Secondary English News

A new term is a great opportunity to both reflect on lessons learned and look ahead to new challenges; two things that are inextricably linked.

So far, the academic year 2022-2023 has been a unique experience for all the English classes. And we look forward with hope and expectations to what this term has to offer at Braeburn Mombasa.

Year 7 - English students started with a kaleidoscope of imagination and knowledge exploring non- fiction and fiction informational texts. They are beginning to grasp the usage of academic language, and to integrate, relate, imagine, and wonder about the meaning expressed by the genre-specific language. In the process, they develop communication skills and strategies in comprehension, language, and text analysis.

Year 8 - Students are learning presentation and organisational features and are writing non-fiction texts while honing their note-taking and writing skills. As they read, study, and investigate published reviews this term, their knowledge and understanding of non-fiction texts is being extended to more forms of journalistic writing e.g. magazine articles and newspaper reports which they are also learning how to write.

Year 9 - The topic of the unit this time is on books from other cultures with a focus on texts and extracts from different parts of the world. Students have spent time working on and discussing themes from different socio-cultural contexts and then writing commentaries on novels and extracts from various cultures as they work on the presentation of texts. It was fun when they discovered this week that characters and events in a passage read from the book ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell, were quite similar to those in the Russian Revolution, a topic they are covering in their History class. This English/History cross-curricular exercise was an interesting experience for the Year 9s who have been reviewing their reading and writing skills as they prepare to sit for their Checkpoint Pre-mock and Mock examinations.

Year 10 and 11 - Before they started their examinations last week the Year 11 English class had a very dramatic lesson playing charades to recall key anthology poems and Literature texts they have studied. The Y11 students were enthusiastic about a different way of revising and clearly enjoyed themselves. Keep up the great revision work in Year 11 as you prepare to sit the final IGCSE examinations next term.

Some tips for students sitting exams, especially the Year 11 and Year 9 students who are about to sit the Checkpoint Pre-Mock and Mock exam in the coming weeks.

Read widely - anything from novels, newspaper articles, and blogs to scientific journals - and talk to as many people as you can, as often you can learn a lot from debates and conversations with others.

Most of all - don't get too stressed!

We wish all the students who are sitting MOCK examinations this term the best of luck.

By L.Mkok

Head of Languages