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Key Information on English GCSE

GCSE English Language (AQA)

Paper 1 – Fiction and Creative writing

  • Read one text and answer four questions on it.  (The question stems are always the same.)
  • Write a description based on the picture OR write a narrative in response to the title given.  (The image and title will usually be linked to the extract from the story they have just read.)

Paper 2 – Non-fiction and transactional writing

  • Read two texts on the same topic and answer four questions on them.  (The question stems are always the same.)
  • Write a letter/speech/essay/article/leaflet in response to the question given.

GCSE English Literature (AQA)

Paper 1 – Pre-20th century texts.  For our boys, this means ‘Macbeth’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’.

  • They will be given an extract to read from the play and novel and will be asked to answer a question in response to the extract and the whole text.  This could be character or theme based.

Paper 2 – 20th century texts.  For our boys, this means ‘Blood Brothers’ and 15 poems about power and conflict. 

  • For ‘Blood Brothers’, the boys will be given a choice of two questions which they will need to write a detailed response to.  This could be character or theme based.
  • They will be given one of the poems from the anthology they have studied and will be asked to compare it with one of the other poems they have studied.
  • They will be given two unseen poems to analyse and compare.

Power & Conflict Poetry Anthology:

Reality of War  

  1. 'Remains’ – Simon Armitage
  2. 'War Photographer’ – Carol Ann Duffy
  3. 'Charge Of The Light Brigade’ – Alfred Lord Tennyson
  4. 'Bayonet Charge’ – Ted Hughes
  5. 'Exposure’ – Wilfred Owen
  6. 'Poppies’ – Jane Weir

Power of Nature

  1. 'Kamikaze’ – Beatrice Garland
  2. 'Storm On The Island’ – Seamus Heaney
  3. 'The Prelude’ – William Wordsworth
  4. 'The Emigree’ – Carol Rumens
  5. 'Tissue’ – Imtiaz Dharker

Power

  1. 'My Last Duchess’ – Robert Browning
  2. 'Ozymandias’ – Percy Bysshe Shelley
  3. 'London’ – William Blake
  4. 'Checkin’ Out Me History’ – John Agard