Beyond the Curriculum

Beyond the taught curriculum, the department provides a rich, varied extra-curricular programme for all our students. This includes regular theatre visits and workshops, study days and lectures by visiting authors. In addition, the English department runs competitions for all ages in debating and creative writing, and all pupils are encouraged to submit entries to national competitions. Sofar this year, a year 8 student has had poetry published in a national anthology, and a year 11 student has seen her work in the Watford Observor.

The department encourages creativity by awarding a yearly prize for Creative Writing for Main School students, and the Halford Clark Memorial prize for Creative Writing for the Sixth Form.

Just some of this year’s highlights:

The English Department has had another full year, with theatre trips for all year groups, author visits, and a Book Week in November.

Lower School:

In October, lower school pupils performed the ‘Poetry Ambush’ for the rest of the school on National Poetry Day on 21st October 2008, participated in an assembly with WGGS English staff, and took part in a week-long school poetry competition and assemblies.
Year 7 had a full week of activities as part of our own WGGS Book Week in November, with a wide range of competitions and quizzes. The week culminated in a Book Fair by Chorleywood Bookshop.
In April, 18 Year 7 pupils who are gifted in English attended a talk by children’s author Steve Feasey at Waterstones in Watford.
Year 7 pupils took part in The Times’ Spelling Bee. A convincing win in the local heat in Uxbridge took the team to Norwich for the National Semi-final, where the team put up a brave fight but were finally trounced by the team that became the final winners.
In April, Year 8 were entertained in school by a theatre workshop on Romeo and Juliet.
In May, Two Year 8 girls attended a Hertfordshire Gifted and Talented Masterclass at Presdales School with authors Michael Morpurgo and Pete Johnson.
Year 8 girls had the opportunity to go to a spectacular performance of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens in July.

Middle School:

In October, a team of Year 9 debaters took part in the national Rotary Club ‘Youth Speaks’ debating competition, giving a polished performance that qualified them for the second round which took place at Loreto School in February.
In November, best-selling children’s author Anne Cassidy visited the school to talk to Year 9 about her writing.
In April Year 9 were entertained by a visit from an in-school theatre workshop company, giving performances of Romeo and Juliet, and Much Ado About Nothing.
Year 9 girls also had the opportunity to go to the spectacular performance of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens in July.
Theatre visits for Year 10 girls this year were to The Woman in Black in November, The Taming of the Shrew in February, and Blood Brothers in April.
Year 10 girls gifted in English had the opportunity to attend a Hertfordshire Gifted and Talented Masterclass hosted at WGGS with best-selling author Anne Cassidy in June.

Upper School:

As usual, there has been a wide range of opportunities for girls to visit the theatre this year:

Trips for Year 11 included Blood Brothers in September, The Lord of the Flies in October and The Woman in Black in November. Sixth form groups went to see Twelfth Night in September, A Midsummer Night’s Dream in October, Uncle Vanya in November, Othello in February, The Tempest in March, Blood Brothers in April, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf in May, Arcadia in June and The Winter’s Tale in July. Sixth formers studying Stoppard also went to see Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, followed by a talk from Tom Stoppard and the opportunity to meet him at a book signing afterwards.

The whole of Year 11 attended the Poetry Live event in February, hearing such acclaimed poets as Simon Armitage and new Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy read their own works and answer questions about them. A student in Year 11 won one of only fifteen places to go on a week’s residential poetry writing course with acclaimed poet Gillian Clarke in the summer as a result of entering a poem in the Poetry Live national competition.

The Year 12 debating team put up a spirited performance at the local heat of the national Rotary Club ‘Youth Speaks’ debating competition, that qualified them for the second round which took place in Leighton Buzzard in February.

Year 12 and 13 pupils attended a wide range of whole day study courses on their set texts, with lectures from leading academics and experts in their field run by Sovereign Education and PSC. Oxbridge hopefuls attended Open Days at the Oxford English Faculty at a weekend in February, and in June at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. Each day gave them experience of seminars, lectures and a demonstration interview.
There were several entries for the prestigious Tower Poetry competition, run by Cambridge University.
The WGGS creative writing initiative continued to blossom, with even more entries for the Halford Clark creative writing prize.

Sixth Form prefects led and co-ordinated the production of a whole school WGGS English magazine ‘Uncut’ twice during the year, and helped with National Poetry Day events in October, including a whole school assembly.

Other Extra-Curricular Activities This Year:

• Drama Clubs Years 7/8
• Year 7 Reading Club
• Year 8 Carnegie Award Book Group for G & Ts
• Debating club
• GCSE Booster classes [Spring Term]
• Oxbridge preparation classes [Summer &Winter Term]
• AEA preparation classes [Summer Term]
• English Prefects helping with Reading Club, displays, resources, Open Evening and Sixth Form Open Evening, resource management
• Drama prefects help run Drama clubs.

back