Curriculum Relevance

The NEAB Anthology

The National Curriculum for English specifies a detailed reading programme for students of English at Key Stages 3 and 4. The NEAB Anthology for GCSE English and English Literature contributes towards the reading programme (En2) for students entering the NEAB GCSE (KS4) examinations.

The reading programme encompasses a wide range of literature from a variety of genres, including:

1. significant authors and works from the English literary heritage
2. plays, novels and short stories
3. poetry and the work of individual poets
4. texts from different cultures and traditions
5. pre-twentieth-century literature

The inclusion of three major poets (Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy and Ted Hughes) in the first section of the Anthology helps meet the first and third of these requirements. The remainder are addressed elsewhere in the NEAB English syllabus.

(The second section of the Anthology includes poetry from other cultures and traditions, specifically addressing the fourth requirement above. This section is supported by a BBC series which complements the Channel 4 Passwords series.)

The Subject Criteria for GCSE English Literature specify that students should be assessed in the following six categories:

1. pre-1900 drama
2. post-1900 drama
3. pre-1900 prose
4. post-1900 prose
5. pre-1900 poetry
6. post-1900 poetry

The English Literature section of the Anthology (which contains eight modern short stories and five thematic groups of poems from before and after 1900) addresses the last three of these categories. The remainder are addressed elsewhere in the NEAB syllabus.

The Passwords Programmes

Programmes 1-3 provide support for teachers and students in fulfilling the National Curriculum requirement to study significant authors and works from the English literary heritage.

Programmes 4-5 provide support for teachers and students choosing to study what will probably be the two most popular thematic groups of poems from the Anthology.