In Year 10 and 11, all students will take two English GCSEs: English Language and English Literature.

Skills

• At GCSE, pupils will continue to develop skills taught at KS3 in order to analyse a variety of texts. Specifically, students will analyse the the use of language and structure. 

• Students will also master writing in a variety of different styles, with and without an image to inspire them. 

English Language

• The English Language exam has two separate papers, both of which assess the pupils’ skills in reading and writing. 

• In the exams, students will be presented with a range of fiction and non-fiction texts, including an extract from a 20th or 21st Century novel and a piece of non-fiction writing from the 19th Century. 

• Students will be expected to answer a series of questions explaining the choices made by the writer. 

• In the writing section of each exam, students are asked to produce a piece of creative writing based on a given title or image as a prompt. They are marked both for content and structure and for their spelling, punctuation and grammar.

English Literature

• In English Literature, pupils will have the opportunity to study a range of texts from throughout history . 

• The core texts for English Literature are: Macbeth by William Shakespeare; Blood Brothers by Willy Russell; Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and an anthology of poetry called ‘Power & Conflict’.

Assessments

• Both English Language and English Literature are assessed by exam at the end of Year 11. Both subjects are compulsory for all pupils across the academy.

Potential career paths

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