Gaynes School

Mrs Trebess – Head of English
Mrs Broadwell – Second in English (KS4)
Miss Guevarra – Third in English (KS3)
Mr Elsmore – English Teacher
Mrs Sertdemirel – English Teacher
Miss Silman – English Teacher
Mrs Allen – Learning Support Assistant
Mrs Farmer – Learning Resource Centre Manager

Dear Parents and Carers

The English Faculty is charged with an especially challenging mission. It is imperative that our students are helped to develop the high degree of technical competency and the literacy skills needed to secure college places, job offers and otherwise function as effective members of society. However, we also have a responsibility towards the personal enrichment of our students; to develop thinking skills and independent learning.

Students are at the centre of all good English teaching. Our starting point must always be what students can already do and what they need to learn next. The framework for secondary English tells us what skills need to be learnt; our task is to modulate this information to suit the needs of our classes. We provide a positive learning environment that centres on student led activities and collaborative learning, providing a variety of opportunities for discussion, assessment for learning and self-reflection. Students are made aware of what level they are working at, what they can do and what they need to do to move to the next level.

We aim to teach lessons that challenge all students to make outstanding progress. English lessons are characterised by rigour and pace: rigour in the demanding academic expectations that we place on our students and pace in the choice and delivery of teaching and learning activities. Schemes of work are skills rather than content driven and encourage teachers to take ownership of their own lessons; planning to suit the needs of the students in their own groups. Students hold English in very high esteem at Gaynes and have come to expect the highest of standards, and rightly so. We in turn have extremely high expectations of them as students of English, in terms of attitude, effort, achievement and behaviour.

Regular half-termly assessments of reading, writing and speaking and listening provide teachers with detailed information about every student’s progress; this is tracked and monitored carefully to ensure that students are working at least in line with their target grade and appropriate interventions are put into place to support any student where this is not happening.

Documents that you will find attached to the English menu include: Information about homework, curriculum overviews, information about assessment tasks, ‘Great Expectations’ behaviour policy and revision guides and revision and assessment calendars for GCSE students. We hope that you will take time to familiarise yourselves with these documents so that you are in the best possible position to support your child in their learning.

With each new year there are certain things that will remain forever constant: Our dedication and commitment to the subject and to our students.

Mrs Trebess

Head of English

If you wish to contact the Head of English by email, please address your email to: admin@gaynes.havering.sch.uk and mark it for the attention of the Head of English.