A spreadsheet containing all the grade boundaries for all English Language 8700 exams – 13 in all at present. It also includes the TAG years (just in case people think they are missing papers from those years!). Importantly, the spreadsheet shows the text or subject of the texts for each year – so no more opening files to check that it’s one paper or another anymore. It also shows a quick view of the marks needed for a grade 4 on each paper plus the difference between a grade 3 and 4. So if you want to see how many marks achieved a 5 in 2017 and compare it to 2022 (and so on!) then this is the spreadsheet for you. It’s also a very quick way to find the year a certain paper was published and used. I have tried to use colour effectively on the spreadsheet so you can differentiate between a June and a November paper, plus have used conditional formatting for the information about Grade 3 and 4 which appears on the right hand side of the spreadsheet. Have fun! The spreadsheet isn’t locked so you can adapt this to your heart’s content.

Many learners do a mock exam, receive their grade and react accordingly. The reaction, however, is often short-lived and they quickly move on to something else. This form has been designed to encourage a period of self-reflection on their GCSE English mocks. I developed it because I found that although many of my students could answer the question “Why do we do mock exams?”, a large number of them could not fully answer this one: “How will you use your mock exam to improve your future performance?”. In other words, I got the impression that many of them thought that mock exams were wholly or solely a tool for teachers. This form, I hope, encourages learners to reflect more on their mock exam performance and to use that reflection to move towards doing better next time. As such there are rather a lot of questions – and I am quite happy for you to adapt this form to suit your own learners. I hope it’s “good to go” for most English GCSE situations. Plus, if you are reading this as a student, hope that you could even use it independently of your teacher in order to create an overview of how you did and what can be improved. The questions are split in to three sections – before, during and after the exam. In this way I hope I have caught the three important processes for successful exam performance. However, as I have indicated above, please feel free to adapt. I would be grateful, if you do, to indicate any changes in the comments below – these will help me to reflect on the form itself and to improve upon it.

This short lesson was devised to help students to learn what the markers are looking for if they are asked to write a letter in GCSE English Paper 2 Question 5 (AQA). The letter, it must be stressed, is a great example but this would probably not be achievable in the 45 minutes available for this task in the exam. However, it covers all the necessary skills to get 40/40 for the question - or if not that, pretty close to it! There are a series of short exercises too. These cover the “Content and Organisation” skills, as well as those for “Technical Accuracy”. Students are encouraged to discuss the assessment objectives associated with these skills.

Fancy having a go at letting a spreadsheet do your thinking for you? This spreadsheet has been created with Paper 1 Section B in mind. As such it only generates a mark for creative writing. This spreadsheet allows you to enter the skills your students demonstrated (from a drop-down list). Marks for Content and Organisation and Technical Accuracy will be automatically generated using a cute algorithm. This is based on Nov 18’s mark scheme where a 4 was a straightforward 50% (sounds reasonable). If you disagree with the marks the spreadsheet generates, you can change them manually and it will still work. It has entries for up to 30 students (hopefully your class is no bigger than that!). This spreadsheet comes with instructions!

This will be of use if you have done a progress test focusing on Paper 1 Q1-Q4. I’ve created the attached spreadsheet (the template file) which enable you to enter marks and generate grades for the students. The grade boundaries are from November 2018 but you can adapt this spreadsheet easily to other papers. Student names and numbers need to be entered on to the front sheet - as well as the marks for each question. This will generate an overall grade for the students and count how many get each grade in your class. I’ve added a bit more functionality, though. Once the grades have gone in, they generate a progress report for each student which can be used as a feedback sheet. The mark that they get for each question generates a comment about it… You will need to add a comment on each of these but I have put 30 examples of comments on the second sheet in the spreadsheet which you could adapt, copy and paste… You will also need to do a comment on attendance, punctuality and behaviour using drop down lists (at the bottom of each student sheet). Please feel free to use, adapt and so on!

All of the extracts in this document are free from copyright restrictions. This is either because of when they were written (and so now fall out of copyright statutes), have no copyright restrictions and/or were originally published under a Creative Commons license. They have been carefully collated to ensure that a wide range of voices can be heard by students studying towards their GCSE English. We have not overlooked famous authors by any means but a pivotal reason for putting these core texts together was to counter the inherent Eurocentricity of past and current curricula. Although there are no associated tasks included here (they are on the VLE) we are happy to make these texts available to anyone who cares to read them. They were chosen for their engaging content and so even if you do not use these as specific tasks, we hope that you will find them collectively an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. If you love to dip in and out of literature, you have come to the right place! When substantial additions are made (this is an ongoing project) we will update the document available online.

