English and Literacy

In English, you will develop your reading, writing, and oracy skills. You will start by exploring narrative writing, and then you will study a wide range of fiction and non-fiction over the year, including a novel called The Candle Man and a play called Paper Tigers. You will also complete speaking and listening tasks such as presentations and group discussions. It’s important to check and edit your work regularly to make improvements; this should be done in class and as part of your homework.

The smaller tasks that build up to each key piece are also an indicator of how your child is doing in lessons. All tasks help to build the skills required for either GCSE English Language or English Literature and we treat the GCSE course as a five-year framework to fully prepare our students.

Please note that the order of the programmes of learning may change for your child according to the needs of the teaching group.

In English, you will develop your reading, writing, and oracy skills. You will study a wide range of fiction and non-fiction over the year, including a novel called Holes, a selection of poems and an introduction to the works of Shakespeare. You will also complete speaking and listening tasks such as presentations and group discussions. It’s important to check and edit your work regularly to make improvements; this should be done in class and as part of your homework.

The smaller tasks that build up to each key piece are also an indicator of how your child is doing in lessons. All tasks help to build the skills required for either GCSE English Language or English Literature and we treat the GCSE course as a five-year framework to fully prepare our students.

Please note that the order of the programmes of learning may change for your child according to the needs of the teaching group.

In English, you will develop your reading, writing, and oracy skills. You will study a wide range of fiction and non-fiction over the year, including one of two novels; Buddy or To Kill a Mockingbird. You will also study Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  You will also complete speaking and listening tasks such as presentations and group discussions. It’s important to check and edit your work regularly to make improvements; this should be done in class and as part of your homework.

The smaller tasks that build up to each key piece are also an indicator of how your child is doing in lessons. All tasks help to build the skills required for either GCSE English Language or English Literature and we treat the GCSE course as a five-year framework to fully prepare our students.

Please note that the order of the programmes of learning may change for your child according to the needs of the teaching group.

In English, most students will be working towards two GCSEs: English Language and English and Literature.

English Language:

The English Language GCSE assesses the core skills of reading, writing and oracy. The course is mainly exam based (80%) with two units that are taken at the end of Year 11. Both exams are two hours long and consist of a reading and writing section. The other 20% consists of two speaking and listening tasks (an individual presentation and a group discussion) that are completed at the end of Year 10 and the start of Year 11. Students will be working on a number of assessed tasks throughout Year 10. This will develop their confidence when responding to a variety of readinq question types and develop their ability to write accurately and effectively with a clear sense of purpose and audience.

English Literature:

The English Literature GCSE focuses on the study of novels, plays and poems. There are two exams for this GCSE, one of which will be taken at the end of Year 10. This exam will focus on ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck and an analysis of two unseen poems. This exam counts for 35% of the Literature GCSE. The final exam will be taken at the end of Year 11. There are also two controlled tasks to complete for English Literature in Year 10: one will be on a question relating to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and the other will be based on the close study of two poems. The controlled tasks together account for 25% of the Literature GCSE.

The skills of close reading and analysing texts for Literature will also help improve students’ reading and writing skills for the English Language exams. The two GCSEs will run side by side; some weeks will focus on Language, while other weeks will focus on Literature. Often students will be completing work within a lesson that will help develop skills for both qualifications.

Unit 1: speaking and listening 20%

• Individual presentation
• Group discussion

Unit 2: exam 40%

• Reading section
• Writing section (creative/ descriptive/

exposition writing)

Unit 3 exam 40%

• Reading section
• Writing section (argumentation and

persuasive writing)

English Language

Students will start the year completing a group discussion on a given topic. This will count towards 10% of the final English Language GCSE grade. Individual presentations will have been completed already at the end of Year 10 (which counts towards another 10%).

The rest of the year will be spent preparing for the Unit 2 & 3 English Language exams. Both exams are worth 40% each of the English Language GCSE, and both have a reading and writing section. We will be working on improving exam technique in answering reading questions and completing writing tasks throughout the year. There will be ‘walk through’ and full mock exams at different points in the year to assess progress. Smaller classwork tasks will also help to develop these reading and writing skills further.

English Literature

Students will have already finished their controlled assessments and completed the Unit 1 exam in the summer. The final Unit 2 exam consists of the study of two texts:

• ‘An Inspector Calls’ by JB Priestley
• ‘Heroes’ by Robert Cormier

Both texts have an extract and an essay section to complete in the exam, which is worth 40% of the final Literature GCSE.