The English Department

Key Stage 4 - Years 10 and 11

English GCSE is one of the qualifications required by employers. If necessary, students who need to focus on securing their C grade in GCSE English will be withdrawn from their Literature exam.

English GCSE

Course Content

Broadly, the aim of the course is to develop your communication skills to the full. You will be encouraged, through a variety of teaching methods, to:

• communicate accurately, appropriately and effectively in speech and writing
• understand and respond imaginatively to what you hear, read and experience in a variety of media
• foster your enjoyment and appreciation of stories, poems and plays, including Shakespeare.

Assessment

Students are required to be assessed through a combination of:

• two external exams (one reading and one writing) each one an hour long
• three controlled assessments each one approximately one hour long
• finally a variety of Speaking and Listening assessments.

The external exams constitute 40% of the overall exam grade in English.
The four written assignments, which are part of the new controlled assessment structure, require the students to study a unit of work and then complete a controlled assessment in exam conditions. Clean copies of the texts are permitted. We are still awaiting confirmation as to whether notes are also permitted.

The controlled assessments cover a further 40% of the overall final exam grade. Finally, there is a Speaking and Listening component which covers 20% of the overall final exam grade.

External Exam

Unit 1: English in the daily world (reading, 1 hour long)
Reading: Non-fiction texts

Unit 2: English in the daily world (writing, 1 hour long)
Writing: information and ideas

Controlled Assessment

Reading: Literary texts (20%)

• Literary heritage poetry
• Shakespeare
• Different cultures’ prose

Writing: Open writing (20%)

• 1st and 3rd person narrative

Speaking and Listening: (20%)

• Communicating and adapting language
• Interacting and responding
• Creating and sustaining roles

English Literature GCSE

Some of the controlled assessment units can also be entered for the Literature exam, thereby reducing some of the workload.

Assessment

Students will follow a course assessed through two, 2 hour examinations (75%) covering two novels, a play and a selection of poetry. Students are also required to produce a piece of controlled assessment worth 25% on a further selection of poetry and a play written by Shakespeare.

External Exam

Unit 1 - Prose (different cultures) and poetry (contemporary)

Section A - 21% individual texts in context.

Different Cultures Prose

• Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck), or
• Anita and Me (Syall), or
• To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee), or
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Angelou), or
• Chandra’s Secrets (Stratton)

Section B - 14% (Comparative Study)

Contemporary Unseen poetry comparison

Unit 2a - Literary heritage drama and contemporary prose - Individual texts in context

English/Irish/Welsh Literary Heritage Drama 20%

• Othello (Shakespeare), or
• Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare), or
• An Inspector Calls (Priestley), or
• Hobson’s Choice (Brighouse), or
• Taste of Honey (Delaney)

Contemporary Prose 20%

• Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha (Doyle), or
• Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro), or
• About a Boy (Hornby), or
• Resistance (Sheers), or
• one other, to be announced

OR

Unit 2b - Contemporary Drama and Literary Heritage Prose – Individual texts in context

Contemporary Drama 20%

• The History Boys (Bennett), or
• Blood Brothers (Russell), or
• The View from the Bridge (Miller), or
• Be My Baby (Whittington), or
• My Mother Said I Never Should (Keatley)

English/Irish/Welsh Literary Heritage Prose 20%

• Silas Marner (Eliot), or
• Pride and Prejudice (Austen), or
• A Christmas Carol (Dickens), or
• Lord of the Flies (Golding), or
• Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve (Abse)

Controlled Assessment

Unit 3: Poetry and drama (literary heritage)

English/Irish/Welsh literary heritage: Poetry (taken from WJEC GCSE poetry collection) and a play by Shakespeare – chosen by the centre (but not Othello or Much Ado About Nothing).

Progression

This subject can currently be studied at A/S and A2 Level at Ely Sixth Form Centre.

KS4 Recommended Revision Guides

Please click here to download a copy of the Recommended Revision Guides PDF, compiled by the departments for KS4 students to help them select the best and most relevant Revision Guides for their GCSE courses.