These two PowerPoint slides are designed for students learning about Database Development at Levels 2 and 3. The first allows a user to create an Entity Relationship Diagram by dragging and dropping elements on to the screen - only the central part of which is in the print area. The second allows a user to drag and drop elements on to the print area in order to design a form in access. Elements include labels, images, text boxes and buttons. These two PPs allow learners who are acquiring database skills to experiment with their designs. I have found them very useful delivering the Database Development Unit for the BTEC Level 2 Extended Certificate in Information and Creative Technology.

This pack of picture questions is designed for AQA GCSE English Language 9-1. They simulate Paper 1 Question 5 where students are given a picture and are presented with two options (it’s hard, almost to call them questions!). The tasks can be for a descriptive or a narrative response (although both tasks can be descriptive or narrative and this pack reflects that). I hope that you will be able to use this pack to help you increase the story-telling powers of your learners as well as their descriptive prowess! The pack gives teachers the opportunity to have a selection of ready-made questions for Paper 1 Question 5. These can be used to ensure that there are always writing tasks at hand. They might be used to stimulate class or small group discussion or can be used as interchangeable exercises to be done during a session. I hope that there is a sufficient variety of images in this pack to pique the interest of even the most reluctant of writers. By giving your learners a choice of task (while the assessment objectives - A05 and A06 remain the same) these sample questions might help to ensure both differentiation and an element of choice. Each is formatted to include the question on a single A4 sheet. The originals are also included on their own if you would like to use them without the question stimulus. They would probably also be very useful if you are covering a class - the skills that students develop with these questions are vital for success in GCSE English as this question alone represents 25% of the entire exam. All of the wonderful pictures have been ethically sourced and are available under a Creative Commons license which means you do not have to worry about copyright with them at all. Each originator is credited by use of a link to the original.

This was created for learners doing GCSE English Language - the new Grade 9-1 Course. It can be used as a revision but more particularly as an introduction to structural features. Paper 1 Question 3 is the structure questions where learners must comment on structure (see example question below from the June 2018 examination). A student response can easily become muddled if they are not confident with the terminology used to do that. The game is designed to be naturally differentiated - the quality of the responses will depend on the ability of the students but all can participate. Learners are given individual structural features to investigate and must report back on it to the class, including an easy-to-understand definition and hopefully examples of where it is used in one of a variety of forms. If there are no opportunities to use internet enabled devices in class, this could be easily changed to be a homework activity. It is also perfect for a cover class! The game is an editable PowerPoint so you can also adapt it if you wish. Please do not redistribute afterwards in any format. Also included is a full lesson plan for this session - again it is editable if you wish to make changes (inevitable as your learner needs may be subtly or very different to those of my own). Assessment Objective: AO2: Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views The resource also works towards paper 1 question 5 (AQA board at least!) when learners must incorporate structural features in to their own creative writing, either descriptive or narrative.

This spreadsheet allows users to enter marks for each question for GCSE English Language. There is a spreadsheet for Paper 1 and Paper 2 for each of the three 9-1 GCSE English Language 8700 sittings so far. The spreadsheets will not allow errors so they will not let users type in 9 marks for an 8 mark question, for example. They calculate the total marks - plus they also automatically give you the final grade for that paper. These are editable spreadsheets so you can further change them if you so wish. There is a separate spreadsheet containing grade boundaries for all 6 past papers (Paper 1 and Paper 2 x3).

This could save some time… This spreadsheet contains five sheets: A front page enter their details (name etc) and yours, that are then copied through to all other sheets (so name only goes in once). A writing FCP (Form, Content, Purpose) Skills Tracker sheet for the Writing Unit A Writing SPAG (Spelling and Grammar) Skills Tracker for the Writing Unit A Reading Skills Tracker for the Reading Unit A Speaking & Listening Skills Tracker Together they build to give you a complete picture of where your student’s skills lie. They can be updated twice during the year so that students can measure their progress. Hope it’s useful to you!

These spreadsheet exercises were created for the BTEC Level 2 Extended Certificate in Information and Creative Technology but might be used in any beginners Spreadsheet class. They are design to be done after some teacher input and cover a number of simple function and formulae. These include: Addition Subtraction Multiplication Percentages Simple IF statement Minimum Maximum Average Creating simple charts and graphs Wrapping Text Borders and fills Change of font and size The aim, too, is to get learners to think about the math rather than blindly following instructions without really ‘getting it’. These exercises can be done by students of varying abilities - and there are some additional activities on each sheet for those who finish first.

