English Years 10 to 11

English follows the AQA English Language (8700) and English Literature (8702) GCSE.  This represents two separate GCSEs 

The English Language Syllabus consists of two papers.  Paper 1 Creative Reading and Writing and Paper 2 Different Writer’s Viewpoints and Perspectives.

It is 100% exam based and will produce a GCSE grade (1-9 – 9 being the highest).

It tests the students ability to:

  • Understand implied meaning and read inference.
  • To summarise.
  • To comment on writer’s use of language and structure.
  • To compare different texts.
  • To evaluate texts.

The English Literature Syllabus (8702) consists of two papers:  

  • Paper 1:  Shakespeare and the Nineteenth Century Novel 
  • Paper 2: A Modern text and AQAs Anthology of poems – Power and Conflict and Unseen Poetry.

How to support your child

We are sure that you already do many of these things to support your child but here is a useful reminder for you to refer to:

  • Encourage wider reading
  • Ask them what they have learnt today
  • Help them to structure revision for tests and assessments
  • Make good use of BBC Bitesize
  • Purchase texts which can be annotated
  • Purchase revision guides

Web Links

Make good use of the web-links and revision guides.

Additional Reading

They may find the Oxford AQA English Language textbooks useful.

However these additional classic texts would support their Literature study.

  • To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
  • Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
  • Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
  • David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
  • Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
  • Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Lord of the Flies – William Golding
  • Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
  • Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Colour Purple – Alice Walker