This page has been designed to help pupils in Higher and Advanced Higher. 

Higher and Intermediate Course Notes

Advanced Higher Course Notes

Samples of Work A Higher Persuasive Essay

Useful Links for Pupils and Parents

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Higher and Intermediate Course Notes

Aims

Higher and Intermediate courses in English will give an opportunity to introduce pupils to texts of a lively, demanding and interesting nature. Language skills will be further developed so that pupils can express themselves clearly and effectively. Accuracy will be expected. Imaginative, creative and expressive potential will be fostered in writing.

Entry Requirements

If a pupil decides to remain for a fifth year, he or she may choose to continue with English.  Standard Grade results determine the course that is recommended. There are three possible levels:

•    1-2 in Standard Grade will lead to Higher in S5

•    3 in Standard Grade will lead to Intermediate 2 in S5 with a possible attempt at Higher in S6

•    4 in Standard Grade will lead to Intermediate 1 in S5 with a possible attempt at Intermediate 2 in S6

Course Requirements

Three Units will be taught and the internal assessments must be passed by the pupils in order that they qualify for a course award. The details of the course are on the internet at SQA.

Advanced Higher Course Notes    Top of Page

Course Aims

Advanced Higher English is open to all pupils who have gained a pass at Higher, and who enjoy reading and analysing texts. The main focus of the course is on literature, and students should be able to follow particular interests and strengths in more specialised areas of study. They will be encouraged to think and work independently, and to hone their skills in deconstructing seen and unseen texts. There will also be the opportunity to develop their abilities to express themselves creatively.

Course Content

Several members of the department are involved in the teaching of the course.  The members of the class are consulted at the beginning of the session about the contents of the course. The Specialist Study is mandatory and they can then choose another two or three units out of a possible nine. There is now an internal element in each unit. Every year so far the pupils have opted to do Textual Analysis, Creative Writing and Literature.

UNIT 1 – Specialist Study

By 1 October, candidates are required to submit to SQA a statement (of about 50 words) of the proposed topic of their Specialist Study. This is explained to them in June and they are given suggestions as to what to read over the summer. When they return in August they are expected to have an idea of the area they are interested.

Pupils are encouraged to discuss their texts with the supervisor, to consult secondary texts if appropriate and to make notes and draft versions of the study. As with S5 some of it will be written in school to ensure authenticity. The Specialist Study must be between 3,500 and 4,500 words, including quotations, and footnotes and a bibliography are mandatory. The finished Specialist Study is passed or failed internally and there should be a chance for revision. 

The closing date for the external submission of the Specialist Study is 30 April, but a school deadline will be set nearer the time. There is Specialist Study support material from SQA. Copies can be found in the filing cabinet. It is worth noting that the Specialist Study carries a weighting of 40%.

UNIT 4 - Literature

Literature is an optional Unit, but it is treated as mandatory in our department, and in fact will be from next session. It has a weighting of 30%.

The texts/authors are chosen by the pupils in June and in 2002-2003 consisted of Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer and Seamus Heaney. Several members of the department are involved in the teaching of literature, and various approaches are used. Pupils will be expected to discuss ideas and on occasion to lead tutorials. Essays are set at the end of the teaching of each unit, at first formatively and later as unit assessments.  

UNIT 6 – Textual Analysis

All pupils will do Textual Analysis for a time at least. They will be consulted about the genres to be studied.  Most years we look at Poetry and Prose Fiction. One year Prose Non-fiction was also studied. A start will be made in June, and thereafter there will be a period a week in the terms October to December and January to March. Unit Assessments are left as late as possible. Support material is available in the filing cabinet. Pupils have to pass one unit assessment. The weighting is 30%.

UNIT 9 – Creative Writing

This is usually taught as an Activities class on a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. There are four genres and pupils usually tackle fiction, poetry and reflective. Drama is sometimes tackled too. The class is run on workshop lines and when offered during Activities, other interested writers in S5 may be in the class. Pupils are encouraged to write throughout the year and staff will offer advice about re-drafting. Finished pieces have to be assessed on a pass/fail basis. 

Sample Timetable

This year the timetable was as follows:

June   

August to October     

October to December     

January to March            

April to May                    

PRELIMS

The prelim is in January and is used for Unit Assessments. Pupils are asked to write a Critical Essay and to do a Textual Analysis.

THE EXAM

There is a 3 hour exam with papers on all the units. Those who have submitted a Creative Writing Folio, leave after an hour and a half.  No texts are allowed in the exam.

Samples of Work

A Higher Persuasive Essay

Background:

As part of our Higher English course we looked at some information about an organisation named Wateraid in order to enable us to write a persuasive essay as part of our language unit. We were all deeply moved by the information we read, including horrific facts about diseases you can catch as a result of dirty water. These included worms that grow up to 1.5 metres inside you, a disease which turns your eyelids inside out and a disease which causes you to emit 22 litres of diarrhoea in 24 hours before killing you. The majority of our class wrote powerful essays persuading people to care about this issue. These essays gained passes for the writing aspect of the course. We then realised that although we had written these essays, nothing had changed for the people whom we were writing about. We decided to hold a class collection, hoping for around twenty pounds. The generosity of our class, however, was phenomenal and we raised over seventy pounds. This money will be sent off to Wateraid to aid them in their goal of building more wells, providing clean water for people who are less fortunate than ourselves. The cost of all the cement necessary for building a well is valued at 63.44 and the wire to hold the panels together at 10.14. This is still less than the amount we raised so thanks to our class, Wateraid will be able to purchase some of the materials for another well. We are not the only people helping Wateraid. Recently, VIP tickets for Glastonbury were raffled off and the proceeds donated to Wateraid. People interested in helping the water charities can do so through Wateraid, Oxfam or http://www.ryanswell.ca.