This editable spreadsheet allows your students to calculate their grades easily. It has the following units: Online World, Tech Systems, Digital Portfolio, Graphics, Animation, Spreadsheets, Databases. Web Design, Computer Networks. It does give ‘false’ results if students enter high grades for some units and none for the others so there is a note at the side warning them of this!

These ten beautifully designed “Do Now” activities are designed to get your Functional Skills English lesson off to a great start. They have been written to be challenging (but not too hard!) for students approaching their L1 Reading exam and incorporate the skills needed to pass it! Each one consists of ten (sometimes 11) questions based around a short text. Download a free sample here - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13147971 They are perfect for lesson starters or ends. It should take up to ten minutes for students to answer the questions, with then answer time taking another five. This may sound like a lot of time, but as they are focused on getting the students through the exams (not “woolly” in any way, shape or form!) I have found that this time has been well spent and is reflected in both student confidence around the exams and their actual exam performance. They cover two pages (so perfect for quick double-sided copying) plus there is a third page of the correct answers for teachers (you don’t want to be doing the Do Now yourself, do you!?). These “Do Now” activities are designed for learners doing the Pearson Edexcel exam – but I am sure they can be used for other exam boards too. The texts take the form of flyers, short articles and online forums. The questions consist of: Multiple choice – identifying the purpose of a text, language features and use of punctuation Short answers – identifying organisational features and their location in the text, using sub-headings, relacing single words with a synonym, explaining short quotes from the text True/False – some feature three, others just one – akin to multiple choice but a little more straightforward. A good confidence boost for weaker learners. As well as covering the skills needed for the exams, the “Do Nows” are designed to allow students to become accustomed to the kind of questions they will get in the exams and how they are written. In order to engage learners I have made these, where possible, about subjects that engage young people. Also incorporated are “value” based activities, such as British Values, which go some way to incorporate your institution’s (and the governments) policies about subjects that should be covered at school or college. The subjects of the “Do Nows” are as follows: British Values Bullying History of Rap Music Consent (very PG!) Cricket Drug Use Future of Gaming Hairdressing Course Mental Health Online Safety The files are uploaded in their original PowerPoint format and as PDFs. These have gone down very well where I work. I hope you enjoy using them too!

This is a beautifully presented set of 10 “Do Now” activities for GCSE English. Sometimes it’s difficult to activate learning, especially at the beginning of the first session of the week. A great way to kickstart a class, assess prior learning and to give the students instant feedback is a “Do Now” activity. Over and done in ten minutes or less, I often use them at the beginning of a class to signal to students that it is time to learn – and what better way is there than to get them actively thinking? These worksheets really get them into the “English Zone” as it were. The stakes are low, but having used these with my own learners, I know that the engagement is high! Each worksheet has a number of very quick activities on it (between three and six) which can be done in around five minutes. For variation, each worksheet has a different “mix and match” of activities. This means the students will not know what is coming in their next “Do Now” and this will hopefully keep them on their toes and interested! These activities comprise: Spot’n’Spell – learners read a short passage and correct TWO spelling mistakes One Word Drafting – learners are asked to improve a sentence with just one word (sometimes an adverb, sometimes any word) Spot the adjectives – learners must underline the adjectives in a very short passage Fill the gaps – learners read a paragraph of classic literature and fill in gaps Suggestion Box – learners are asked to write what a word suggests in a sentence (can be about character, place and so on) Unjumble – learners asked to separate the adjectives from the adverbs The Great British Idiom – learners given an image that shows a famous idiom and are asked to put it into a sentence What Am I? – learners given a definition of a structural or linguistic device and asked to write the answer That is the Question – Learners given a description of an exam question and asked to give Paper, Question and Mark (eg Question 2, Paper 1, 8 marks) Punctuate Me! – Learners gives four sentences and asked which one is punctuated correctly Time to Shine – Learners asked about exam timing for certain questions Language or Structure? – Learners asked to separate language and structural devices True or False – Learners asked to say whether a statement is true or false Word Star – learners asked to match up words with their definitions I “like” it – learners asked to improve a sentence by adding a simile Strong Links – learners asked to place an adverbial phrase into a short text to create a stronger link between sentences Be Direct – leaners asked to reword a sentence, using direct address List Four Things – learners given a short text and asked to list four things about one of its elements Order! Order! – learners asked to put four sentences of an exam response into the correct order S The worksheets are in colour but print off fine in black and white. They are designed to engage the students with individual designs and graphical “Easter Eggs”.

