English

English

Head of Department: Mrs Gosling

Department Downloads:

English Language GCSE Guide
English Language A Level Guide
English Literature A Level Guide

Key Stage 3

Year 7

Students read a range of both fiction and non-fiction texts, exploring the effect of writers’ language choices. These include Drama, Poetry and Prose, as well as Media texts and writing from other cultures. They are encouraged to develop their own writing, adapting their structure, style and tone to suit a variety of purposes. Speaking and listening skills are developed through structured classroom activities and contributions in class. Reading and writing is assessed through means of both formative and summative assessments.

Year 8

Students read a range of both fiction and non-fiction texts, exploring the effect of writers’ language choices. These include drama, poetry and prose, as well as media texts and writing from other cultures. They are encouraged to develop their own writing, adapting their structure, style and tone to suit a variety of purposes. Speaking and listening skills are developed through structured classroom activities and contributions in class. Reading and writing is assessed through means of both formative and summative assessments.

Year 9

Students read a range of both fiction and non-fiction texts, exploring the effect of writers’ language choices. These include drama, poetry and prose, as well as media texts and writing from other cultures. They are encouraged to develop their own writing, adapting their structure, style and tone to suit a variety of purposes. Speaking and listening skills are developed through structured formal assessment and contributions in class. Year 9 students follow a GCSE style course in order to prepare them for work in Year 10. Some of the students’ work is assessed in controlled conditions within the classroom.

Key Stage 4 - Exam board: AQA

Students will study English and English Literature. These are two discrete subjects and there is no shared content. English Literature holds as much weight as English Language as a GCSE subject. Students are assessed by terminal exams which are sat in the summer term of Year 11. There is no coursework or controlled assessment.

English Language

The GCSE specification offers a skills-based approach to the study of English Language in an untiered context. The specification enables students of all abilities to develop the skills they need to read, understand and analyse a wide range of different texts covering the 19th, 20th and 21st century time periods, as well as to write clearly, coherently and accurately, using a range of vocabulary and sentence structures.

Paper 1: Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing (1 hour 45 minutes. 50% of GCSE)

Section A Reading: one literature fiction text (40 marks.)
Section B Writing : descriptive or narrative writing (40 marks)

Paper 2: Writers’ Viewpoints and Perspectives (1 hour 45 minutes. 50 % of GCSE)

Section A Reading: one non-fiction text and one literary non-fiction text (40 marks)
Section B Writing: writing to present a view (40 marks)
Non- examination assessment of Spoken Language Separate endorsement (0% weighting)

• Presenting
• Responding to questions and feedback
• Use of Standard English

 

English Literature

The specification takes a skills-based approach to the study of English Literature that is consistent across the genres. Exam papers are not tiered. Students will be tested on their comprehension of the studied texts and they will be asked to write about them critically and analytically. They should demonstrate skills of inference and be able to evaluate how writers use language, structure and form to convey ideas. Skills of comparison will also be tested, as well as understanding of the significance of contexts. Students’ written accuracy is also tested.

Paper 1: Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel (1 hour and 45 minutes. 40% of GCSE)

Section A: Shakespeare (30 + 4 marks)
Section B: 19th century novel (30 marks)

Paper 2: Modern texts and poetry ( 2 hours 15 minutes. 60% of GCSE)

Section A: Modern texts (30+ 4 marks)

Section B: Poetry (studied) (30 marks)

Section C: Poetry (unseen) (24+8 marks)