Year 10 & 11

English and English Literature are taught as a combined course at GCSE.  From the Spring Term in Year 9 all students are prepared for AQA Syllabus A for both English and English Literature.   Students submit a single, integrated folder of coursework – this combination of coursework and examinations leads to separate awards in each subject.
In English students develop skills in personal, expressive and informative writing.  They are required to master speaking and listening for different purposes, report-writing, note-making, speech and letter writing.  Comprehension is developed through these means and in essays where students extend and re-create the material they have read.  To support students’ reading and writing skills all students are encouraged to read widely and to borrow books from the School Learn Centre.

Year 12 & 13

Language shapes our perception of the world. The English Language course looks at how and why we use the words we do. At AS, students will be introduced to core concepts such as audience, purpose, field, genre and mode and how language communicates in speaking, writing and in electronic forms. Students will also explore how children learn language and in their coursework, they will consider language and representation. At A2, students investigate language in society and why language varies and changes over time. We look at accent and dialect and students in their coursework have the opportunity to study language issues that particularly interest them.