Tracking, individual targets and positive / developed and exam driven feedback all seem to be high priority for Ofsted and can be a daunting task to aim to fulfill. It required mass amount of regular , time consuming marking which is difficult to do on top of a full teaching timetable. I have found that by condensing all that down on to one handy sheet helps to make this task more manageable. This feedback sheet is designed to be used with the AQA exam board but can be used and altered in a way to suit you and / or the exam board you are using . I use this sheet once a term and stick it in the students folders so they have a regular feedback on their progress. It has gone down very well with management and Ofsted inspectors. The feedback sheet includes: Where they started - initial assessment scores - to show distance traveled. Where they aim to be - exam target Score for each question on the exam, including SPAG - I personally do 1 - 2 questions per term to show regular progress and tracking throughout the course. Space for written feedback and space for student feedback - to show student input into their own learning. Space for written feedback on overall behaviour and attendance per term. overall mock paper scores. I have found that by making all these areas fit on one sheet very useful in managing my time and feedback but also for the students to know they are on a journey and to have ownership of their learning. Be advised the TES previews do often distort the look of resources and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This is a fun and upbeat session which is centered around food and the song “Buttery Biscuit Base” in order to support students with the writing section of paper 1 of the Edexcel GCSE English exam. The aim is to improve the writing skills of your lower ability students by using adjectives and other key language features from DAFOREST etc and to encourage the students to plan their writing. This is a ideal session to use in the first term as a means to underpin the idea of ambitious vocabulary and to make English lessons fun and different, therefore hopefully improving retention of your harder to reach students. This session comes with group and paired activities, a starter and self reflection plenary. The activities are short to give the lesson a quick paced feel and it comes with all worksheets, link to the song and word banks to help support students. This is a lesson which you can adapt to suit the needs of your students as there is lots of room to delve off into higher level language features if you feel your students could develop into that area. Please note that the TES preview can distort the look of the resources and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps

This booklet is full of motivational, inspirational and confidence building quotes. I like to have this booklet in my classroom for students to look at, or use its in my classroom displays. This can be used either way depending on your needs. Hope it helps

Great support/guidance booklet for those students who struggle with the PEE / PEA /PQI and structure. Many students particularly struggle with the explain / inference section of this structure. This fun booklet comes with word banks and starter sentences for those who find this structure a challenge. It also comes with examples of high level answers and developed PEE /PEA/PQI answers to stretch and challenge more able students. Great handout to give to students or have casually on their desks to allow them to freely access whenever they need to, promoting independence in their own learning. Feel free to use in which ever works best for you and your learners.

This is a simple activity which can be used to encourage students to proofread. It can be used with students of all levels, GCSE or Functional Skills, as it can be used as a starter, plenary, homework or as an extension activity. Please be advised that TES previews can often distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps

This is a simple A4 sheet which shows a break down of each question of the AQA exam (both papers). Students can keep in a folder or fold up and keep in their pockets and use for revision. It is very useful as it reminds student of the main elements of each question, times, marks and skills the question is testing and how they need to structure their answers. This helps students to gain in confidence, promotes independent learning and active revision. Hope it helps.

This resource looks at writers use of language to reflect opinion and bias in journalism. It can be used in relation to the AQA GCSE English Language exam (8700) for questions 3 and 4 from paper 2 but can also be used in the delivery of L1 and L2 Functional Skills. This resource includes an article with some read and obtain questions which range from simple retrieval of information to questions which require deeper thought and inference, which helps those teachers with mixed ability classes. It also includes a discussion element which looks at gender stereotypes and roles of women and motherhood, which the article touches upon. I have personally found that by including these deeper social and stereotypical elements into my classes helps students to navigate their own thoughts and feelings on certain topics, but also allows them to have their ideas challenged and to work towards accepting diversity. Female stereotypes and sexism is very topical at the moment in the light of the Weinstein scandal and so this is a resource which could be expanded upon. Hope it helps

I support at risk student with 1 hour support sessions in GCSE English, my materials are simplified and designed to be used in a 1-2-1 capacity. These materials are easily adaptable to suit your own cohort and timetable. This resource is a small section of text taken from the Hunger Games book and I have structured questions which reflect those found on paper 1, questions 2, 3 and 4. This is a quick and easy revision tool, can be used as homework or self study or in support sessions. Hope it helps

I have created a series of writing prompts for learners of L2 functional English in response to limited past papers / mocks. I teach in an areas where learners are offered multiple resits and so need a wide range of practice materials. Tasks range from full 35 min writing tasks to starters where the learner is asked to write only the opening paragraphs. Types of question covers persuasive letter writing, formal and informal writing, report writing, online forums, letters of complaint and articles. Please keep in mind that the TES preview often distorts the look of the materials and is not always a true reflection. I hope it helps.

This resource is designed for revision workshops and focuses on structural features to be used for question 3 of the AQA GCSE English exam, however it can be altered to suit an alternative exam board. As the exam draws closer I find spending a half hour at the end of each session as a “quickie workshop” very useful and have developed these short, sharp revision activities. To teach structural features I use the mnemonic “ROW OF CLONES” ( available in the powerpoint) to help with some of the more common structural features used. This quickie workshop uses an extract from Chocolat in order to practice identifying structural features, this can be a individual or group activity depending on the needs of your class. It can also be used as homework. Please note that TES previews distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.

