For those students wishing to broaden their literary horizons, taking A Level English Literature provides the requisite academic challenge, allowing boys to critically engage with big issues and questions about life, love, and loss - to name but a few! The study of literature through the ages focuses mainly on analysis, debate, and critical theory in novels, poems, and plays. As an incredibly wide-ranging subject, boys are encouraged to develop skills of deep textual analysis, inter-textual connection, and contextual awareness. However, it is not all about analysis and boys can also expect to defend their ideas, since it is not enough to simply note something about a text – it must be accompanied by explanation and argument which can lead to ‘energetic’ discussions in class! We follow AQA Specification A, which approaches the study of literature through the lens of historicism, encouraging consideration of a range of texts within a shared context. This unifying approach facilitates the inclusion of a range of wider reading, thus extending students’ experience and appreciation of literature. Across the two years of the A Level course, we will study texts including ‘The Great Gatsby’, ‘Othello’, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and the poetry of Owen Sheers, alongside an anthology of pre-1900 love poetry. The A Level non-exam assessment component also provides opportunities for students to pursue their own areas of interest within their reading. The variety of assessment styles used, such as passage-based questions, unseen material, single-text questions, multiple-text questions, and open and closed-book approaches facilitates the acquisition of a wide range of transferrable skills, such as the ability to read critically, analyze, evaluate and undertake independent research which is valuable for both further study and future employment