This is an editable resource but a PDF is included too. Ever tried to teach descriptive writing and been met with a sea of faces staring back blankly? However, when the terminal exam promises the distinct possibility of a descriptive writing task (Paper 1 Question 5) then students must be prepared for this eventuality. This is one way to encourage students to write good descriptive pieces. This set of prompts is designed to introduce students to descriptive writing in a number of ways… The resource is designed as a 60 minute section of any class and it focuses on a FULL RESPONSE for a description of a picture. If you want to use exercise books, there is an ‘instruction only’ set here too. Each paragraph the students must write is accompanied by a number of prompts to the left. The prompts indicate what they should write. So, the first (major) prompts, for example, are: Para 1 Start with a one word sentence, stating the time of day – or year. Then use a simple sentence to describe the sea. Para 2 Describe the setting. As a minimum, your paragraph should include… • a simile about the place e.g. the sun was like… The air was as… • Describe the sky – what can be seen? Use colours! • Write a compound sentence about the sun and/or sea. • Start the last sentence with “In the distance…” Add anything else you want about the setting ONLY. …and so on! The prompts then progress, enabling the students to create a complete response which includes all of the skills descriptors for Paper 1 Question 5. Your students should end up with a piece containing a minimum of 7 paragraphs of varying language with structural features and language devices used throughout. This lesson could also be used as a ‘snap’ revision session or a cover class. In fact it’s a highly adaptable (and editable!) resource which you can turn to many things. There is also a ‘five senses’ prompt on the lesson handout, to encourage students to use one or more of these in their writing. These exercises cover the following Assessment Objectives: AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

What if there was a Higher Tier GCSE? Imagine a resource designed to stretch the most capable students, challenging them to excel beyond the standard GCSE English Language curriculum. This is what I like to think I have created here. Although I don’t think any teachers would want to return to a system of Higher and Foundation levels, almost every year I have students who find previous exams very straightforward – especially in the Reading Section. As such I always keep an eye out for passages that might stretch and challenge the more able students. Revisiting Billy Budd recently, I came across the passage included, which is where Billy accidentally kills another sailor. It lends itself beautifully to the demands of GCSE English Paper 1 and was, I thought, a more challenging text than usual. This was due both to the advanced vocabulary and imagery it uses as much as the fact it was written in the late 1800s. This “Higher Tier” paper, centred on this carefully selected (and minutely edited as opposed to the usual AQA butchery!) passage from Billy Budd, pushes students to tackle complex language, nuanced themes, and sophisticated literary techniques. It provides an invaluable opportunity for them to delve deeper into textual analysis and to refine their critical thinking skills. I have used it in my classes and it has stretched the more able students quite satisfactorily. There is also an extensive mark scheme for the Reading section - so you don’t have to make one up yourself. There isn’t one for the Writing section - it is the same as AQA. The questions essentially remain unchanged – but Q1 is now “explain” rather than list in order to satisfy “higher tier” requirements of a 4 mark question! However, the nature of the text means that brighter students will find the other questions more challenging than usual. As such, the Billy Budd “Higher Tier” paper simulates an advanced exam experience, preparing students to face intricate passages with confidence and clarity. It can be used as a part of classroom teaching, revision sessions, or independent study, this unique paper is the ideal tool for students eager to take their understanding of English Language to the next level and aim for the “higher” grades in their exams.

Short Exam-Focused English Activities for GCSE English Language When is a cover lesson not a cover lesson? When it’s all printed up and ready to go the next time a colleague is off. When it’s beautifully presented and covers a number of the important assessment objectives the students will have to cover in the exams. When it’s cunningly disguised as something that has taken time to prepare and hasn’t been thrown together in a panic. When the students enjoy doing it…! These two cover lessons are called “Sharpen Your Skills” and take the form of short 8 page booklets that can be taken to class and will need little or no explanation. They each have a variety of tasks (see below) which are low stakes but cover some important elements of the qualification. There is an answer booklet for each, too. I have used these in my institution with success. Students have reported that they like the variety of tasks involved which keep them busy for an hour. Plus they have enjoyed the subject matter of the tasks and texts involved. Although the evaluation question can be a little challenging, it focuses on skills that can attract high marks in the exams… In fact, we have students asking for more so they can do them at home! Sharpen Your Skills 1 comprises of… A “Do Now” set of five questions A “Ready Steady Write” – flash writing about being faced by a zombie A newspaper report about gangs in South London from 1898, with a “List Four Things” question and an evaluation task A “multiple choice showdown” about various aspects of the text (9 questions) A “describe the setting” task which asks students to write the second paragraph of a text. Sharpen Your Skills 2 comprises of… A “Do Now” set of three questions (one which mirrors P2Q1) A “Ready Steady Write” – flash writing about education failing young people. An extract from Octavia Hill’s 1875 “Homes of the London Poor”, with a “List Four Things” question and an evaluation task A creative writing task with a set of picture prompts which asks students to write about when they or someone the know has shown bravery. They are both included as Word documents and PDFs. All images are used under a Creative Commons licence,