I like to encourage reading in my classes, and one of the ways I like to do that is with a visual display of books which became blockbuster movies to help grab students attention. This resource is my collection of visuals that I use in different ways to create these displays. It includes 14 different movies which includes a range of diversity and genres, contains images of the book and movie cover with still from the movie itself. You can print these, play with the sizes, layouts and be creative as you feel to suit your learning environment, I like to laminate to provide a glossy look and drape a red cloth over the boards in my classroom to create a old school cinema / theater curtain to create some drama. Images include: Eat Prey Love War Horse Divergent The Hobbit Memoirs of a Geisha Atonement The Colour Purple The Help Brighton Rock Feel free to play with and tinker with this resource, these are just image templates to help you get going and create amazing in class displays of your own. Be advised that the TES preview does not always truly reflect the resource. Hope it helps

This single resource is based on the Pearson (Edexcel) L2 Reading paper for English Functional skills. Designed to be used as a mini mock to help get students exam ready or prepped. This uses 1 article as a reference and is closely structured and worded to be as much like the exam as possible, with the exception of the comparison question. Can be altered to suit your students or needs. Hope it helps

The text for this resource is based around healthy eating, looking at the pros and cons of eating chicken. This paper is based on the questions you would find in the edexcel reading paper and designed as a starter/taster, rather than a mock, to help support less able students achieve. This resource can be altered to suit your cohort, please keep in mind that the TES preview sometimes distorts the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps

The world is a challenging place for everyone at the moment and stress, depression and anxiety are real issues that people are facing on a daily basis. This is a small resource which is designed to help reassess and take perspective during these difficult times. This is a small tutorial, which can be used as a starter or further developed to suit your needs, which examines the idea of success, what it means and what it looks like and how we measure it and most importantly, is designed to take a moment to be kind to ourselves and take the pressure off. This powerpoint is worded to be used as a part of a teams session, students are asked to go into rooms and use the chat function in order to engage with the sessions and with each other, again this can be adapted to suit your sessions. The quiz is designed to be interactive and light hearted to help promote a fun, positive atmosphere and connection with classmates, even though we are all distanced from one another. For me, taking the time to re-assess personal success is also a useful life skill, as we all know the non pandemic universe can be just a challenging and stressful, and being able to sit and take stock of small and big successes is a brilliant way to build self esteem, promote positive mental health and combat anxiety. Please be aware that the TES preview does at times distort the look of the resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This is a mini reading mock for L2 english Functional Skills, based closely on the pearson (edexcel) paper. Based on how the rich and famous have coped over the pandemic, this resource uses 1 article as a reference. The layout and wording are very close to the exam paper itself, with the exception of the comparison question, and so can be used to help get your students exam ready. Hope it helps

This single text resource is designed to help support less ability students prepare for their functional reading exam. Based on the current protests with climate change, this resource basis it’s questions around the edexcel paper. This resource can be altered to suit the needs of your cohort, please keep in mind that the TES preview can distort the look of the resource and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps

If you teach Functional Skills to low level, reluctant hair & beauty students, then you may find these resources helpful. I teach short sessions (1 hour) to hair students who will not work unless everything is hair or beauty related. Naturally, you can adapt the materials to suit your own class needs /lengths. This session is based around nail art and is designed to encourage writing a complaint in practice for the writing paper. Tasks include designing their own nail art, describing the design, looking at a complaint and structure of complaint then writing their own complaint. Like I say, my sessions are only an hour with difficult to engage students, so feel free to adapt. Hope it helps

If you have hair students like mine, then they hate English and only want to do anything related to hair then these resources may be helpful. I teach very short sessions (1 hour) to very low level and reluctant hair & beauty students who will disrupt any lesson to avoid doing the work. Naturally you can adapt and change the materials to suit your own class needs/lengths. This resource is designed to encourage the students to write and broaden their vocabulary. This includes a Power Point, paired matching task with extension worksheet and a short descriptive writing task all based around describing different hair styles. Hope it helps

If you have hair students like mine, then they really hate English and only want to do anything related to hair then these resources may be helpful. I teach very short sessions (1 hour) to very low level and reluctant hair students who will disrupt any lesson to avoid doing the work. This session is designed to teach the basics of language features and to help the students learn the terminology. For this reason, DAFOREST has been shortened to DRAFTES. (Naturally, you can adapt the resource to cater to your own class needs) The session includes rote teaching the terminology, a paired matching task and a identification task. The majority of the tasks and activities are hair related to help encourage engagement. Please be aware that the TES preview can at times distort the look of the resources and this is not always a true reflection. Hope it helps.

This resource is designed especially for seminar sessions or revision workshops around the exam period. It can be altered as an entire lesson if needs be. I like to spend the last half hour of my lessons as “quickie workshops” where I focus on one question from the exam at a time or set these tasks as homework. This quickie workshop looks at the older text about the working conditions on children in the mines. You can run this as individual or group session depending on the needs of your learners. Please be aware that TES previews can distort the look of a resource and this is not a true reflection. Hope it helps