Dear Parent,
Your son/daughter is studying the WJEC GCSE qualification in English Language for qualification entry in the summer of 2019.
Every child in year 11 is currently preparing to complete GCSE English Language Unit 1 (Individual Researched Presentation)
Your child will have been given a range of preparation materials and advice from their teacher in readiness for the examinations. These will take place by individual appointment the week beginning 30th September 2019. The speech will cover one of the following themes: Wales, Leisure, The World of Work, The World of Technology or Citizenship. Each speech will last between 5 and 7 minutes and pupils will have the opportunity to use brief notes/cue cards as prompts. Please ensure that your child attends every lesson and encourage your child to practice at home this week to build their confidence.
Unit 1 is worth 10% of their final GCSE grade. It is a requirement of the examination board that these assessments are recorded by audio or video.
No recording will mean that no mark is awarded. It is therefore vitally important that they are properly prepared, confident and perform to their full potential.
The remainder of the qualification (80%) will be based on their performance in two external examination units taken in the summer of 2019. The school’s pre-public examinations held in December will be an opportunity to experience both external examinations in full. Pupils should take these examinations very seriously as these results will be added to their Unit 1 marks and give a very real indication of the GCSE grade achieved.
It is our aim that every single pupil in Ysgol Gymundol Aberdare Community School achieves their full potential in English.
100% attendance, hard work in every lesson, revision and practice are all key to your child’s success.
Should you have any further questions or concerns at a later date then please contact us via email or telephone.
Yours faithfully,
J. Marrable
Leader of Learning for English
WJEC GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE COURSE OVERVIEW
UNIT 1 Non Examination Assessment
ORACY (20%)
Task 1 (10%) – Individual Researched Presentation (40 marks)
One individual, researched presentation, which may include responses to questions and feedback, based on WJEC set themes.
Task 2 (10%) – Responding and Interacting (40 marks)
One group discussion to written and/or visual stimuli provided by WJEC.
UNIT 2 External Examination 40% (2 hours)
Reading and Writing: Description, Narration and Exposition
Section A (20%) – Reading (40 marks)
Understanding of at least one description, one narration and one exposition text assessed through a range of structured questions.
This section will also include an editing task focusing on understanding short texts at word, sentence and text level (2.5% of qualification total).
Section B (20%) – Writing (40 marks)
One writing task to be selected from a choice of two that could be either description, narration or exposition.
This section will also include one proofreading task focusing on writing accurately (2.5% of qualification total).
UNIT 3 External Examination 40% (2 hours)
Reading and Writing: Argumentation, Persuasion and Instructional
Section A (20%) – Reading (40 marks)
Understanding of at least one argumentation, one persuasion and one instructional text assessed through a range of structured questions.
Section B (20%) – Writing (40 marks)
One compulsory argumentation writing task and one compulsory persuasion writing task. Half of the marks for this section will be awarded for communication and organisation (meaning, purpose, readers and structure) and the other half for writing accurately (language, grammar, punctuation and spelling).
*Instructional will be a required text type in Reading but will not be required as a Writing task
