English

Located in the atmospheric Dry Hill House, the Department of English offers every Tonbridgian the opportunity to experience the marvellous intellectual adventure that is reading and exploring great literature. The members of the Department are all highly skilled, extensively read, and passionate teachers of English Language and Literature, each with their own areas of particular interest and expertise. From their first lessons in the Novi until (for many) their final lessons at A Level, our boys receive dedicated and inspirational guidance through the avenues of literary expression.

In the first year (Novi) the English Department offers boys a very thorough experience of literature, whilst maintaining a close focus on the fundamental aspects of efficient and effective written communication. The Michaelmas Term is devoted to prose study, during which boys read a variety of material ranging from novels to short stories, and in this term they become accustomed to our methods of literary criticism, developing their awareness of literary structure, method and technique. The creative element is always kept in close view. Indeed, the English Department reflects T. S. Eliot’s claim that “critical activity finds its highest, its true fulfilment in a kind of union with creation” (‘The Function of Criticism’). The Lent Term sees our boys embark on Shakespearean study, and the text selected relates to the specific expertise of each member of the Department. Summer Term finds the focus shifting onto a close analysis of poetry, with a view to the final examination.

The English Department prepares 2^nd and 3^rd Year students for the Cambridge IGCSE in English Language (0500) and English Literature (0486). We feel this course, and its combination of coursework and examinations, best suits our students. The Literature course is academically rigorous, offering a wide range of interesting and appropriately challenging texts, whilst not overburdening students and teachers with unnecessarily cumbersome modes of assessment. The Language course neatly attends to the subtle acquisition of key written skills and techniques. Whilst the courses are distinct, we feel that this combination works particularly well for Tonbridge boys.

At present we are following the OCR AS and A2 courses, which best suit the high calibre of our students. The course at AS includes a detailed study of set poetry and prose, and a focus on Shakespeare and pre-1800 literature at A2. Perhaps of greatest attraction is the coursework element, both at AS and A2, in which a very free reign is given to each member of the Department to select texts from their areas of personal expertise. The Department has had conspicuous success of late thanks to this. Each year, a very pleasingly high number of boys have selected English Literature amongst their A Levels.

Beyond the Classroom

Beyond the syllabus and the classroom, the English Department offers an immense amount to the literary and cultural life of the school.

Oxbridge

This year’s 100% success rate of Oxbridge applications is a potent reflection of the calibre of teaching which takes place across the Department. Students who choose to extend themselves in this direction have available to them a startling wealth of experience, literary knowledge and sophistication from the members of the English Department, each with their particular areas of in-depth research across literature spanning the last five hundred years.

Creative Writing

Peter Carpenter, a published poet and critic in his own right, runs the astonishingly successful Creative Writing Society, which meets regularly and fosters the considerable talents of the boys we teach. Across the school, students are actively encouraged to submit their work for the Staveley Poetry Prize, an event which serves as an appropriately literary celebration at the conclusion of the Summer Term. Additionally, each year students take part in the enormously valuable Arvon Foundation residential courses. The immense success of this society is evident most publically in the prizes won by our students: Joseph McManners, Daniel Webb and Andrew Wynn Owen all were announced as Foyle Young Poets of the Year, and (most recently) Andrew Wynn Owen was awarded first prize in the 12 to 17 year old section of the Ledbury Poetry Festival Competition for his poem “Footage of Nureyev”.

The English Society

The English Society meets several times each term in order to expand the literary horizons of our students by introducing them to the work of writers ‘on the scene’ in today’s literary world. Visiting authors and poets visit the school throughout the year, delivering workshops and feature readings. This academic year has featured Christopher Reid (an OT, and winner of the Costa Book Award for his collection A Scattering), Anna Robinson (who recently published her first collection, The Finders of London), the poet and photographer Martin Figura, and the poet and lecturer on Creative Writing, Helen Ivory. We are excited to announce the visit of the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, for November 2011.

And beyond

The experience of English literature is inevitably one which we wish to nurture beyond the syllabus, and whilst Tonbridge boys will be guided to the highest grades, each member of the Department strives to ensure that reading becomes an enjoyable fascination for our students. Given the quality and extent of the Smythe Library’s collection, time is devoted in the cycle to reading sessions so as to instill this vital aspect of education. Additionally, and thanks to the masterful organisation and endeavour of Doriel Hulse, each term features a range of Theatre Trips to London and beyond. And so, alongside events such as the annual October trip to the Cheltenham Literary Festival (a weekend spent attending talks by some of the finest living exponents of literature), the Tonbridge English Department offers a wonderfully rich experience of English Literature.