English Literature

Course summary

At Highsted, we follow the Edexcel/Pearson A Level course. It offers the rigour and challenge that suits our students, as well as a degree of flexibility and choice, so that teachers can match their expertise and interests to the programme followed. In the first year of the course, students will study two dramatic texts: Shakespeare’s Hamlet and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. Also in the first year, with their other teacher, students will read fiction texts such as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Dracula by Bram Stoker. In Year 13, we’ll be looking at poetry (The Romantics, as well as some very recent works) and writing an extended coursework essay, probably focusing on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.