MASSIVE success with this scheme. Trouble is, what I can’t get on here is the music files I downloaded and threaded into the lessons. If you want to do this, use a site like keepvid.com to download some sinister music - I used the little girls song from ‘The Ring’ and a series of songs from the original QUAKE video game soundtrack (one is literally just a whisper getting louder and louder). I played these sounds over the top of the creative writing assessment and got a decent response (true, one or two of the kids MAY have nightmares…). Best of luck!

A powerpoint lesson designed to be taught either AFTER a class has sat AQA English Language Specimen Paper 4, or to be used WHILST a class is sitting the same paper in the form of a mock exam where feedback is given immediately. In this powerpoint, I refer directly to the model material provided by AQA and provide some feedback that can be given to the students. The idea with the feedback is that the person marking (teacher or student) writes down the letter/number and, when the marked work is returned, the owner of the response can either write the target down in full or highlight it in a printed version.

My third lesson. This is designed to be a lesson where I as the teacher give less and the students give more of their own ideas - the group is reluctant to communicate. As a result, it is less "idea heavy" and far more task focused - you'll get a lot of markable material out of this.

A series of lessons and resources designed for a top set year 8 class. The extracts are a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. The focus was to take a group of year 8 students who are used to using the PEE structure and get them to write a concept focused response. I’ve included the model responses we built as a class, as well as the model response the students were provided.

A unit designed to be taught to Year 7. It introduces them to the basics of the Media and gets them writing creatively - a Travel Brochure. Includes resources and articles.

A bank of lessons and extracts that introduce Key Stage 3 to a variety of different 19th Century Literature texts. Designed with a top set year 8 class in mind. Draws heavily from the AQA material - look at this as either a time-saver or a starting point. ADDITION: These lessons are intentionally “light” in terms of their content - the main aim of this unit was to get the students to read the extracts and to ask questions about them. As a result, the lessons I’ve built contain gaps that allow me to react to the needs of the kids. If your intention is to purchase these lessons, please recognise that you will need to fill these gaps yourself. The lessons were only ever intended as a starting point.

A text I taught to year 7 (second set) which we all absolutely loved! There are so few lessons here in comparison to my other resource bundles because we often spent large amounts of time just reading the book. The video is pretty awesome - I take no credit for creating it, I downloaded it from youtube and converted it to a format I could use. May the crows find you willing and able.

One of my old schools did a great job of communicating with their feeder Primary Schools. We would be invited in to teach the incoming Year 7s. We took this a stage further by collaboratively teaching lessons with people from other departments. This lesson is designed to be taught to Year 6 students and combines Art and English. It's quite easy to change this to meet the needs of your own school's transitional needs. You'll need to download some Manga style pictures and also, somewhat unsurprisingly, you'll need Art resources too.

I had SO much fun with this unit of work! It helped that the TA in my class went on to become a local MP for Labour (still is as far as I can tell...). Essentially, this series of 5 lessons - which, by the way, totally went over the 5 lessons I gave myself to teach this - explores a number of different political speeches. Included in the pack are a number of transcripts - Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, Alex Ferguson's farewell speech, Bush's post-911 address to the nation and the transcripts of Clegg, Cameron and Brown from the First Televised General Election Debates (heavy stuff). I was a little tentative at teaching this to a bottom set year 9 class, but they totally got on board with the debates (they tore shreds out of Brown...) and engaged well with the controlled assessment task at the end. I know that the controlled assessments are now null and void (a shame really), but the exploration of speeches might be useful to someone out there in the teaching ether...

A bare bones SoW that focuses on introducing the Literature aspect of study at KS3, but assesses the students on a piece of creative writing. The lessons assume you have a copy of the text for students to follow. Look at this as a starting point. Designed with a bottom set in mind.

A single power point designed to be taught as a walking-talking mock examination. This can extend over several lessons - I predict you'll need at least three to do this justice. The source materials are included.

One lesson that focuses on getting the students to use more technical vocabulary. Another lesson that tests their understanding and hits them with an exam question at the end. All material is based upon the AQA terminology guide (not included in this pack).