Flashbacks can be overlooked when teaching creative writing. Often the emphasis is on openings and closings, building a chronological narrative. Yet for GCSE English flashbacks are an important structural device which students should be able to use in their creative and descriptive writing. These can be used as starters, fillers or a whole lesson. This set of 6 flashback exercises gives students the first part of a story leading up to the point where a flashback could take place. It is then a case of ‘over to them’ where they use their imagination to create a flashback suitable for the particular scenario they have been presented with. You could almost call this a ‘semi-scaffolded’ lesson but a flashback is essentially a story within a story. These exercises could be used as short activities or as part of a whole lesson where each student attempts a few of the flashbacks (the lesson plan reflects the latter). Although the stimulus provided by the short starts may be enough for most students it could be an idea to open a short discussion about what could happen in the flashback. Here’s an example of one of the exercises - the students read them and then create their flashback: Hot, sticky, crowded; the subway in summertime is never pleasant. It’s made bearable by the fact everyone minds their own business. I long ago fell in to line, stopped making small-talk, smiling little greetings at strangers, helping people with large cases. Best to mind my own business. Read my news, message a few friends, scan through my email. The trill little slither of music tells me another one has come in. I read the name of the sender and my eyebrows swing upwards in some surprise, a smile starts to from on my face. Can it be, after such a long time? I read the email breathlessly, the carriage is now a vacuum – no air is needed with the sudden burst of adrenaline I am experiencing. I reach the end of an email. It’s short – a hello, a question, an invitation. My mind tumbles back through the years. I have included 2 formats for the exercises. The first is where the students write their response next to the picture. The second is where they have a larger example of the picture and they create their response in their exercise books. There is a ‘cheat sheet’ included to let students know what a flashback is! These exercises cover the following Assessment Objectives: AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

This quiz is based on a very short story of just 458 words called “The Dream of Billy Williams”. It is followed by 19 multiple choice questions and 3 order questions. For those who finish early there is an extension task at the end. This resource was originally created as there don’t seem to be many “structure” resources out there that are good quality and teach the learners anything except the terminology! I believe this quiz provoked some thought about how to respond to the question in an exam scenario. This is ideal for a cover lesson, too, as it produces no marking, as long as the answers are given out once the quiz is complete (learners can mark their own or can exchange their papers with others). I would advise reading the story out loud at the start to ensure that all the learners have read it and do not (as is sometimes the case) attempt the “pot luck”” strategy of answering the question. The story is set during the First World War and focuses on a soldier, Billy Williams who can sleep through anything - but unfortunately this does not ultimately save him. The description of his death is not “blood and guts” but focuses on his obliteration by a shell. The story uses all the skills to get a very high grade for Paper 1 Question 5. As such, it can also be used as an exemplar for that question, too. There is also a comprehensive answer booklet with explanations so that the teacher who is doing the lesson can respond to learner questions about why the right answer was… the right answer! The order questions are a student responses (done in the PEE manner). Learners have to put them in the right order. The point and evidence are presented in the first sentence. The two explanatory sentences can be separated in terms of order because the final point has a linking word or phrase indicating summation is in process. Although this quiz is “low stakes” in nature, it covers a large amount of subject terminology which can be discussed at the time when the answers are given. The aim is to embed this terminology as well as exposing students to ways in which it could be incorporated into their own attempts at P1Q3. The text is also provided separately as there are always learners who ask for this so they do not have to keep flicking back and forth. PDF and Word formats for the documents are included. This quiz would easily be adaptable into an online version if you wanted to do the quiz as homework, The questions and answers could be quickly copied and pasted into MS Forms or a Moodle interface – and the explanations given in the answer booklet could also be used to enable online automated feedback. Enjoy!