It’s great to be back after the summer break (and there is absolutely no irony intended) and I know parents everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief as little Johnny and little Jenny get out from under the feet for another 10 months or so.  It’s great to be back for several reasons: to see all the enthusiasm of the new Year 7’s as they arrive at ‘big school’ for their first day; because you find students you taught in past years have turned up again in this year’s class; because the holiday was a good rest. But perhaps the reason why it is so good to be back is that sense of achievement and a great feeling of pride we have in the results our Holyrood students achieved in the summer. Here is the English news in brief, in case you had not heard. 

At A level our students enjoyed a 100% pass rate in English Literature, English Language and Literature and Communications studies. 69% of students achieved A-C grades across the 3 subjects taught by English staff as A level. Some outstanding individual students need to be mentioned. At A2 in Communications Studies – Lucy Boyland and Finn O’Brien both got 100% in one exam and Lucy’s overall A level result puts her in the top 5 students in the country in this subject. At A2 in English Literature Tom Evans got maximum possible marks for his coursework and at AS in English Literature  Dan Grimstead got maximum possible marks for his coursework and Becca Lowe, Dan Grimstead and Natalie Barnes got 100% in one exam. It’s very hard to do that in English – get 100%! 

Film Studies is a brand new course that ran at AS level last year and 18 % of the students, with the help of gifted teachers, achieved A grades – 18%,  65% achieved C grade or above and 100% achieved D grade or above. A fantastic achievement for any course, but for the first year that a course has been run – these results are outstanding. 

Our GCSE results in English Literature were no less fantastic with a staggering 78% of the 206 students sitting the GCSE achieving A*- C grades (29% achieved A grade and above) and 98% pass rate. Last year (Summer 2006) 197 students achieved 54% A*-C grades – so we have increased the number of A* to C grades by 24% this year.  59% of the 231 students sitting GCSE Language achieved A*- C grades (No A* grades but 6% achieved A grades, 28% achieved B grade and above) 98% A*-G. Last year (Summer 2006) 207 students achieved 57.5% A*-C grades – so we have made a slight gain here also.  

In GCSE Media Studies 55% of the 40 students sitting the exam achieved A*- C grades (No A* grades but 10% achieved A grades and 30% achieved B grade and above) with a 95% pass rate. Last year (Summer 2006) 36 students achieved 39% A*-C grades – so a rise of just over 16% on last year – fantastic results. 

Finally last year’s Year 9 students achieved 75% level 5 and above which is an increase of 5-6% on last year – so well done to them . 

It was a very good year for the English department last year and so we face the new year with enthusiasm and a commitment to raise those results still higher. 

Changes to the English Department 

We welcome two new members of staff to the team Miss Baker and Mrs Lamond – welcome to them.  The English team is now located in A and B block – the main school block – and so we are easy to find, and to contact, for parents and students alike. 

Very important developments this year 

There will be an earlier deadline for the submission of Year 11 GCSE English written coursework. ALL students’ work must be handed into English teachers on Wednesday 31^st October 2007 (the day we return from the October half-term). Compulsory after-school catch-up sessions will be running this half-term to help those students who have fallen behind. 

For year 10 the coursework deadline dates are as follows: 

Assignment 1 – Wednesday 31 October 2007

Assignment 2 – Wednesday 9 January 2008

Assignment 3 – Monday 25 February 2008

Assignment 4 - Monday 21 April 2008

Assignment 5 – Monday 2 June 2008. 

We are getting students reading this year with a dedicated reading lesson once a week in Years 7 and 8 – all year 7 and 8 students will benefit this year from 1 extra English lesson per fortnight.  The English team has invested a good deal of money in hundreds of exciting new novels to tempt even the most reluctant of readers. 

This year for all KS3 students there are homework task books – which means all year 7, 8 and 9 students will get without fail a homework each week which will not require either too much or too little of them. 

Finally I’d like to end with a poem by one of Holyrood’s former students, Luke Kennard, who is doing very well for himself. He is a poet and this year has been short-listed for the Forward    Poetry Prize – the poetry world’s equivalent of the Brits, the Pulitzer or the Oscars.

Autumn Collection

Taken from The Harbour Beyond the Movie by Luke Kennard,

published by Salt Publishing, price £12.99

There was dancing but no music.

The liquidambar scattered its leaves;

I played jacks with the Innuit girl.

The clown’s morality tale was too prescriptive,

But we didn’t like the murderer’s song

Either – he was cruel and, worse yet,

Thought he was better than everyone else –

Which he was (a handsome, well-read

Man with an excellent singing voice,

A refined, finely nuanced sense of humour,

Sensitive to whomsoever he spoke)

But that was hardly the point; the point was

We began to miss those daunting certainties,

Expressing our loss through man-shaped   piñata

And festivals in which a chasm opened.

Many of us have our own versions of events

Engraved one over the other on monuments

Erected one on top of the other.

We wish Luke the best of luck with his writing and with the prize.          

Mr P Webber