English
English at Finborough School is endowed with a very experienced, widely skilled and highly qualified staff with specialists in literature, language and learning support:
Anne Macmillan has a BA in Literature and Philosophy, and an MA in English Literature and a PGCE in English and Humanities. Aside from teaching History and English for 17 years, Anne has been a writer and publisher of children’s novels and her own children’s writing magazine. She has also been a Publishing Editor and a Review Editor for British and American poetry magazines. She is currently a sub-examiner with the country’s largest exam board.
Above all Anne is a multi-talented and hugely creative teacher with extra-ordinary empathy and compassion and when she is not teaching English from S1 to A-level she can be found directing a production in the Drama Studio. Unsurprisingly, she is held in the highest regard by her pupils, parents and colleagues.
Sandra Green, teaches S1 English. She is a marvellous teacher whose traditional methods and creative vision ensure her pupils emerge with a sensible mix of ‘traditional foundations’ and creative flair. Sandra has a penchant for performance skills and coached her pupils to fantastic achievements in the Sudbury and Suffolk speech and drama festivals.
Her experience and certainty about what matters in English studies produces well-rounded pupils who are confident and eloquent speakers, charming and articulate writers, with excellent debating and comprehension abilities – with social graces to match, just like Mrs Green!
Amanda Harrold is a graduate who heads up the Learning Support unit - she specialised in Dyslexia amongst other things and she and Judith Barker work with the senior school pupils and staff very closely. Amanda is passionate about the issues of learning support and is a very incisive thinker, able to combine current thinking in the field with good practise. Her close work with the English staff is critical to the strides learning support pupils make.
Gwynn Rapsey as a language specialist teaches some middle years classes. She is a very good teacher with clear ideas based upon years of teaching and learning support. She can be relied upon to pick up underlying language problems and support intervention.
Chester Style, who heads the English department, has a BA in History and Psychology and a Masters in English Second Language Studies. Prior to teaching at Finborough he taught for 15 years at SACS, Cape Town, where he was School Counsellor for some 10 years as well as an English and History Master before being appointed Deputy Headmaster.
Chester was widely involved in various professional organisations and initiatives that worked to create ‘signposts to post-apartheid South African education’. He co-authored a new history textbook in 2005.
English teaching at Finborough is based upon the progressive ‘communicative’ approach and philosophy. It seeks to develop engaged and critically minded pupils who can articulate their own opinions and judgements about ideas and literature.
Language and literature study is about the literacy and mechanics, art and aesthetics, of English across a range of contexts and genres – from film to drama, journalism to the internet, poetry to prose – looking at diverse issues: from gender to race, class to the ‘crass’, genocide to liberation, love to hate, fashion to sci-fi ! English studies are also about emotional intelligence and empathy: developing a moral as well as intellectual aesthetic. We place a great emphasis upon reading; our pupils read in every lesson of every week with regular Library visits where a specialist Librarian supports our reading programme - in tandem with the Learning Support department’s reading assessment and development policy.
Pupils at Finborough School are offered English and English Literature at GCSE and GCE - where our results have been outstanding and continue to improve year-on-year. A good proportion of former pupils have opted for University study and been interviewed for entrance to Oxford.
The syllabus is broad and richly varied. All classes study an ‘enhanced’ National Curriculum and pupils make excellent progress and reach excellent levels of attainment - Ofsted/ ISI Inspection visits have highlighted the quality of teaching and learning at Finborough School across the Keystages.
