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The English Department at Falmouth School is highly commended and prides itself on a really strong team and outstanding results. Ensuring every child develops a love of English is at the heart of our objectives and our teaching complements the individual learning styles of every one of our pupils.
English is about teaching you how to communicate well, so you can get what you want from life. It is about enabling you to write in different ways so you can impact on different people, or groups of people. English is about helping you to think. Your language ability will allow you to argue your way out of difficult situations, or even persuade people to see your point of view. You can help others by giving them information about things you have learnt or you know in a form that they can get their head around! If you can write well you can entertain people and even change the way that they are thinking, or what they are doing. If you can listen well and think about what people are saying, you will give them confidence and as a group you can all achieve something much greater. If you can discuss you will enhance the way that you think about the world around you and then you can get so much more from it! If you can read between the lines, and see more than the obvious in a piece of writing you will be more in control , you will be critical, and then you will have that strength to make your own decisions, and use a variety of different sources to arrive at them.
We want to help you find your own strengths in using language to think and communicate. All these possibilities for your future will then be within your grasp.
Key Stage Three
Our Key Stage Three syllabus builds on Key Stage Two and aims to ensure every child makes at least two levels of progress in both reading and writing. We use a careful monitoring process called APP (Assessing Pupil Progress), to ensure every child is aware of how they are doing and how they can reach their targets. The evidence of their progress is in their books; they also fulfil many speaking and listening tasks that are recorded by their teacher who feeds back the assessment details to them. Your child should know what level they are working at, and what level they are working towards in reading and writing. They should also know what they need to do in order to achieve their best.
We are incredibly focused on the transition between the Key Stages. This means that children who are coming up from primary school feel a sense of achievement and ownership; we aim to build on units they were studying through the summer term at their primary school. We also aim to develop the aspirations of our students and help them see beyond GCSE, perhaps continuing in English Language or Literature at Key Stage Five (the Sixth Form).
Our Primary Literacy Transition Teacher, Emma Owen, works closely each week with our feeder schools, building recognition and understanding of how we can ease the transition from primary to secondary. This is a difficult time for some students. We aim to become quickly aware of the concerns of each child that comes into the school, and identify areas of strength and those for development. This means that children feel empowered and secure, and ready to make the two levels of progress so essential in Key Stage Three. We work closely with underachieving children and provide close one-to-one reading sessions and support for them early on.
If your child has a particularly natural flair for English (and this is not always evident through writing!) it is our job to recognise this, through a combination of different factors such as CAT (cognitive ability) scores and teacher assessment and awareness. We will communicate with you wherever necessary and ensure that workshops and extension work are made available to them. Meera Tweed is taking Gifted and Talented students to Tremough Campus this term to provide them with a national Gifted and Talented intervention programme. There is also a creative writing club after school.
Key Stage Four
We teach in small mixed ability classes at Key Stage Four, providing an incredible amount of intervention and constant support. We ensure every child achieves the very best grade they can.
In Falmouth School, all year 10 students are offered the opportunity to study GCSE English Language and English Literature.
Over the duration of the two year course, GCSE English requires you to study three core elements – Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening. GCSE English Literature also requires you to look at these three main areas. You will also complete a Spoken Language Study. Some of the work that you do as part of your GCSE English Language, such as the study of certain novels, plays and poetry will also contribute to the mark that you get for GCSE English Literature.
GCSE English Literature will develop the reading and writing skills that you have in GCSE English. You will study a range of texts and then produce written responses to these. Over the duration of the course you will study:
- a play by William Shakespeare
- a range of poetry – both seen and unseen – modern and also poetry from the literary heritage
- a modern drama
- a novel – this could be a modern novel or a novel from the literary heritage
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The course is assessed by controlled assessment; these are a variety of tasks that will take place over the two year course; and by exam at the end of year eleven. Controlled assessment has replaced coursework but is similar in that the work that you do for controlled assessment will contribute to your final mark. It is work that you will carry out in school and, much like coursework, you will study a topic in the classroom and your teacher will prepare you for the assessed task. Unlike in exams, in controlled assessment you will have access to resources that you have pre-prepared and you can receive some guidance from your teacher. It is vital that students don’t miss controlled assessment tasks as these contribute to the final GCSE grade.
We are very proud of our results at Falmouth School, having attained over 70% A* – C last year and a 99.4% pass rate overall. Our attitude is incredibly positive from the start, to ensure that each and every child feels a sense of ownership and achievement and all do their absolute best.
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Our Courses 
