The girls in Lower School follow a curriculum centred around developing their reading and writing skills in both fiction and non-fiction. Lessons cover writers from Shakespeare to Captain Scott, from Greek Myths and Arthurian Legends to speeches by Barack Obama and Greta Thunberg. We ensure they experience a broad range of genres, ages and forms. We also follow the King’s College ‘Let’s Think in English’ programme, which is a suite of high-interest lessons which are undertaken fortnightly for two years in KS3. They are largely oral, based on reading, open-ended questioning and structured group discussion, which increases students’ reasoning skills and metacognition. The girls are also given independent reading opportunities each fortnight to supplement the reading they do in class. We strongly encourage girls to read widely at home as well, challenging themselves to go beyond their comfort zones and expose themselves to some of the truly wonderful literature that has been created.

Pupils sit the Edexcel 9-1 IGCSE courses in Literature and Language. The work they complete and the skills they hone during their studies in Lower School stand them in good stead for the start of their GCSE courses, and the specifications followed allow for excellent extension of these skills. For the Literature course, pupils will complete two pieces of coursework (one on a modern drama text and one on a Shakespeare play). In preparation for the Literature examination, pupils will study a modern prose text alongside the Edexcel IGCSE poetry anthology. For their Language GCSE, the pupils will similarly complete two pieces of coursework (one is an imaginative writing response and the other an analysis of poetry and prose texts from the Edexcel IGCSE anthology). For the examination, the pupils prepare to analyse unseen fiction and non-fiction texts, building on the breadth of their reading. In addition, the pupils are taught to write their own texts: journalistic, non-fiction pieces and descriptive and narrative texts. Their command of spelling, punctuation and grammar is also tested here. Knowledge and understanding of non-fiction is of utmost importance, and exposure to contemporary issues and effective examples of non-fiction texts aids preparation

The English Department provides a wealth of opportunities for girls at all ages and levels to appreciate the wider benefits of the subject. We run the National Theatre’s playwriting national programme, offer a creative writing club for the Lower School, an Upper School and Sixth Form book group, a Shakespeare Festival for Year 7, the ‘Poetry by Heart’ competition, RSC actor workshops and a variety of trips and visits to the theatre. The year culminates in our annual writing competition – the Toubkin Cup – which shows off the best of the girls’ writing. Every year group takes part and for the shortlisted students we hold an evening celebration and recitation of the writing, which is judged by a visiting author. Many of these clubs result in girls being entered for local and national competitions, and Tormead students have had great success in these. Through the school’s Beacon Programme, there are opportunities for the girls to tailor their own learning beyond the classroom. We draw the girls’ attention to exhibitions, performances or talks we believe will be interesting and relevant, and many girls take up these opportunities, seeing the broad benefits of the subject in the process.