Two articles- one personal/anecdotal and one on contentious issue- for use for revision. I have written these but they can be shown to students as examples of top band writing for both content/organisation and technical accuracy. Students could use mark schemes to assess these and annotate with why/how they are top band.

An essay written by a head of department about ‘relationships’ in Letters from Yorkshire and Follower. This is for the AQA GCSE English Literature syllabus, with the Love and Relationships section of the anthology. Show the essay to your classes as a model: often Letters from Yorkshire is viewed as a difficult one for comparison but Follower lends itself nicely to some strong links.

This is a lesson I created for use with all students in Year 11 at my current school. You will also need the Aberfan and London Earthquake paper from the AQA website for this lesson. The lesson takes approximately 90 minutes-2 hours making it ideal for a one-off after school revision session close to the exams or for use in class as a recap of Paper 2. It is mostly focused on Section A of the exam. The sample answers are NOT written by students; I have written the answers based on my previous experience of marking examinations. The main aim of the lesson is to ensure that students understand the difference between the levels on the mark scheme- particularly the differences between a level 2 and level 3 response.

Grade 9 essay on family love with Eden Rock as the named poem. I have chosen Before You Were Mine as the comparison. I did this timed, from memory,

This is a top marks article giving opinions about travelling. It is a good example of twisting expectations and strong, sardonic tone. Give this to your higher ability students as a model of how to use ‘voice’ to create a convincing and compelling argument; it is the more controversial side too.

An essay written by a Head of Department on Neutral Tones and Winter Swans. This can be used as a top grade model for classes in preparation for the exam. The question is based on ‘problems’ in relationships, with Winter Swans as the named poem.

Compare how women are presented in Singh Song and one other poem from the Love and Relationships anthology. The essay is a response to the question above. Written by a Head of Dept under timed conditions, it can be used as a model for your classes in the run up to exams.

A grid with the key quotations from Act Two of Macbeth linked to themes and characters. The grid contains analysis for every quotation, context where relevant and the methods used by Shakespeare. This can be given to students for revision purposes and to help them to write essays on the play or could be used by teachers to help to deliver detailed annotations. The quotations are taken from every ‘moment’ in Act Two to ensure coverage of the extracts.

‘UK diets are out of control. The government and educational establishments need to do more to teach young people about staying active and healthy eating.’ Write a speech to be delivered to the Health Secretary explaining your views about this statement.

An essay written by a teacher about destructive love in Porphyria’s Lover and one other poem (When we two parted). This is a top model for the AQA GCSE English Literature specification, Poetry Anthology ‘Love’ cluster. Use this with a class to highlight strong, academic voice and look at the first paragraph on ‘When we two parted’ as the weakest part of the answer (how could it be improved) and the fourth paragraph for WAGOLL.

An essay written in response to the question “The boys in the novel are blind to their own wrong-doing.” Explore this quote in reference to the theme of sight and blindness in the novel. Use this as a model for thesis-led responses. This will be useful for AQA in the main part but could be used for Eduqas too with some amendments.

An essay written in response to the question 'Explain how Shakespeare explores ideas about gender, firstly in the extract from Act One Scene Five and then in the play as a whole. ’ Extract given would be the section in act one scene five from after Lady Macbeth receives the letter up to the end of the come you spirits speech. This response was made for an AQA style response but could easily be adapted for other exam boards (e.g. take out the references to Act One Scene Five being an extract for Eduqas).

A grid with the key quotations from Act Four of Macbeth linked to themes and characters. The grid contains analysis for every quotation, context where relevant and the methods used by Shakespeare. This can be given to students for revision purposes and to help them to write essays on the play or could be used by teachers to help to deliver detailed annotations. The quotations are taken from every ‘moment’ in Act Four to ensure coverage of the extracts.

A grid with the key quotations from Act Three of Macbeth linked to themes and characters. The grid contains analysis for every quotation, context where relevant and the methods used by Shakespeare. This can be given to students for revision purposes and to help them to write essays on the play or could be used by teachers to help to deliver detailed annotations. The quotations are taken from every ‘moment’ in Act Three to ensure coverage of the extracts.

12 practice papers about Macbeth and the various themes/characters for use with the AQA English Literature GCSE specification.

A grid with quotations in from throughout Act Five. It contains themes, characters, techniques, analysis and context for each quotation (where relevant). This can be given to students for revision/exam prep or to help them to write essays about the play. Teachers could use this to deliver detailed annotations, with all key moments covered. The grid contains over 30 quotations.

This resource took hours to make but is well worth it for a fantastic revision resource for those taking an examination based on A Christmas Carol. The grids are for each Stave and, in total, contains over 150 quotations with analysis, links to context, devices used by Dickens and the key characters or themes. Students can be given these for remote learning or teachers can use these to deliver annotations to their classes. The grid can be used to make excellent essays and they are flexible as they cover all of the characters and themes in the book.

A pack of 10 exam style questions for AQA English Literature Paper 1 Section B on A Christmas Carol.

This is a formal letter written in response to a task from the 2018 Eduqas English Language paper 2. However, it has been adapted to suit the requirements for AQA too (written by me- a Head of English, who has taught both specs). Pupils could be shown this as a model answer- tone, style, language, structure etc all things that they can replicate themselves.

A full marks response to the theme of ambition in Macbeth.

This is a question and response to Lady Macbeth presented as an evil character. The response has been written by a teacher but is indicative of a top level student response in terms of length/time allowed etc. The response could be used for top set revision purposes; students can ‘mark’ the response using the mark scheme (AQA website) and annotate with why it would be deserving of a high mark.