GCSE English
An Overview…
What will my child study?

All pupils will now study both English Language and
English Literature.

Pupils will study a range of fiction and non-fiction as
well as continuous and non-continuous texts for
English Language.

For English Literature, pupils will study poetry,
Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet), two novels (Of Mice
and Men and Heroes) and a play (An Inspector Calls).
What is different?

The WJEC have made changes to both the English
Language and the English Literature courses.

The changes to English Literature are relatively minor
and affect the wording of certain questions and the
controlled assessments.

There are major changes to English Language.
GCSE English Literature
Assessment
 25% of the course is assessed through
non examination assessment.
 75% of the course is assessed in 2
examinations, taken in Year 11.
Non Examination Assessment 25%
Pupils will study a Shakespeare play in its
entirety and write an essay on a theme
specified by the WJEC, analysing the text and
providing a personal response. They will also
study a selection of poems before writing an
essay analysing them, comparing and
contrasting and providing a personal
response.
Examinations
Pupils will sit 2 examinations:

Unit 1 Different Cultures Prose and Contemporary Poetry. 2 hours 35%
Pupils will study a different cultures novel and answer 2 questions: an
extract question, which requires close reading of a short section of the
text, and an essay question, which tests their understanding of the whole
text.
Pupils will also be asked to write about an unseen poem.

Unit 2 Drama and Prose. 2 hours 40%
Pupils will study a play and a novel for this examination. They will
answer an extract question and an essay question on each of these texts.
Pupils are not permitted to take copies of the texts into the examinations.
GCSE English Language
Assessment
 20% of the course is assessed through
non-examination assessment.
 80% of the course is assessed in the
final examinations, taken at the end of
Year 11.
Non-Examination Assessment
Oracy (Speaking and Listening – Unit 1)
Pupils will be required to complete two Speaking and
Listening tasks through the exploration of ideas, texts,
problems and/or issues. The tasks will cover the following
areas:

individual, researched presentation or talk, answering
questions and responding to feedback, based on WJEC set
themes (10%);

group discussion responding to written or visual material
provided by the WJEC (10%).
External Statement
Pupils will sit two written examinations in June of Year 11:
Unit 2- 2 hours.

Section A: Reading: pupils will be presented with a range of different
texts, whole texts and extracts, both fiction and non-fiction, and
tested on their understanding of them through a number of questions.
Some of these questions will be multiple choice and only worth one
mark, whereas some will require extended responses. A total of forty
marks will be available.

Section B: Writing: pupils will be given one proofreading activity
which will be worth five marks and will test a pupil’s ability to spot
spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors. They will also be given
an extended writing task; they will be given a choice of two and will
choose just one. Both tasks will link to the reading material offered
in the reading section.
External Statement continued…
Unit 3- 2 hours.

Section A: Reading: this will be similar to the
reading section in Unit 2, but pupils may only be
presented with non-fiction texts.

Section B: Writing: pupils will be given two
transactional writing tasks, for example a speech
and a letter. Both must be completed and each
one is worth 20 marks. Each task will be linked to
material available in the reading section.
GCSE English Language: Other Changes

The English Language course is now ‘untiered’. All pupils
sit exactly the same paper – there is no ‘Higher’ tier and
there is no ‘Foundation’ tier.

There are no written controlled assessments.

The non-examination unit is made up entirely of speaking
and listening.

The speaking and listening assessments must now be
recorded.

It is not possible to take any of the examinations in Year
10; all English examinations will take place in Year 11.
When will the assessments take place?
Non-Examination Assessment English Literature

Poetry: pupils will study a range of poetry from October half term
onwards. They will sit the poetry assessment just before Christmas.

Shakespeare: pupils will study Romeo and Juliet and prepare for the
assessment from January onwards. They will sit the assessment just
before Easter.
Non-Examination Assessment English Language

Pupils will complete one assessment at the end of Year 10 and the
second, early in Year 11. Exact dates will be confirmed later in the
year.
Examinations

English Literature, Unit 1 – January of Year 11

English Literature Unit 2 and both English Language examinations –
May/June of Year 11
Grades
The WJEC will be awarding the full range of grades from
A*-G.
 The English Literature papers are still tiered; therefore,
pupils will sit either the ‘Higher’ paper or the
‘Foundation’ paper depending on their ability. Pupils
sitting the ‘Higher’ paper can achieve A*-D; those sitting
the ‘Foundation’ paper can achieve C-G.
 The English Language papers are untiered so all pupils
have the opportunity to achieve a grade from A*-G.
 The WJEC have not provided us with any information
about grade boundaries or about the specific skills pupils
will need to exhibit to achieve each grade. Until such
information is available, our conversations about pupil
attainment will be based on estimates.