Water Warriors

by Anne Miller

The water supply to your house is going to be cut off temporarily whilst repairs are carried out. You have plenty of notice thanks to the water company so have time to go to the supermarket and stock up on fresh water, fill containers around the house and have a bath or shower beforehand. It causes some difficulty though as it’s a bit of a nuisance to have to pour water from bottles rather than straight from the tap. Now think about what you’re complaining about. Around the world 1.2 billion people don’t have access to fresh, safe, drinking water. They don’t have any warning about when the next drought will come and they are forced to play Russian roulette with their lives as the unclean water leads to many health problems. In 15 seconds, the next child will die of a water related illness, that’s about the time it will take you to find and fill a glass of water. So, what caused these problems? Why are there such massive inequalities? What can we do to solve the problem? What is already being done? These are the questions we should be asking.

Did you know that 85% of your body is made up of water? Fife council do. That’s why they introduced the Fife water in schools scheme. By 2004, every school pupil in Fife will have their own personal water bottle and access to cool, clean water to refill it with throughout the school day. Does this sound like a good plan for helping those 1.2 billion without safe water? No. But it does help the children of Fife to concentrate more as a result of being properly hydrated. Unfortunately, for those other 1.2 billion people, education is the last thing on their mind.

Picture a regular school day. You wake up, drag yourself out of bed, grab some breakfast, run for the bus and moan about being tired. Now imagine waking up early to walk a mile, collect three ten litre cans of water and then trudge home again in time for school. Sounds horrific? Well, that’s the case for Dorothy Nabatanzi of Kisaaka, Uganda. Dorothy is one of the lucky ones. Recently, a new well has been built for her village, thanks to the help from WaterAid. This clean water will provide the end of the daily struggle before school for the children and the end of the worry about the safety of the water faced by the parents.

WaterAids Bangladeshi partner, VERL, runs courses for local people where they learn how to care for and maintain the wells. This enables them to become hand pump caretakers. Shona Van (25) is a hand pump caretaker and enjoys the responsibility and power that comes with her job. She says people often ask her for help and they respect her knowledge. This simple course, which doesn’t cost much to run, has given this woman status in her community and made her feel proud.

The pumps will be a great relief for the parents of the village. Imagine the daily agony of knowing your child needs water to survive but giving it to them may in fact lead to another disease which could prove fatal. Probably one of the most horrific diseases is the Guinea worm. This is common in areas where there isn’t enough water to wash regularly. The Guinea worm enters the body through contaminated water and lives inside. It can grow up to one metre in length, which as you imagine, will cause horrific pain. It will eventually emerge through the skin, thus causing fever and ulcers. Another common disease is Cholera. This is caused by a bacteria spread through contaminated food and water. It attaches itself to the inside of the intestinal wall and multiplies to form poisonous chemicals. It stops the body from passing water and up to 14 litres of diarrhoea can be passed in one day and it can kill within 24 hours.

These illnesses mean people miss days of school and work. 73 million working hours are lost each year in India annually and 40 billion working hours are wasted in Africa due to collecting water. Since there is no fresh water, they cannot drink lots to flush out their bug and few can afford the treatment when they do become ill. Sophia Lubega Nalongo hated having to give her children the dirty water. She would always boil it to try and destroy the worst of the bacteria but the children would drink straight from the swamp and she couldn’t afford treatment. She says she gives them herbal remedies and if they don’t work she scrapes together the equivalent of 15p for 10 Panadol painkillers. Imagine having to struggle for 15p. Imagine being so poor you can’t afford painkillers for your children and having to watch them suffer in tremendous pain. Imagine being afraid to give your children water as it could make them sicker. We are lucky. We live in a society where health care is free and we will be treated if we become ill. We also see water as a right, not a privilege. Rightly, the access to fresh clean water is a basic human right but that is one those 1.2 billion people are going without. Why?

It is not that the richer, developed countries aren’t trying to solve the problem. $2.03 billion of Western aid is earmarked especially for water. The total Western aid budget is $42.5 billion so more could be spent. Africa faces many problems socially, economically and politically. Many countries are led by a dictatorship which means aid given to them may well be intended for helping with water problems but could in fact be used to buy the dictator that lovely new private jet he saw advertised in the latest edition of “Scam Your Country Monthly”. Developed countries aren’t stupid. They know giving millions of pounds for aid to a dictatorship country would be a disaster. So they don’t. Unfortunately this means the people of the country won’t get their water access installed so will have to carry on suffering.

The inequalities faced over water are vast and will need much investment and time to even out. Luckily, WaterAid are on the case. Now we need to encourage others to do the same. It is all very well for African countries to spend their money on other things as there are many problems, such as the AIDS epidemic. However, humans can only last a few days without water so unless access in installed, the people will simply die before they have a chance to benefit from the other schemes invested in by the government. Whilst you have been reading this article, approximately 14 children have died from water related illnesses. Illnesses that could have been prevented by access to clean water. Next time you pour yourself a glass of water look at the wonderful clarity of it. Marvel at the fact there is no green slime floating in it. We don’t have to play Russian roulette. We are the lucky ones.

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