Text A: an original contemporary practice extract.
I had never understood why anyone wanted to perform outside. In the drama room, the walls kept a mistake private. On the new stage in the courtyard, even a missed line seemed to travel as far as the dining hall. I went up there only because our group needed to rehearse the ending of a short scene before the school assembly.
The first run stopped when a gust lifted the last page of our script. We chased it across the courtyard, laughing, and started again without it. A few pupils waiting for lunch had watched the whole thing. One of them called out the missing line. We used it, and the ending worked better than the version we had rehearsed indoors.
I still prefer a room when I need to concentrate. But the stage made a rehearsal visible, and that changed who could join in. By the time we finished, two pupils who had not planned to perform were suggesting lines. The painted boards and simple lights are not what I remember most. It is the way a space meant for an audience became somewhere people could try an idea together.
Text B: an original contemporary practice extract.
A stage in the courtyard looks like an invitation. It is also a claim on shared space. At lunchtime, pupils cross that yard to reach the dining hall; during performances, they may be asked to stop and watch. The school should be honest about both possibilities before calling the stage a gift to everyone.
The strongest argument for it is not that every pupil will become an actor. A public performance can give a group a reason to work towards something together, and a stage makes that work easier to see. Yet visibility has its price. Some pupils would rather not have an audience while they are learning, and the courtyard is not equally available when lessons, weather or other activities take priority.
The sensible test is not how impressive the opening performance looks. It is whether the space is used in different ways, by people who do not already feel confident in front of a crowd. If it becomes a platform only for the polished and the loud, the school will have built a backdrop, not widened participation. The stage may deserve its place, but its success will be measured by what happens after the applause ends.
Compare how the writers present their ideas and perspectives about providing an outdoor performance stage at school. Support your comparisons with detailed references to both texts.
834 exam-style questions on Edexcel GCSE English Language 2.3 Content: non-fiction study and transactional text types, covering 2.3.9 Write an article, 2.3.10 Write a letter, 2.3.11 Write a review, 2.3.12 Write a text for a speech, and 2.3.13 Write a section for a guide, textbook, leaflet or booklet. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.