Oswestry School English Department

Important information for Year 9 students and parents:

Forthcoming changes to the study of GCSE English and English Literature: Information for parents of Year 9 pupils

From September 2010 there will be two options for GCSE English:
either			or
2 GCSEs			1 GCSE
GCSE English Language	+	GCSE English Literature	GCSE English

You may download and read the course specifications and summaries here:
Specification		Specification	Specification

Summary		Summary	Summary

All students; click here for a list of terminology you should be familiar with for your English Literature and Language Exams. This link will download a pdf of the terminology.

Useful websites for GCSE

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize Excellent resource for testing and revising. Lots of advice, video clips and practical exam tips.

www.universalteacher.org.uk Another good resource for revising Literature texts especially. Also some advice for comprehension skills, although not orientated to WJEC papers.

www.youtube.com Good resource for interviews with Arthur Miller and John Steinbeck. Also lot of news reports etc contemporary to the Great Depression in 1930’s America.

www.guardian.co.uk Probably best newspaper resource online. Excellent preparation for English Paper 2 with its media bias. Also good way to brush up on argumentative writing, review writing and writing formal letters of complaint. All newspapers have online sites now and you should dip into these on a regular basis to get a flavour of stylistic features.

www.nme.com Teen mags are also online and again worth looking at for the style of writing.

The librarian suggests this website which may help students researching subjects to find more reliable information than Google can produce.

Internet Public Library (IPL) http://www.ipl.org

IPL allows students to search by subject and topics and directs them to more academic websites.

GCSE students

Information for parents about Year 10 parents evening - May 2012

Please click on the relevant department guide:

Department Guidance on Controlled Assessment

Department Timetable of Controlled Assessments

AQA guide to changes to Linear assessment

Specimen papers (please click on the releveant link to view the paper):

Year 10 English Specimen Exam Paper Higher Tier