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The Sawtry Community College English Department continues to keep up with the changes to English teaching while maintaining the principles of engagement with challenging literary texts, both new and more canonical. Students in Y7 follow a programme which introduces students to the sweep of literary tradition in chronological order, studying The Canterbury Tales; Shakespeare and his theatre, looking especially at tragedy with Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth; Dickens in his social and historical context with special reference to Oliver Twist and finally a unit on recent fiction, following teachers’ own enthusiasms. Opportunities to use the department’s reading blog, ‘The Library of Babbleon’, have been written into the Y8 programme by including a library-based reading lesson every week, where the students use a Reading Passport to encourage a broader and more challenging reading diet.
The Department is also taking advantage of connections with the PTI. One example w
as the lecture on Tragedy and Elements of the Pastoral, given by Dr. Fred Parker at The Manor School (another Schools’ Programme school). Several colleagues from both schools attended this lecture, using the opportunity to share and refine best practice. The Department’s resources for Tragedy (AQA Unit 2) were adapted for dissemination to a wider audience and formed the basis of both a PTI CPD event at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge and the PTI’s pilot online CPD in partnership with Cambridge Insitute of Continuing Education. A Cambridge Consortium Event using the same materials on Tragedy was also very successful. The event was attended by five local teachers and featured materials produced by Dr Fred Parker, Professor Helen Cooper and members of the Department, and featured a lesson demonstration with a mixed-ability Y10 group who were studying the modern tragedy, Equus. Feedback comments from the attending teachers included these remarks:
‘Inspiring and useful for the classroom. Invigorated!’
‘Really intellectually stimulating. Inspired to teach a new text – really impressed with students’ responses to Equus.’
‘It was good to discuss literature with colleagues, to learn how to apply knowledge of Greek tragedy to the study of Equus and Hamlet and to remember why I went into teaching. An enjoyable day, focusing on what really matters in teaching.’
Sawtry Community College is a vibrant and dynamic mixed secondary school for ages 11-19, situated in the village of Sawtry, roughly equidistant between Peterborough and Huntingdon. It is a government-designated Maths & Computing Specialist College with High Performing School Status.
