Taking English Literature to A-Level involves the study of four units, all four knitting together to form a varied and invigorating tapestry of complementary and contrasting genres and authors. There is a coursework study of two modern novels which allows students some choice over what they write about.

In English Literature the students study literature from Shakespeare to the present day covering the three genres: in poetry, this may range from Chaucer and Keats through to Ted Hughes and Carol Ann Duffy; in drama, students may look at playwrights as diverse as John Webster, Tennessee Williams and Lucy Prebble whilst the modern novel may be written by F Scott Fitzgerald or E M Forster or may go further back to some of the nineteenth century greats like Thomas Hardy or Jane Austen.