English

English is a core subject. All pupils study English until the end of the Fifth Form and most Sixth Formers continue with it. We all speak English; our culture is a product of all that has been written and spoken in our language over the centuries. Our teaching at Fettes seeks to make pupils alive to the fascination of our great but constantly changing native tongue, and to foster their interest in reading and discussing all sorts of texts. In addition, the skills of reading and writing are essential not only for the study of other subjects, but for later professional life and we aim to teach these skills to a high level.

All pupils study English until they are sixteen, with most taking GCSE in the two distinct disciplines of English Language and Literature and some taking the Scottish alternative examination, Standard Grade. Both courses involve the study of a range of texts in different genres and from different periods, and the development of a pupil's skills as writer and reader. In the Sixth Form there is a range of options available. For A Level scientists who want to keep up their English, Higher in a year is still an option. AS Level and A Level Literature afford pupils the chance to experience a wide range of poetry, prose and drama and to explore the texts in small teaching groups where everyone has a chance to give an opinion. Students who choose the International Baccalaureate all study English, at either Standard or Higher Level, and will read a wider range of texts including world literature in translation. The Department has close links with the Learning Support and English as a Foreign Language Departments, and with the library.

There is more to English at Fettes than exam teaching. In the Sixth Form, university English classes, often led by the pupils, run for those considering reading the subject at university. In the past three years, all our Oxbridge applicants for English have obtained places. Debating is thriving throughout the school; the Vawdrey Reading Prize remains popular. The programme of author visits, run in conjunction with the library, has brought writers of the calibre of Bernard MacLaverty and Alexander McCall-Smith to Fettes and this year saw the first Fettes short story competition, judged by Keith Gray. If possible, the exam classes see their drama text in production, and this has led us on theatre trips to Startford, London and, this year, to Keswick as well as to Edinburgh.

Literature, then, lies at the heart of English at Fettes, but we range around other activities, as literature itself does: “It is the honourable characteristic of Poetry that its materials are to be found in every subject which can interest the human mind.”
William Wordsworth, Advertisement to Lyrical Ballads, 1798.