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The Henry
Beaufort
School

English Literature

 

 

 

EXAM BOARD

AQA

ASSESSMENT FORMAT

100% terminal examination

GRADE METHOD

9-1

 

 

GCSE

The subject content of the syllabus relates directly to the programme of study for Years 10 and 11 of the National Curriculum. 

 

Students will be expected to study 3 literature texts: a 19th century text, a modern prose and a Shakespearean play. They will also be expected to study a cluster from the AQA poetry Anthology ‘Poems past and present’ and respond to unseen poetry.

 

Examinations:

Paper 1: Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel

Paper 2: Modern texts and poetry 

 

Both papers will assess the skills of: understanding and responding to texts; maintaining a critical style within a personal response; using textual references appropriately; analysing language and structure using subject terminology; showing understanding of relationships between texts and the contexts they were written in; writing accurately and with a clear sense of purpose.

 

AQA ENGLISH LITERATURE – exams 2017 onwards

SET TEXTS:

  • ‘Macbeth’ – William Shakespeare (Shakespeare text)
  • ‘Lord of the Flies’ – William Golding (Modern text)
  • ‘ ‘Jekyll and Hyde’- R.L Stevenson (19th Century text)
  • AQA ‘Power and Conflict’ Poetry Anthology

For all set texts, the CGP Revision Guides are available on the school website

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Year 7 and 8

Year 7 and 8 are comprised of a variety of creative and imaginative language and literature modules. There are 6 modules in each year and the key skills for both language and literature are interwoven throughout the two years.

Regarding the study of literature, students are given the opportunity to explore a range of novels and poetry during their first two years at Henry Beaufort. This begins with our chilling module ‘A Glance at the Gothic’ in Year 7 which allows students to explore Gothic extracts from influential novels written in the eighteenth and nineteenth century and discover the historical and social issues of the time. This leads into studying Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’, another 19th century text. 

Students in Year 7 also study ‘Iqbal’ at the beginning of our ‘Inspirational People’ module, a novel based on the true story of one child labourer’s brave fight for justice in Pakistan. As well as a focus on narrative, it is important that our students learn to question and critique the cultural, moral and social themes when exploring a novel or poem and develop their own opinions and attitudes on the issues discussed- often through lively debate! Other literary modules in year 7 and 8 involve an introduction to a breadth of Shakespeare’s plays through the Shakespeare carousel in year 7 and a study of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in year 8, as well as an exploration of 20th to 21st century poetry.