As teachers at Christleton High School we share the aim of the school which is to enable all pupils to achieve their very best.  We try to foster self-esteem and high personal and moral standards and wish to encourage all members of the school to respect the world and its community.  We believe firmly in the importance of respect for one another which we hope to show as a two-way process ourselves and to foster in others.  We feel that English has a vital role to play in contributing to the development of the pupil  both as an individual and as a member of society.  

As English teachers we wish to continue to encourage and develop originality and imagination and to develop enjoyment and appreciation of English and English Literature  while at the same providing pupils with their entitlement to the National Curriculum.  Pupils are encouraged to visit the theatre and groups of Year 7  have taken part in visits to the Lake District as part of a study of Wordsworth.    The local environment is regularly used for creative work.

  In Year 7 pupils are taught in mixed ability groups.  They are grouped by ability across the half-year at the end of Year 7.  These groupings are regularly reviewed  but remain largely the same, in the belief that continuity and the formation of relationships are particularly important in a large school.  Groupings are based primarily on Teacher Assessment, supplemented by test results. 

Pupils practise the skills needed for the NCTs but we regard these tests primarily as staging posts towards GCSE.  Pupils discuss their targets regularly as part of their work in English.   At KS3 pupils are taught using a range of core activities based on the National Curriculum, including Inter-House competitions, designed to encourage high standards of Written Presentational Skills, Creative Writing and Public Speaking.  This work is displayed in classrooms and corridors since we believe in the importance of sharing good work with other classes and age groups. 

In encouraging pupils to strive to achieve we hope that they will compete against their personal best, a form of competition which we regard as healthy and which, we believe, will continue to raise the high standards which we set for ourselves.  Pupils are also encouraged to enter national and local competitions.  We have had a regional winner in the Young Letterwriters' Competition and many pieces of work in "In Our Own Words".

  The Department  runs a Computer Club for Year 7 to supplement lessons in wordprocessing.  At the end of their first term Year7 produce a wordprocessed display of their own Haiku poetry.  At KS3 pupils are taught Desk Top Publishing, to produce leaflets, news reports and advertisements as part of Media Studies in English and anthologies of poetry and prose;  use CD ROMs and sometimes  Data Bases as part of their English lessons.

  At KS4 all pupils study for the NEAB examination in English and most also study for NEAB English Literature.  Pupils are encouraged to participate in the Creative Writing Competition.  The Department produces a termly school newspaper, edited by KS4 pupils and Sixth Formers.

A large number of students study English in the Sixth Form, following A-Level and A/S courses in English Language, English Literature and English Language and Literature. At KS4 and in the Sixth Form pupils have participated in the English Speaking Union competitions and the Law Society's Mock Bar Trials.  We  also successfully participated in  "The Hamlet Project" where we were selected to take our entry to Germany.   

We are proud of our achievements.