Welcome to English

Welcome to the English Department at The British International School, Abu Dhabi. We pride ourselves on delivering an engaging and enriching curriculum that fosters a love of language and literature in your child. Our primary aim is to empower students with strong communication skills, enabling them to articulate their thoughts effectively and express themselves with clarity and confidence. Alongside this, we focus heavily on developing key reading and writing skills throughout all of our units. These are further developed with library lessons, and the embedding of literacy skills within lessons each week. English is, by nature, a skills based curriculum where we focus on developing these core skills over time; skills that will ultimately help students be successful in English and other subjects in school. 

In addition, we also believe in the transformative power of literature to broaden horizons, encourage empathy, and inspire critical thinking. Our lessons are designed to develop a deep appreciation for diverse cultures and perspectives through the study of various literary works. This will help to develop a lifelong love of reading in our students and we actively encourage everyone in our community to read as often as possible. Ultimately, our department is guided by the belief that a strong foundation in English is essential for future success in all aspects of life.

Our current learning

During term 2, our year 8 curriculum theme is 'Inequality' and January sees our Year 8 students begin to explore the importance of women in literature and expose the issues regarding gender inequality that exist in our societies today. Students will begin with a project around how the UAE is leading the way with female empowerment and what that looks like for today’s citizens. This unit of work will look at both classic literature and contemporary media to explore the issues with students working towards gaining an insight into such issues and how they can become part of the change that we need to see. Students will then write and perform a speech on women’s rights and become familiar and confident with their use of rhetoric in both written and verbal communication. This leads into our study of the first full Shakespeare text in KS3, A Midsummer Night’s Dream where we see the issued raised in the unit prior come to fruition in this text. This allows students to study a full Shakespeare text and become confident and familiar with the language as Shakespeare plays a role in not only our KS3 curriculum but in IGCSE, IB and beyond! Students will be working towards a reading assessment consisting of analytical paragraphs based on an extract from the play.

Curriculum Overview

New Starters

All new starters, and all of our students, are required to have the following.  

1. A device as per 'Bring Your Own Device' school policy. This will be used for a variety of literary research activities.
2. A reading book - students are expected to carry their own reading book with them at all times.
3. An active imagination and creative mindsight.
4. A positive and enthusiastic attitude to all English lessons

Resources List

Recommended reading and core textbooks required for this subject.

These are the most common websites that can support learning in English

Software List

You will need to make sure the following software is installed on your device as it will be used within this subject.

Ensure you have all the necessary Office 365 apps downloaded. 

• Microsoft Word
• Powerpoint
• Teams
• Onenote
• Outlook

Meet the Team