The Communications Faculty does what it says on the tin: we study how human beings communicate with each other through language. Not just the English language, but also French and Spanish. Not just spoken language, but also the written word. Not just the written word as it lives and breathes upon the page, but also how it lives and breathes upon the theatrical stage and in the media today. Not just today, in fact, but across the centuries, as far back as the medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote in 1382: “The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.” In other words, life whizzes by, so let’s get busy learning now!

The Communications team is made up of eight teachers, each a subject-expert in their respective fields of English Language and Literature, French, Spanish, Media Studies and Drama. We all have our own dedicated classrooms and teach across all ages and abilities. The school library is our home-from-home, and where we deliver the Accelerated Reader programme to all KS3 students. We work closely with colleagues in school and across partnership schools within The Athelstan Trust to ensure that our students enjoy the richest curriculum, the most engaging lessons, and the best possible chance in their GCSE exams.

Most importantly, we all love words and language, reading and writing. It’s our passion. As the Irish poet W.B. Yeats once wrote: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”