Gallen C.S. has a very active and enthusiastic English Department that aims to excite, inspire and nurture our students’ creative, analytical, and critical thinking skills. The new Junior Cycle English specifications are firmly embedded now, and our delivery methods and classroom pedagogy are constantly evolving to align with national guidelines for best practice in education. We encourage our students to interact with a wide range of texts, films, plays and poetry as well as building on fundamental reading, writing, research, and oral/presentation skills.
Junior Cycle students complete two CBAs (Classroom Based Assessments); an Oral Presentation CBA in second year, in which they talk to their class on a favourite topic for anywhere between three and five minutes using a variety of rehearsed techniques and resources and a Collection of Texts CBA in third year in which students present several reworked texts for assessment. Both CBAs are reported upon in the JCPA (Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement) on the back of their Junior Cycle examination results document.
The Transition Year English course is made up of an introduction to the main strands to be encountered at Senior Cycle but also promotes and facilitates a lot of class discussion and debate.
At Leaving Certificate, students will study a Shakespearean play, three comparative texts (a film, a novel, and either another novel or contemporary play), and will explore a wide range of poetry whilst continuing to develop their functional and creative writing skills. There is also a school outing to a professional production of their studied Shakespearean play in 6th Year which serves very well as revision for the LC exams.
The English Dept. has also made a huge contribution to the successful introduction of the LCA programme to Gallen this year. Students study a wide and diverse range of texts and complete several practical communicative skills- based assignments over the two- year course. These include studied modules in personal and social communication, communication and the digital world, communication in media and expressing yourself.
