English Literature and English Language are taught together throughout the Lower School. We aim to provide a balanced curriculum in which every year group will study drama, poetry and prose texts from a wide range of genres, periods and locations.
In the Fifth (Year 10) every student begins the IGCSE English Literature and English Language course which leads to two separate qualifications.
In the Sixth Form we offer the choice of English Literature A Level or English Language and Literature A Level (for which creative writing and the analysis of non-fiction are taught alongside more traditional literary texts).
We aim to make students think critically and analytically about a wide range of texts and to develop a love of reading in all its forms in every year group.
Head of Department
Andrew Schagen
Andrew joined Benenden as a teacher of English in 2009 and became Head of English in 2014. He has been a teacher since 2000 in a wide variety of different schools across Kent. Andrew’s literary interests and enthusiasms have lead him to deliver seminars for Sixth Formers on a diverse range of topics from The Poetry of T. S. Eliot and Reading Literature in Translation to Steampunk as a Literary Sub-genre. He lives in Kent with his wife, two children, cat and tortoise.
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