A Level
AS and A2
The changes in A level specification, as of September 2008, reduced the syllabus from a six to a four module course, affording candidates the chance to study texts in greater depth and with a renewed emphasis on the critical perspectives that texts both invite and generate. The OCR syllabus which we follow provides an excellent range of texts and disciplines which we feel will appeal to a wide range of you.
AS now consists of two modules and counts for 50% of the A level as a whole. The course starts with Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: a love story, social satire and conflicted critique of the American dream, set against the frosty wealth and chipped glamour of the 1920s, it is considered by some to be the greatest novel of the twentieth century. At the same time, you will study the poetry of William Wordsworth, Robert Frost, Wilfred Owen or Christina Rossetti, attending in detail to the way in which language, form and structure generate meaning. In January of the AS year, you will sit an examination, set by OCR, which will require you to write two essays - one on The Great Gatsby and one on the poetry studied.
At the end of the Michaelmas term, and throughout the Lent term, you will work on the second module of the AS course, a coursework response focusing on three 20th century texts, one of which will be a post-1990 text. This offers an opportunity for you and teachers alike to combine some exciting modern literature: for instance, this year one class will be studying Patrick Marber's Closer in conjunction with Pinter's Betrayal, and considering the shifting sexual politics these plays negotiate. For the first time, significant texts in translation can be used, as well as works of cultural criticism, providing far more stimulating intellectual opportunities as well as a solid preparation for the kind of work done at university across a range of subjects.
At A2, you begin by studying a play by Shakespeare and a range of plays and poetry written before 1800. The Shakespeare play will be one of Henry IV part I, Othello, Twelfth Night or The Winter's Tale, while the other texts will include works such as Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Sheridan's School for Scandal, and poetry by the likes of Donne, Milton and Pope. In January of the A2 year you will sit an OCR examination and write one essay on the Shakespeare play and another making thematic connections between the drama and poetry you have worked on - a bold and innovative way to encourage you to think with critical creativity. Although you will be carefully prepared for this second part of the exam paper, your own ideas will forge your response.
At the end of the Michaelmas term and throughout the Lent term of A2 you will write a coursework essay which builds on your studies thus far: it will give you the chance follow your own interests, perhaps writing on satire, or gothic fiction, or tragic drama, or narrative method, and so forth. The scope will be wide and worked out in conjunction with your teachers. As in AS, three texts will need to be covered, but these do not have to be of a forbidding length, and one can be a work of literary criticism which might be used to prise open the area under scrutiny. Texts can be drawn from any genre and any period, and one may be a significant text in translation, so for the first time the likes of Flaubert, Kafka and Chekhov may be studied, providing myriad opportunities for some compelling connections across world literature.
Because there are examination sessions in January and July of both A level years, it is of course possible (and sometimes advisable) to re-take to improve your marks. Many of those who take English in the Sixth Form go on to read the subject at university, but we like to feel that those who don't nonetheless learn to read both books - and the world in general - with greater perception and sensitivity. We believe English at AS or A level is not only an academically rewarding subject, but also the most enduring one.