H English

The course is for those who wish to develop their language and communication skills through the exploration and creation of detailed and complex language, literature and media texts. It provides candidates with opportunities to develop aspects of learning which are transferable across many disciplines. These aspects include creative and critical thinking, spoken and written communication skills, interpersonal and team-working skills, and independent learning. The course promotes cultural and intellectual engagement and curiosity, and encourages lifelong learning.

English National 5

The following provides a broad overview of the subject skills, knowledge and understanding developed in the course:

• development of key communication and literacy skills in reading, writing, talking and listening

• understanding, analysis and evaluation of detailed and complex texts in the contexts of literature, language and media, including Scottish literature

• production of detailed and complex texts in a range of contexts knowledge and understanding of language.

Assessment

Course assessment structure: performance–spoken language (Internal)

The performance–spoken language provides evidence of candidates’ skills in talking and listening. This performance, which is part of course assessment, is assessed on an achieved/not achieved basis. It is a compulsory requirement for a course award in Higher English. The spoken language performance comprises the skills of talking and listening.

SQA Examination (External)

Paper 1: Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation (30 marks)

This question paper assesses candidates’ application of their reading skills in the challenging context of unseen material and a limited time. This question paper has a total mark allocation of 30 marks. This is 30% of the overall marks for the course assessment. Marks are awarded for applying reading skills in understanding, analysis and evaluation to questions on two unseen passages. A series of questions based on the first passage focuses on their understanding, analysis and evaluation skills. A further question requires candidates to summarise and infer the main ideas of both texts.

Paper 2 – Critical Reading : Section 1 Scottish texts (20 marks) & Section 2 Critical essay (20 marks)

This question paper assesses the application of candidates’ critical reading skills and their knowledge and understanding of previously-studied literary, media or language texts, including at least one Scottish text from the prescribed list. This question paper has a total mark allocation of 40 marks. This is 40% of the overall marks for the course assessment. This question paper has two sections. In each section, candidates must cover a different genre and cannot use the same text twice.

Portfolio–writing (30 marks)

The portfolio–writing provides evidence of candidates’ skills in writing for two different purposes: broadly creative, and broadly discursive. The portfolio–writing has a total mark allocation of 30 marks. This is 30% of the overall marks for the course assessment. 15 marks are available for each piece of writing within the portfolio. Candidates produce the portfolio independently, but the teacher or lecturer supports them to choose the focus, theme and genre of the pieces of writing.

English Advanced Higher (Speak to a member of the English Department, if interested)

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