English
English Language
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Powerful Knowledge |
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GCSE English Language is predominantly a skills- based course which allows all students to develop and progress as competent and increasingly sophisticated communicators, being able to read, write and speak in a range of contexts with insight, flexibility and fluency. The Eduqas GCSE in English Language enables learners to:
Spoken language will be reported on as part of the qualification, but it does not form part of the final mark and grade. A key aim of this specification is to encourage candidates to produce high-quality texts in their Writing responses. To help learners achieve this, assessment materials will ensure that high-quality texts will be studied as part of the Reading assessment. These may be beneficial to learners as a model for their own writing. In lessons, teachers will focus on modelling high standards of reading, writing and spoken language. Teachers will make explicit the different types of reading highly effective readers utilise for different purposes - skimming and scanning, inference, deduction, summarising and comparing and evaluating. Students will be taught to understand the importance of form, register and formality and how these considerations are significant in making choices as skilful writers. |
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Literacy |
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Reading, writing and speaking and listening are at the heart of all teaching and learning of English. The curriculum allows opportunities for students to be introduced to a range of language throughout the ages in preparation for their GCSE course. Topics are grouped thematically and allow students to explore Shakespeare and 19th Century texts at KS3 Teachers support students with their literacy by allowing supported reading, group activities and discussions as well as modelling fluent and expressive reading and decoding. Students are exposed to archaic and challenging vocabulary in 19th century texts. Teachers support students to use different morphological and contextual clues to promote greater reading fluency and confidence. Marking and feedback includes FIT tasks to be set to encourage students to develop and expand their critical and analytical vocabulary and be able to express their arguments and interpretations in a more nuanced manner. |
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School Context |
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The fundamental importance of having students leave KS4 with both a good pass at GCSE English Language and as effective and competent readers and writers of English is emphasised throughout the GCSE course and, prior to this, at KS3. All exam questions are skills based and use unseen texts so there is much emphasis on developing students’ confidence and independence as readers and writers. For success at GCSE English Language, students should be able to use both spoken and written Standard English and be aware of accepted, formal conventions of syntax, punctuation, standard spelling and text organisation. |
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Assessment |
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Throughout the GCSE course students have regular assessments set in class, for homework and during mock exams which allow them to progress and be fully prepared for the final GCSE exams. These are assessed using the Eduqas assessment criteria and student feedback is often in the form of the Eduqas marking criteria highlighting skills met so that students are clear what they have achieved and what they need next to do to progress further. Modelling by the teacher live in class or in the form of exemplar answers is an integral part of all assessment. All practice questions and mock exam results are tracked by the subject leader on and through regular data drops so there is a comprehensive bank of evidence for each student to map and monitor their progress throughout Years 10 and 11. Final GCSE exams Component 1 - 20th Century Literature Reading and Creative Prose Writing 40% of GCSE Section A (20%) – Reading Understanding of one prose extract (about 60-100 lines) of literature from the 20th century assessed through a range of structured questions Section B (20%) – Prose Writing One creative writing task selected from a choice of four titles Component 2 - 19th and 21st Non Fiction Reading and Transactional/Persuasive Writing 60% of GCSE Section A (30%) – Reading Understanding of two extracts (about 900-1200 words in total) of high-quality non-fiction writing, one from the 19th century, the other from the 21st century, assessed through a range of structured questions Section B (30%) – Writing Two compulsory transactional/persuasive writing tasks Component 3 - NEA Spoken Language Endorsement 0% Unweighted One presentation/speech, including responses to questions and feedback Achievement in Spoken Language will be reported as part of the qualification, but it will not form part of the final mark and grade |
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Careers |
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Teachers stress the importance of English as being essential for all roles of work and further study. Students are aware of the need to be able to read and write to a high standard as well as to communicate effectively if they would like to enter the world of work. The idea of staying to 6th form is embedded throughout KS4 and the Eduqas GCSE course provides an excellent springboard to both English A level and other disciplines where reading, assimilating and evaluating information critically and with precision is central to further study. . |
English Literature
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Powerful Knowledge |
