If you want a faculty to lead a whole school dress up, then the English Faculty at Deer Park is the one to do it! This year, as part of the action-packed English Faculty in Focus, which takes place in November and December, over 50 members of staff joined our English team and dressed as Literary Characters for the day! Pupils were challenged to work out who the characters were, from what they were wearing, from the quotes they were wearing as badges and, if necessary, by asking leading questions. Read more...

This year Deer Park has had a Patron of Reading, author Joffre White, who has visited school on several occasions. His visits are always followed by waves of enthusiasm from the classes he works with, while it has also been invaluable to broaden their horizons and get them to think about possible career aspirations of their own. A wonderful motivator and brilliant writer,  Joffre's sessions have never failed to inspire our pupils.

We are always eager to work in cross curricular environments and no two subjects go together quite like English and Drama. The English Faculty now has a fully functioning wardrobe which has seen almost constant use during our various WHOOSH lessons in which, for example, the Year 11s re-enact Macbeth's dramatic finale or Year 9s participate in a mock trial to find out who is truly responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Although we have changed buildings over the summer, it can certainly be said that the sound of pupils both learning and having fun has followed us to our temporary home. 

Reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background. We encourage all our pupils to read for at least 20 minutes each day. Our Readathons in March, which tie in with World Book Day and raise money for children in hospital, are a great opportunity for keen readers to spend a day reading. September's Roald Dahl Day saw our English Faculty dressing up again - they certainly know how to grab our pupils' attention!

Working closely with our English Faculty, our Library (known as the PLC) has introduced the following in 2017:

• a display screen, to keep pupils up to date with events, information and photographs from previous activities;
• new board and card games during lunchtimes, funded by The Friends of Deer Park, encouraging sociability, thinking, teamwork and good old fashioned fun;
• new books for all reading abilities;
• new DVDs;
• and, most of all, a new Librarian, Mrs Hill!

News stories

1. Patron of Reading (January)
2. GCSE English Poetry Live (February)
3. BBC News School Report (March)
4. Writing Workshops (March)
5. Mini Sagas (March)
6. Readathon (March)
7. Private Peaceful Trip to Belgium (June)
8. Joffre White Returns (July)
9. Roald Dahl Day (September)
10. Faculty in Focus (December)