“Fiction reveals truth  that reality obscures”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher and essayist

“The English Language is nobody’s special property.  

It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself.”

Derek Walcott

St. Lucian poet

Nobel Prize for Literature 1992 

English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.