English Literature - A Level (Linear)

Applications Open: - Thursday 14th November

Entry Requirements: - Updated subject information and application guidance will 'go live' on our website on the evening of 14th November 2024: https://www.dgsb.co.uk/1106/dgsb-sixth-form-about-us

How to Apply: - We do not accept applications via KentChoices. Please visit https://www.dgsb.co.uk/1106/dgsb-sixth-form-about-us to find out how to apply

English Literature with OCR is a fine blend of coursework and examination assessed study. Our texts cover an extensive range of texts, genres and periods. Lessons involve relaxed yet challenging seminar style teaching based around the close study of texts. Our groups are always mixed gender, lively, supportive and encouraging. Be your target an A* or a C, we treat you equally and do our best to help you become even better readers and writers. Our teachers work in teams and teach to their strengths and interests and, where possible, to yours too!

In year 13 you have two exams. One involves a close reading of and an essay on a key Shakespearean play. This paper also features a poetry /drama comparison. This year we have been comparing Rossetti and Wilde from the Victorian Era but we may change when we meet our new cohort of students. The second examination features Comparative and Contextual study where you undertake a close reading of an unseen text alongside an essay on two texts which you have studied. This year our texts have been modern American classics such as “The Great Gatsby” and Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath.” We also have the option of studying dystopias where we read Orwell's "1984" and Attwood's "The Handmaid's Tale. "

Coursework is your chance to pursue your interests. We love the modern texts we study ranging from Plath and Hughes to Duffy, through Heaney and Larkin to hard hitting, edgy contemporary authors such as Butterworth and Armitage. We allow a vast range of themes ranging from violence to love, from sexuality to ethnicity, from narration to intertextuality. You write about poetry, prose and drama. All texts
must be post 1900 and at least one must be post 2000.