In English, all Lower College (Years 9–11) pupils take GCSEs in English and English Literature (both Cambridge IGCSE). Our priority is to ensure that all pupils have an excellent grounding in reading and writing proficiency and are able to express themselves, both orally and on paper, with fluency and control, adapting their language and structures appropriately to purpose and situation. Another key aim is to continue the work from the Third Form as regards imbuing pupils with a love of literature, giving them a sense of both the scope and the variety of literary texts. Through this kind of study, we believe that pupils grow and mature in terms of their own outlook on the world as well as their ability to communicate with that world.

In Upper College (Years 12 and 13) there is good uptake of AS and A2; currently there are over sixty pupils studying English Literature (OCR) in Sixth Form. The course will attract all those who enjoy reading, talking and writing about a variety of texts, ranging from those by some of the earliest writers in the English canon, such as Chaucer, right up to contemporary work by living writers, such as McEwan, Duffy and Heaney. Pupils will acquire a sense of the wide scope of literary texts, alongside an understanding of historical, cultural and critical perspectives on writers. They should be prepared to read widely across all the genres of literature, and to read critical and theoretical texts. It is also vital that they learn to use the opinions of major critics and theorists both to test their own opinions against and to gain a better understanding of the process of acute and illuminating analysis.