At National 5 and Higher pupils will need to:

• Complete a folio (currently one piece of writing, either persuasive or broadly creative- they choose the best out of the pieces they write during the year).
• Study Scottish Set Texts- chosen from a list set by the SQA. This year N5s are studying Anne Donovan short stories and the Highers are doing Carol Ann Duffy poetry.
• Study another text that the teacher selects for a Critical Essay. It will be a challenging but appropriate text for each class and will have to be a different genre from the Scottish Texts.
• Study Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation (RUAE) – comprehension style questions where you show your understanding of the language and the techniques.

The organisation of the texts and practice assessments will vary by class so that teachers can tailor their teaching to the needs of their classes, but in general all classes work to a similar schedule:

• Persuasive Writing Essay- completed by October holidays
• Creative Writing Essay- at least a rough draft completed by Christmas
• All texts for Scottish Set Text and Critical Essay- completed by Christmas
• End of February- all folio redrafts completed before being sent to SQA
• RUAE practice work, Scottish Set Text questions practice, Critical Essay writing- all through the year as appropriate but the bulk of the practise and time to improve skills comes after Christmas once the texts have all been completed and studied.
• Prelim- January
• Exit Prelim or final in class assessments- March/April

 

Assessment Structure

• Folio -30% final grade
• RUAE paper in exam- 30% final grade
• Scottish Set Text questions and Critical Essay in exam- 40% final grade

 

Study Support

The English Department runs an “Open Door” policy. Instead of set times for revision sessions which might not address what pupils are struggling with, pupils are encouraged to ask their teacher for a time when they could meet, maybe at a break or a study period if teaching staff is available, and get help with their specific questions/concerns.

Weekly Homework Support also runs in the department (Thursday lunch) as a time for pupils to complete work they’ve not done or so they can have a place to complete work.

Extra support

In addition to the resources pupils are given (such as copies of the texts, workbooks for different types of writing, booklets on RUAE work, powerpoints and notes on Teams), pupils can access additional help online:

SQA Understanding Standards- past papers and some answer guides to help study

Scholar- launches from Glow- has examples of different parts of the exam

BBC Bitesize- has information and study material on the Scottish Set Texts