Setting in English
The English Department no longer sets pupils according to ability. The rationale
behind this is as follows:

The new GCSE English Language qualification is untiered—all pupils will sit the
same examination; we no longer have ‘Higher’ or ‘Foundation’ papers.

We have been able to group pupils into ten classes per year group rather than
eight. This means that class size is smaller which will allow us to ensure that all
pupils receive more individual attention. Additionally, we have ensured that
pupils will have the opportunity to work with other pupils of a similar ability, as
well as pupils of a higher ability than themselves so that they are continuously
supported and challenged.

Research has proven that mixed ability grouping is the most effective way of
ensuring all pupils achieve and of improving attainment, as pupils will be
encouraged to develop and improve their skills by the teacher and their peers.

This is a decision that has been made following a great deal of consideration,
discussion and research and we firmly believe that it is in the best interests of our
pupils as they continue to develop their literacy skills in order to meet the
demands of the new GCSE Language qualification.
What can be done at home to support
the development of skills?

Encourage your child to pay attention to the accuracy of his/her work in
all subjects – not just when completing work for English;

encourage your child to set aside 5-10 minutes after completing a written
task to proofread his/her work in order to check for accuracy in spelling,
punctuation and expression;

provide your child with a range of material to read – both fiction and nonfiction – and spend some time every week reading with your child and
asking him/her about what you have read;

encourage your child to begin revising for each English examination at
least 4-6 weeks before the examination;

ask your child about the texts that he/she is studying in school – talk
to him/her about characters and themes and how they are developed;

help your child to access other forms of the text, for example, the
film version, a theatre production or web-based information – BBC
Bitesize, etc.;

encourage your child to examine and analyse the ways in which
language is used in the world around us – how we are
persuaded/informed/entertained, for example;

ensure that your child completes the homework that has been set to a
good standard and on time – if no formal written homework has been
set, then pupils should be reading the texts studied in class and
making notes in their revision books; and,

look out for resources that we will be sending out to pupils and
parents electronically and encourage your child to access them and
use them at home.
Sample Material
TEXT A shows information from the Australian Tourism Board
Visitor profile to Australia in 2012
47% repeat visitors
68% of total arrivals are for leisure
45-59 years largest demographic
$7,036 average spend
47 nights average stay
Oct-Jan and May-Jun peak booking period
Dec-Feb and Jul-Aug peak travel period
Questions on Text A
A1. What percentage of visitors have been to Australia before? …………….…… [1]
A2. The information refers to “demographic”. Select one definition from the list below
that best defines a ‘demographic’? [1]
a) a graph showing changes
b) time spent away from home
c) a way of grouping people
d) period spent travelling
A3. Explain what is meant by “peak booking period” and “peak travel period”. [2]
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Sample Material
TEXT B is an extract taken from Bill Bryson’s travel writing about his experiences in the
different states in America, a book called ‘The Lost Continent’. Here he describes the scene
of a recent forest fire in Nevada.
The road was steep and slow and it took me much of the afternoon to drive the hundred
or so miles to the Nevada border. Near Woodfords I entered the Toiyabe National
Forest, or at least what once had been the Toiyabe National Forest. For miles and miles
there was nothing but charred land, mountainsides of dead earth and stumps of trees.
Occasionally I passed an undamaged house around which a firebreak had been dug. It
was an odd sight, a house with swings and a paddling pool in the middle of an ocean of
blackened stumps. A year or so before the owners must have thought they were the
luckiest people on the planet, to live in the woods and mountains, amid the cool and
fragrant pines. And now they lived on the surface of the moon. Soon the forest would be
replanted and for the rest of their lives they could watch it grow again inch by annual
inch. I had never seen such devastation – miles and miles of it – and yet I had no
recollection of having read about it. That’s the thing about America. It’s so big that it just
absorbs disasters, muffles them with its vastness. Time and again on this trip I had
seen news stories that would elsewhere have been treated as colossal tragedies – a
dozen people killed by floods in the South, ten crushed when a store roof collapsed in
Texas, twenty-two dead in a snowstorm in the east – and each of them treated as a
brief and not terribly important diversion between ads for soap powder and cottage
cheese. Partly it is a consequence of that inane breeziness common to local TV
newsreaders in America, but mostly it is just the scale of the country.
Questions on Text B
A4. What is meant when Bryson writes that the owners “lived on the surface of the
moon” since the forest fire? [1]
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A5. What does Bill Bryson say about American attitudes to disasters? [5]
Refer to the language he uses in your response.
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Thank you for listening.