Lower 6th Form CurriculumSyllabus Followed: OCR
Entry Requirements: Grade B in both GCSE English Language and English Literature.
If you like to read novels or poetry and to attend productions of plays, and you wish to increase your capacity to understand them, then you should consider English Literature at A Level. In English you will develop skills of communication that will serve you well in whatever subject you choose to take at university and in whatever career you enter. You will also be able to read language in a far more sophisticated way.
The study of a wide range of novels, drama and poetry, from Chaucer to twentieth century writers, makes English a varied and stimulating course. You will study literature in greater depth than at GCSE and you will learn to read with greater understanding, not only of the surface sense of the language, but also of the implied meanings and the emotional charge of words. Each set has two teachers; this enables you to experience a range of approaches to the subject and thereby more effectively develop your own. You will write an essay every week and you will be encouraged to articulate your own ideas in class discussions.
Unit 1 of the AS course comprises the study of a Shakespeare play. In Unit 2 you will study a major novel and a poet. Both of these units are examined at the end of the Lower Sixth. Unit 3 is a coursework option on a single text, usually a twentieth century play. In the A2 course in the Upper Sixth, Unit 4 covers a second Shakespeare play and a poet, Unit 5 is another coursework option on a modern novel and Unit 6 is a study of post 1945 drama (involving at least three texts, including the one studied in Unit 3 for AS Level).
English examines a range of types of writing in addition to plays: novels, short stories, poetry, etc. Theatre Studies concentrates solely on drama, but explores it beyond the text to lighting, set design, make-up, etc. When a play is studied in English, the stage conditions are not ignored but the primary focus is on literary issues of interpretation and language. In Theatre Studies these are not neglected, but the practical problems of staging work are also considered.
The department provides help on an individual basis for those who are considering an application to read English at university. Pupils who would like to read the subject are expected to be able to work independently and extend their reading as much as possible.
