English Language

What will it be like?

This course aims to develop skills and abilities in the following areas:

• Spoken Language

To develop students’ ability to:

Use the vocabulary and grammar of Standard English.

Formulate, clarify and express ideas.

Adapt speech to a widening range of circumstances and demands.

Listen, understand and respond appropriately to others.

• Reading

To develop students’ ability to:

Read accurately, fluently and with understanding.

Understand and respond to the texts they read.

Read, analyse and evaluate a wide range of texts, including literature from the English literary heritage and from other cultures and traditions.

• Writing

To develop students’ effective use of:

Compositional skills – developing ideas and communicating meaning to a reader using a wide-ranging vocabulary and an effective style, organising and structuring sentences grammatically and whole texts coherently.

A widening variety of forms for different purposes.

Non-examination Assessment: Spoken

Presenting / responding to questions and feedback / use of Standard English

Examinations will involve work based on the following Units:

• Paper 1: Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing is a I hour 45 minutes written examination worth 80 marks (50% of GCSE)

Section A: Reading

One literature fiction text

Section B: Writing

Descriptive or narrative writing

• Paper 2: Writers’ Viewpoints and Perspectives is a I hour 45 minutes written   examination worth 80 marks (50% of GCSE)

Section A: Reading

One non-fiction text and one literary non-fiction text

Section B: Writing

Writing to present a viewpoint