Key Stage 3

All students in Key Stage 3 study a range of topics in English to develop and enhance their language and literature skills. These include:

Year 7

Novel Study, Travel and Elements and Nature

Year 8

Identity and Representation, Exploring Shakespeare, Conflict in the Media, Dystopia NS Investigating Crime

Key Stage 4

The structure of these two courses is designed to provide challenge and interest for all students bringing English into the modern age.

It offers stretch and challenge to the most able of students and offers differentiation for those who need more support.

English Language

Students apply and develop skills across units including:

• Learning to read a range of fiction and non-fiction texts actively and critically.
• Creating their own fiction and non-fiction texts writing for a variety of purposes, audiences and forms.
• Learning to develop and adapt spoken language skills for the future such as presentations, group discussions and question and answer sessions.
• Demonstrating a good level of clarity and accuracy in their written English.

These skills will be assessed through two exams at the end of Year 11.

English Literature

Students study prose, poetry and plays penned by a range of writers. This includes:

• Contemporary and modern texts as well as texts belonging to our ‘Literary Heritage’ such as Shakespeare, poetry and a 19th century novel.
• An exploration of how writers use their language, structure and form to craft texts and how this leads a text to be open to interpretation.
• Be able to show relationships between texts (comparisons) and see the influence contextual factors can have on the creation and interpretation of texts.
• Demonstrating a good level of clarity and accuracy in their written English.

These skills will be assessed through two exams at the end of Year 11.

Key Stage 5

At Key Stage 5 we offer A Level in both English Literature and English Language.

English Literature

The course we study at A Level is AQA English Literature Specification B, which is made up for 2 exams and a coursework style unit (NEA).

The AS course/Year 12 consists of preparation for 2 exam papers on ‘Literary Genres’ (worth 40% of the A level), which will be a study of the dramatic genre of ‘Tragedy’. This includes an in-depth study of Shakespeare’s Othello, and Miller’s Death of a Salesman (closed book), then a collection of Hardy’s poetry and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

The final exam to prepare for is ‘Texts and Genres’ (worth 40%) which is a study of 3 texts belonging to the crime writing genre. These texts will be one prose text, one collection of poetry and one modern prose text. There will be an expectation to be able to analyse an unseen passage in this exam based on students’ knowledge of the wider genre.

The third component (worth 20%) is a Non-Exam Assessment (NEA) based on literary theory, which aims to develop independence in reading and thinking. Here students will study a poetry and a prose text, informed by the study of the Critical Anthology and students will complete a portfolio of two essays. One of these essays can be re-creative, which will be accompanied by a commentary.

English Language

20% of the A-Level is coursework-style assessment which provides opportunities for students to pursue their own areas of interest through a language investigation and develop personal and independent learning skills. In addition, there is a piece of original writing which encourages students to develop their own sense of style and creativity. There are two separate examinations each contributing 40% to the final A2 grade:

Paper 1 is based on Textual Variations and Representations and Children’s Language Development.

Paper 2 is based on Diversity of Language and Language Change as well as Language Discourses.

AS course

The AS course incorporates the majority of the topics covered at A-level, however it does not include children’s language development or Language Change. In addition, there is no coursework-like element to the course – it is 100% examination.