GCSE (9-1) English Language Post-16 resits - Getting Started Guide - 2015

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by Himbo

Getting Started guide for the 2015 GCSE (9-1) English Language Post-16 resits, outlining key specification features and the meaning of changes for teachers and students. It explains what has changed in content and assessment, including updated assessment objectives and specification requirements. The guide covers planning for delivery in one year, suggested resources, content guidance for both fiction/imaginative and non-fiction/transactional writing, and assessment objectives, weightings, and mark schemes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages34

Reading Time1 h 26 min

AccessFree to download

Contents

1. Introduction

Key features of our GCSE English Language

2. What’s changed?

2.1 How has GCSE English Language changed?

Changes to Assessment Objectives

2.2 Changes to the specification

3. Planning

3.1 Planning and delivering GCSE English Language in one year

Suggested resources

Delivery models

4. Content guidance

5. Assessment guidance

GCSE (9-1) English Language Post-16 resits GETTING STARTED GUIDE GCSE English Language Getting Started: GCSE (9-1) English Language 2015 Contents 1. Introduction 1 Key features of our GCSE English Language 1 2. What’s changed? 3 2.1 How has GCSE English Language changed? 3 Changes to GCSE English Language 3 Changes to GCSE English Language subject criteria 3 Changes to Assessment Objectives 3 2.2 Changes to the specification 5 Specification overview 5 Changes to assessment 6 3. Planning 7 3.1 Planning and delivering GCSE English Language in one year 7 3.2 Suggested resources 7 Unseen texts anthology 7 Let’s Think in English 8 Grammar for Writing 8 Further suggestions for post-16 learners 9 3.3 Delivery models 12 4. Content guidance 16 Component 1 : Fiction and Imaginative Writing 16 Section A: Reading 16 Section B: Imaginative Writing 16 Component 2 : Non-fiction and Transactional Writing 16 Section A: Reading 16 Section B: Transactional Writing 16 5. Assessment guidance 17 5.1 Assessment Objectives and weightings 17 5.2 Breakdown of Assessment Objectives 18 5.3 Assessment Objectives and mark schemes 19 AO1: Explicit and implicit understanding AO1: Select and synthesise AO2: Language, structure and form AO3: Comparison AO4: Evaluate AO5: Composition and organisation AO6: Range of vocabulary and sentence structure, accurate spelling and punctuation Writing mark scheme 1. Introduction This Getting Started guide provides an overview of the new GCSE specification, to help you understand the changes to content and assessment, and to help you understand what these mean for you and your students. Key features of our GCSE English Language The specification and Sample Assessment Materials have been developed in consultation with the teaching community, higher education, learned societies and subject associations. Teachers from a range of schools and colleges – in focus groups, phone interviews, network groups and face-to-face interviews – have provided feedback at each stage and have helped us to shape the specification. Drawing on feedback from all parts of the English education community, the 2015 GCSE English Language specification has been built on the following key features. ● 19th-century fiction as a standalone, unseen text. Students will be asked to respond to a number of questions on one 650-word extract taken from a 19thcentury novel. This approach allows you to prepare your students for this requirement by sourcing a variety of interesting fiction texts from the 1800sand by using our free GCSE English Language Unseen Preparation Anthology. ● Comparison of 20th-and 21st-century non-fiction texts. Comparing two real-world and relevant non-fiction and literary non-fiction texts allows students to learn the challenging skill of comparison by reading modern and accessible texts. This allows students to make deeper and more nuanced comparison, as well as being able to engage with relevant subjects which are linked to world issues and modern concerns. As with the 19th-century fiction, you will be able to prepare students for this requirement by accessing non-fiction texts from a variety of sources as well as using our free GCSE English Language Unseen Preparation Anthology. ● Focus on modern, transactional and relevant texts. Our Paper 2 is worth 60% of the overall GCSE and focuses on transactional reading and writing. This allows your students to gain valuable skills in by reading and comparing a wide variety of everyday, challenging texts, such as articles from high-quality newspapers and magazines, reviews of books, textbook entries, obituaries, speeches, letters, biographies and autobiographies. Students are then required to produce a piece of transactional writing which will draw on their knowledge of a variety of text forms and of writing for differing audiences. We believe that this renewed emphasis on transactional and modern t

FAQs

What content guidance does the guide provide for the exam components and writing tasks?

The guide describes Component 1 (Fiction and Imaginative Writing) with reading and imaginative writing, and Component 2 (Non-fiction and Transactional Writing) with reading and transactional writing. It clarifies the types of reading texts and the expectation to produce transactional writing for different audiences.

Oct 20, 2026

Uploaded by Himbo