Knowing more about School English
As Simple as ABC? (Subject Centre Report No. 14) by Angela Goddard and Adrian Beard complements ‘English at A Level: a Guide for Lecturers’. It studies the issues of transition for students of English Language A level who go on to study English Language or Linguistics in Higher Education. It provides a lucid account of curriculum and teaching at A Level as well as an analysis of the student experience of transition. A pdf. is available on this website.
Even though it is only a minority of A-level students who go on to study English at university, there are pressing reasons for urging more intellectual and pedagogic commerce across the sectors. At the least, university staff need to grasp the nature of the experience of English in school, and how it has been shaped through the massive emphasis placed in recent years on Key Stage 3 and (until recently) on the National Literacy Strategy. They need to understand how little freedom secondary teachers now have to shape or to implement curricula or learning and assessment strategies. Those who have lamented the impositions of Subject Review might learn salutary lessons from even the remotest acquaintance with the realities of an OFSTED visit. Conscripted to a largely instrumentalist project, many of our secondary school colleagues set an example to us all in their commitment to the values of the subject and to imaginative pedagogy.
A Level English
All versions of A level English established under Curriculum 2000 were substantially revised for teaching from 2008-9. Changes were influenced by discussions with university representatives (including the Subject Centre), and have significant implications for A-level literature in particular. They are briefly discussed by Barbara Bleiman in WordPlay(October 2009), ‘First Thoughts on the New A-Level Specifications‘.
The following tables show the numbers of candidates taking A Level English Literature, English Language and English Language and Literature for all awarding bodies between 2001 and 2008 (and provisionally for 2009). These statistics were produced for the English Subject Centre by Ofqual (the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator) from the JCQ summer results data 2001-08 and Ofqual statistics database 2001-08.
In summary, the statistics demonstrate:
- A 46% increase in those taking English Language between 2001 and 2008, with 65% of 2008 entrants being female
- A 17% increase in those taking English Language and Literature between 2002 and 2008 (2001 appears to have been an exceptional year) with 69% of 2008 entrants being female
- A more-or-less steady number taking English Literature over the period, with 71% of 2008 entrants being female
2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009* | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ALL | 14,118 | 14,416 | 14,971 | 15,826 | 17,049 | 18,096 | 18,981 | 20,649 | |
MALES | 4,548 | 4,829 | 5,082 | 5,418 | 5,941 | 6,444 | 6,524 | 7,199 | |
FEMALES | 9,567 | 9,587 | 9,889 | 10,407 | 11,108 | 11,652 | 12,457 | 13,450 |
Note:
(i) 2001 – figures are Legacy A Level
(ii) 2002 onwards – is A Level (Curriculum 2000)
Source: Inter Examination Board Statistics – Final Results
*Provisional
2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ALL | 17,844 | 14,687 | 14,694 | 14,863 | 15,580 | 15,789 | 16,293 | 17,221 |
MALES | 4,937 | 4,399 | 4,415 | 4,512 | 4,642 | 4,844 | 4,912 | 5,374 |
FEMALES | 12,904 | 10,288 | 10,279 | 10,351 | 10,938 | 10,945 | 11,381 | 11,847 |
Note:
(i) 2001 – figures are Legacy A Level
(ii) 2002 onwards – is A Level (Curriculum 2000).
Source: Inter Examination Board Statistics – Final Results
*Provisional
2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ALL | 52,545 | 50,511 | 50,082 | 49,577 | 52,128 | 51,268 | 49,333 | 51,766 |
MALES | 15,084 | 14,793 | 14,117 | 14,313 | 15,349 | 15,016 | 14,587 | 15,214 |
FEMALES | 37,444 | 35,716 | 35,964 | 35,261 | 36,778 | 36,252 | 34,746 | 36,552 |
Note:
(i) 2001 – figures are Legacy A Level
(ii) 2002 onwards – is A Level (Curriculum 2000).
Source: Inter Examination Board Statistics – Final Results
*Provisional
2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009* | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ALL | 84,507 | 79,614 | 79,747 | 80,266 | 84,757 | 85,153 | 84,607 | 89,636 | 91,815 |
MALES | 24,569 | 24,021 | 23,614 | 24,243 | 25,932 | 26,304 | 26,023 | 27,787 | 28,601 |
FEMALES | 59,915 | 55,591 | 56,132 | 56,019 | 58,824 | 58,849 | 58,584 | 61,849 | 63,214 |
Note:
(i) 2001 – figures are Legacy A Level
(ii) 2002 onwards – is A Level (Curriculum 2000).
(iii) This title cover a range of related subjects.
Source: Inter Examination Board Statistics – Final Results
*Provisional
Some useful articles
These three articles (reproduced by kind permission of the National Association for the Teaching of English), give vivid insight into aspects of English literature at A-level.
- Critical literature? Context & Criticism in A-level literature – by Carol Atherton (pdf 123kb)
- Disjoint & Out of Frame? Shakespeare in schools today: the issues – by Carol Atherton, Sean McEvoy and Helen Nicholson (pdf 508kb)
- Multiple Choices – Interpreting Henry V – article by Adrian Beard (pdf 741kb)