Pupils follow the AQA specifications for English Language and English Literature.
English Language
Unit 1: Understanding and Producing Non-Fiction Texts (Exam worth 40%)
Pupils will be prepared to respond to unseen texts: analysing and comparing how they have been written. They will also be required to demonstrate their informative and argumentative writing skills.
Unit 2: Speaking and Listening (Controlled Assessments worth 20%)
Pupils will be prepared to communicate accurately and effectively for a variety of purposes: giving a presentation, discussing a topic in a group and constructing a role-play scenario.
Unit 3: Understanding and Writing Creative Texts (Controlled Assessments worth 40%)
Pupils will be asked to complete three tasks: an essay on one of the literature exam texts (responding to a character or a theme); two pieces of creative writing (a film review and in response to a given brief). They will also be asked to research and complete a spoken language study (investigating an aspect of English as it is spoken).
(Pupils for whom English is not their native language, will prepare for the single award GCSE English as well as the iGCSE Second Language course.)
English Literature
Unit 1: Exploring Modern Texts (Exam worth 40%)
Pupils will study two texts for this exam: a prose or drama text and a novel which explores cultures. Texts set for study could be:
Modern Prose or Drama
Lord of the Flies
The Woman in Black
The Crucible
An Inspector Calls
Exploring Cultures
Of Mice and Men
Mr Pip
Purple Hibiscus
To Kill a Mockingbird
Unit 2: Poetry across Time (Exam worth 35%)
Pupils will study a group of poems from the AQA Anthology, chosing from the following clusters:
• Characters and voices
• Place
• Conflict
• Relationships
They will also use the other poems in the anthology to prepare to respond to an unseen poem in the exam
Unit 3: Shakespeare and the Literary Heritage (Controlled Assessment worth 25%)
Using film as well as written texts, pupils will write an essay which links a Shakespeare play with another text from the literary heritage. This could be a pre or post-20th-Century text.
(Pupils will normally be entered for the Higher Tier exams in both English Language and English Literature, unless it was felt for particular pupils that the Foundation tier would be more appropriate.)