Exam Board : EDUQAS
ENGLISH OVERVIEW
Mrs PS Garside ● Head of English ● pgarside@kgs.org.uk
The aim of English teaching at all levels at KGS is to encourage pupils to respond to a wide variety of types of writing with perception and enjoyment, to express themselves clearly and fluently in a range of contexts and to develop an appreciation of the function, variety and effectiveness of language. In short, we aim to inspire students to develop and maintain an enduring love of the subject. English at GCSE level builds on the skills already acquired lower down the school, increasing pupils’ confidence with, and control of, both written and oral methods of communication, whilst at the same time preparing them for their examinations. At GCSE there are six, small sets of equal ability. For both English Language and English Literature, students follow the GCSE courses offered by EDUQAS which, we believe, provide rigorous and stretching specifications and a sound grounding for A level. Our aims are to offer a unified programme of study that does not treat ‘English’ and ‘English Literature’ as separate entities and to seek, wherever possible, to broaden the scope of the syllabuses.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE All students study English Language and follow the EDUQAS GCSE course. The English Language GCSE (C700QSL) is divided into three components: Component 1: Twentieth Century Literature Reading and Creative Prose Writing (40% of the qualification) This part of the course is divided into two Reading and Writing sections: • The Reading question requires students to demonstrate their understanding of one prose 14
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extract (about 60-100 lines) of literature from the 20th century, assessed through a range of structured questions. The Writing section will ask students to complete one creative writing task selected from a choice of four titles.
Component 2: 19th and 21st Century Non-Fiction Reading and Transactional/Persuasive Writing (60% of the qualification) This part of the course carries a 1.5 weighting and is divided into two Reading and Writing sections: • The Reading section requires candidates to demonstrate their understanding of two extracts (about 900-1200 words in total) of high-quality nonfiction writing, one from the 19th century, the other from the 21st century, assessed through a range of structured questions. • The Writing section will ask students to complete two compulsory transactional/persuasive writing tasks. Component 3: Spoken Language (Non-examination assessed) 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.