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The Eduqas GCSE in English Literature encourages learners to develop knowledge and skills in reading, writing and critical thinking. It provides learners with opportunities to read widely for pleasure across a range of high quality texts in the genres of prose, poetry and drama and to develop an understanding of how literature is both rich and influential. It enables learners to make connections across their reading and develop a clear understanding of literary works and also prepares them for the study of literature at a higher level. Key skills which students develop for GCSE English Literature are: To read a wide range of classic literature fluently and with good understanding, and make connections across their reading To read in depth, critically and evaluatively, so that they are able to discuss and explain their understanding and ideas To develop the habit of reading widely and often To appreciate the depth and power of the English literary heritage To write accurately, effectively and analytically about their reading, using Standard English To acquire and use a wide vocabulary, including the grammatical terminology and other literary and linguistic terms to allow for response, analysis and evaluation of the texts studied. Students at Stowupland High School study four texts across the GCSE course in order to meet the rubric requirements for the Eduqas GCSE - a range of post- 1770 poems from the Eduqas Anthology; a Shakespeare play (Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet); a post 1914 play (An Inspector Calls, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-tIme or Blood Brothers) and a 19th century novel (Jekyll and Hyde, A Christmas Carol or Silas Marner.) Students are taught to consider and evaluate the importance of wider contextual issues relating to the writers’ lives, social and historical background and literary period and genre when studying the Eduqas poetry and the 19th century novel where context is a key assessment objective. For all texts, students learn about the writers’ intentions and how their choices of structure, form and language encode these intentions for the reader. |
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Literacy |
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At the heart of all teaching and learning of English Literature is reading, writing, speaking and listening. GCSE texts involve a higher level of complexity of language and contextual knowledge; we have recognised the need to plan for this by including a range of nineteenth century and Shakespeare texts throughout the KS3 curriculum. Students are supported in their reading within the teaching of lessons, with group activities and discussion based around the texts in question. Teachers model fluent and expressive reading and through socratic questioning provide a blueprint of the reading process and metacognitive approaches to decoding meaning. Students are exposed to archaic and challenging vocabulary in these texts. Teachers support students to use different morphological and contextual clues to promote greater reading fluency and confidence. Marking and feedback includes FIT tasks to be set to encourage students to develop and expand their critical and analytical vocabulary and be able to express their arguments and interpretations in a more nuanced manner. |
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School Context |
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The GCSE texts we study have been chosen to engage, stimulate and challenge our students. All students study a Shakespeare play at GCSE and many other texts studied (‘An Inspector Calls’, ‘A Christmas Carol’, ‘Blood Brothers’ etc) draw heavily on ideas of social and political protest being at the heart of the author’s intentions in writing the text. They also llow students to understand how the contexts in which the texts were written and first received are integral to a full understanding. Within the limitations of the GCSE syllabus, we have chosen texts which allow for the development of students’ empathy and engagement with narratives set at different times and about characters facing specific challenges. Debates about class, poverty, disability and gender are engendered by studying these texts. There is a high degree of cultural capital in the study of GCSE Literature as so much prominence is given to the position of canonical texts and writers and their place in the literary landscape. Reading such texts provides students with an insight into the great writers of the past. Where possible, study of set texts is enriched by theatre visits. |
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Assessment |
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Throughout the GCSE course students have regular assessments set in class, for homework and during mock exams which allow them to progress and be fully prepared for the final GCSE exams. These are assessed using the Eduqas assessment criteria and student feedback is often in the form of the Eduqas marking criteria highlighting skills met so that students are clear what they have achieved and what they need next to do to progress further. Modelling by the teacher live in class or in the form of exemplar answers is an integral part of all assessment. All practice questions and mock exam results are tracked by the subject leader on and through regular data drops so there is a comprehensive bank of evidence for each student to map and monitor their progress throughout Years 10 and 11. Final GCSE Assessment - 2 exams Component 1 - Shakespeare and Poetry 40% of qualification Section A (20%) Shakespeare One extract question and one essay question based on the reading of a Shakespeare text from the prescribed list. Section B (20%) Poetry from 1789 to the present day. Two questions based on poems from the WJEC Eduqas Poetry Anthology, one of which involves comparison. Component 2 - Post 1914 text, 19th C Text and Unseen poetry 60% of qualification Section A (20%) Post-1914 Prose/Drama One source-based question on a post 1914 prose/drama text from the prescribed list. Section B (20%) 19th Century Prose One source-based question on a 19th century prose text from the prescribed list.
Section C (20%) Unseen Poetry from the 20th/21st Century Two questions on unseen poems, one of which involves comparison. |
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Careers |
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GCSE Literature promotes students’ development of analytical and evaluative skills which are key to their future study for a range of further and higher education paths. The ability to read critically, assimilate information and recall and select specific details is likewise a valuable skill. |