English Literature
Year 12
Students in Year 12 start off with The Great Gatsby and Shakespeare’s Othello, before moving onto unseen love poetry comparison and a pre-1900 poetry anthology. As well as getting to grips with new texts and time periods, students focus in Year 12 on developing the accuracy and perceptiveness of their critical writing, learning to develop as readers and thinkers.
Year 13
In Year 13 students embark on their coursework, a comparison of two texts selected according to each individual student’s personal interests. They will also embark on an in-depth study of poetry, prose and drama about or inspired by ideas about modern identity. This final part of the course encompasses Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire and Duffy’s poetry anthology Feminine Gospels. Time in the latter half of the year is given over to revision, enabling students to revisit and re-evaluate the material they have studied over the course of the two years.
English Language
Year 12
Students in Year 12 are introduced to the technical terminology (language levels) necessary for analysing texts with the appropriate degree of rigour. They learn how to apply this knowledge to the analysis of how texts generate meanings and representations. In the second part of the course students look at the relationship between language and identity and consider the question of how who we are affects the way we use language. We also introduce students to the coursework requirements.
Year 13
Students are introduced to the topic of language change and are encouraged to participate in the debates this topic generates. They then learn to apply this knowledge to analysing meanings and representations in older (pre-20th Century) texts. In the second part of the course students study the different theories of how children acquire language and become literate. Students also complete and hand in their coursework, before revising for their final exams.