 English.
This year we have a class that has been titled the 'Literature' class which is for the students who enjoy reading and wish to read classical, or more challenging, literature.
The other classes study a variety of texts that appeal to their interests.

Bursary English
There are two Bursary English classes in 2004. Students are studying a mixture of the following texts depending on their specific class.
Robyn de Thierry's class have studied the poetry of James K Baxter, The Color Purple by Alice Walker and a study of the Language of Advertising. During Term 3 they are studying Othello and are preparing for the Analysis of Text part of the exam.
Shaun Hawthorne's class have completed a study of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt and research into the Language of Advertising. During Term 3 they are studying King Lear and preparing for the Analysis of Text part of the exam.