English

Broad General Education – S1 to S3

 

Students in S1 to S3 attend English classes four periods per week. Learning and teaching is varied and flexible to respond to the needs of specific classes and focuses on developing literacy skills which are transferrable across the curriculum.

 

In line with activities and learning outcomes in the senior phase, learning and teaching broadly takes place in areas of:

 

Creation & Production – Writing & Talking
Analysis & Evaluation – Reading & Listening
In English classes the vast majority of learning takes place using a combined approach with the above elements linking to allow students to develop their skills.

 

Writing

Writing tasks in the BGE phase can be extremely varied including the creation of poetry texts, pages from graphic novels, short stories and drama scripts. Students are also given opportunities to express their personal feelings and emotions in written work. The creation of practical, non-fiction texts also occurs with leaflets, travel brochures, discursive essays and reports also featuring in the students’ body of work.

 

Talking

Talking forms an integral part of literacy and English within CfE and some form of paired or group discussion often occurs on a daily basis within English classes. In addition to this students are given the opportunity to participate in more formal, focussed group discussion and debate. Individual presentation and talking also feature significantly in the BGE phase with students presenting to their classmates or recording presentations using digital microphones, cameras and I-pads.

 

Reading

In line with many of the assessed courses in the senior phase, the reading component of BGE is central to the skills development of S1 to S3 students. Most classes will cover texts across three or more genres within a session ranging from novels and short stories to plays, poetry and non-fiction materials such as newspapers and websites. Students are encouraged to recognise and understand the wide definition of ‘texts’ to include audio books, magazines, graphic novels, E-readers, radio and television shows and film – which is often studied as a main class text.

The school library supports the reading development of S1 to S3 students with regular reading periods arranged for most classes and reading challenge activities are encouraged to support reluctant and confident readers to develop at their own pace. Research, note taking and enquiry skills are developed through the use of the library ICT facilities and non-fiction texts.

 

Listening

Students are given the opportunity to study texts across a range of formats to develop listening skills. In preparation for senior phase classes in English and Media students in S1 to S3 can be exposed to audio texts including advertisements, podcasts, radio and television shows, short films, documentaries and feature films.