Start Date: Duration: Level: Study mode: Course Location: Course Type:
September 2 years Level 3 Part-Time - Day Bede Campus A-Levels Apply Enquire

What’s it all about?

The English Literature A-Level allows you to develop your reading and writing skills in a logical way, this course is for students who are passionate about reading with a desire to study Literature at an advanced level. It’s ideal for those who want to develop their analytical reading and academic writing skills.

You will need 5 GCSE's at grades 5-9, including English.

Study level Cost Additional fees
16-18 FREE You will need to provide your own stationery and you will be given the opportunity to take part in trips and visits. There is a reading list attached to this course and many of our students prefer to purchase their own books so that they can annotate freely.

This course uses a dynamic range of teaching methods generally within a classroom environment. You will experience a range of activities including: Individual, paired and group work, creative interpretation and independent study skills. Your speaking and listening skills will be honed to perfection due to a strong emphasis on interactive, student-centred learning. You might also take part in theatre and university visits as a way of developing understanding of texts.

There will be a formal assessment in the style of three open-book exams in the summer of your second year. Leading up to this you will be assessed in class using a series of methods ranging from Q&A, debate, individual/group tasks and mock exams.

English and maths are important life skills that will help you to achieve your best in your studies and progress to your dream career. If you have not already achieved grade 9-4 in GCSE maths and/ or English at school, we will support you to improve your skills.

Mon-Fri, between 9am-4pm. Days and times of study are subject to change. Timetables are confirmed at the start of term.

In the first year you’ll study Drama and Prose, this includes; a study of two plays from the Tragedy genre; the classical; William Shakespeare’s Othello and the modern; Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. This will help you understand the origins of Tragedy as well as how the genre relates in archaic, to more contemporary styles of writing. Your analysis and interpretation skills will be further stretched with a comparative study on the topic of Science and Society using Mary Shelley’s iconic Frankenstein (1818) and Margaret Atwood’s prophetic The Handmaid’s Tale. All of the above will be looked at holistically as narratives and you will be analysing why authors make certain choices when telling their stories, as well as the effect their writing has on the wider public.

The second year will focus on coursework linked by theme, movement, author or period (20%) and poetry. You will study Geoffrey Chaucer’s bawdy comic The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale and a selection of poetry from modern poets writing in the early 2000s. All texts studied will involve wide reading on a largely independent scale and evaluated using a range of perspectives and literary criticism, including that of a psychoanalytic, Marxist and Feminist vein.

What’s next?

The course opens up a route way to further study at Sunderland College or a university of your choice, in subjects such as English, Journalism, Philosophy, Media and Teaching.

Possible careers include:
Publishing, editing, teaching, archiving, public relations, advertising, and journalism. Your opportunities are almost limitless.

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93.1% of our students have progressed to further study, university of employment.

(*Based on 16-18 year olds destination data, 2019/20 academic year)

Why choose Sunderland College?

100% overall A-Level pass rate

Summer 2021

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Destination data for Sunderland College 2019/20, Apprentice completers. 

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