English taster sessions

Female student using laptop

Online or in person at your school or college* or at ARU we have a range of sessions for you to choose from. They can be delivered as a standalone session or as part of a build-your-own-taster day.

GCSE set texts Flexible — 60-180 mins

Are your students struggling with Shakespeare? Despairing over Dickens? We offer a range of specialist lectures or study half-days on key GCSE texts. These are participatory and aimed at explaining contexts and enabling engaged close reading of verse or prose.

Pre-performance talks: Shakespeare — 10-30 mins

Are you putting on a performance of Shakespeare? Our experts can give pre- or post-performance talks (ranging from 10 to 30 minutes) on any Shakespeare play to help explain the challenges and opportunities it affords in performance, or to situate it in its literary or historical context.

Create your own language — 90 mins

In this workshop, students will start to build their own language, inspired by invented languages such as Tolkien's Elvish languages, Avatar's Na'vi language or Klingon from Star Trek. Students will use basic linguistic concepts and apply these creatively in their own language.

Myth in literature, culture and film — 90 mins

We’ll look at an iconic mythical story (such as Pygmalion) and then explore how it has been transformed, updated and interpreted by later artists and writers - and in popular culture.

Edexcel 'Science and Society' texts — 90 mins

We can arrange workshops to support study of any of the four texts included in this grouping. This could include a mini-lecture, a close reading exercise, some consideration of film/popular culture and critical interpretations.

This is just a small selection of the activities we can offer. For more info and to arrange your personalised sessions get in touch: [email protected]

*Not all sessions can be delivered online or at your school or college. But we will work with you to shape the best experience for your students based on the delivery format. Timings are approximate. We hope you can join us on campus for one of them. Email [email protected] to find out how we can support your travel.

 

Anglian Teachers of English Network (EATEN)

The East Anglian Teachers of English Network aims to promote the value of English learning and raise awareness of the contribution of English graduates to the UK and global workforce.

We connect individuals and organisations committed to ensuring that young people, and those who guide them, are equipped to make informed subject choices. Our network aims to nurture young people’s passion for English language, Literature and Writing through their education journey and beyond.

Why partner with us?

ARU’s English courses ranked:

 

Meet our staff team

Professor Eugene Giddens: Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, children’s literature, and masculinity studies.

Dr Elizabeth Ludlow: religion and literature, nineteenth-century poetry, fiction, and life-writing.

Professor Sarah Annes Brown: science fiction, Ovid, Shakespeare, the Victorian novel, and tragedy.

Dr Bettina Beinhoff: sociolinguistics and second language, language and identity.

Dr Vahid Parvaresh: Pragmatics (language in context), Interactional and social uses of language.

Dr Tory Young: 20th and 21st-century literature, feminist and queer theories of narrative and life-writing.