English

The English Department at Aberdare Girls' school aims to inspire girls to look forward to the pleasure of getting lost in a good book: being able to empathise with the characters, understand the methods the author uses and respond critically to narrative devices. By the time they leave school we hope they will be confident readers, able to access a wide range of literature. We cover a range of texts such as plays - from Shakespeare to Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", novels from Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights to Roald Dahl's Boy   or poetry from Chaucer to Spike Milligan!

Girls have opportunities to write in a range of styles and for a variety of purposes, from formal letters to informal articles. We aim to prepare them for life by encouraging them to write to argue and persuade. We also enable them to identify bias in written and visual texts, so that they are critical writers thatcan manipulate their audience can also recognise when they are being manipulated.

We encourage the girls to become confident in speaking and listening tasks. We recognise that they will enjoy speaking to their peers and teachers if they enjoy the experience, so promote their use of ICT through use of powerpoint to boost their presentational skills.

There are many extr-curricular activities that pupils can engage with such as poetry writing competitions, public speaking competitions such as Youth Speak and Debating and creative writing challenges. We have been extremely successful with the public speaking competitions, regularly winning the regional finals.