Five GCSEs at grade 9–4. including English Language and English Literature. BTEC Level 2 qualifications considered in subject related courses.
English Language and Literature – A Level
You will explore aspects of both English Language and Literature through a range of set texts which are exclusively modern – 20th and 21st century. There are many opportunities to develop your creative writing skills in all four forms – prose fiction, prose non-fiction, poetry and script – as you explore them throughout the course. This combined approach to the study of English enables a really exciting mixture of traditional literary analysis and more content focused language exploration, such as accent and dialect, youth language, e-communication and conversation analysis.
Component one: Telling Stories (first year)
This part of the course focuses upon developing key skills of language analysis based upon a combined approach to the subject. You will study three texts, the contemporary dystopian nightmare of The Handmaid’s Tale, which has been so popular in its recent Netflix series, an anthology of non-fiction writing about the city of Paris, and an anthology of poetry by Irish poet, Seamus Heaney.
Component two: Exploring Conflict: writing about society and dramatic encounters (second year)
In the second year, you will consolidate your knowledge of language analysis and explore two new texts – The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, a tense non-fiction account of a grisly Victorian murder mystery, and The Herd, a bittersweet play about a dysfunctional family trying to come together for their disabled son’s 21st birthday.
NEA: Making connections in literary texts (second year)
You will choose a key area and carry out a language investigation on one prose texts and one non-fiction text. This could explore: accent and dialect, social class, narrative development, the significance of beginnings, or one of many other combined approaches to English.
Internal assessment
Assessment in A Level English comes in a variety of different forms, from writing analytical essays to creative tasks and presentations. You be set home learning tasks regularly throughout the course, culminating in internal examined assessments.
External assessment
You will complete a NEA which is worth 20% of your overall grade for the A Level. This is based on independent research and will be completed in Year 2 of your course. The other 80% of your final assessment is done through external examinations at the end of the second year.
A Level English is highly valued by employers and in Higher Education. Career paths could include teaching, journalism and media or professional writing.
Theatre trips to see performances of the set drama text are offered as enrichment for your studies. Throughout the course, we use critical approaches to English and you will have the chance to listen to guest speakers delivering talks on these, such as social class, and gender in literary texts. In addition to this, we have links with local authors and there are opportunities to attend workshops on writing with them.
The English Language Partnership with Winchester University also offers you the chance to visit Winchester to take part in taster sessions, study tours and talks from guest lecturers from higher education English lecturing staff.
You will be taught in our Andover Sixth building and will have access to many different facilities, including: 2 study centres, a Library, A canteen and the Careers Hub.