We are producing a series of articles to help parents support their children facing GCSEs this Summer.

All of our students have the potential to get a Grade 4 and doing so means it does not have to be re-taken at college next year. The Grade 4 (an old C) gets students onto higher college courses and is often required for apprenticeships too.

There are 2 GCSE (Eduqas) English Language papers.

Revision

We have given your child a revision booklet of sample questions which you can see here:

GCSE English Language Revision Booklet

This is not an exam that your child can revise for in terms of remembering lots of facts – more it is about applying the skills learnt in lessons.

Even so, your child can revise for this paper, and it is important to do so.

This booklet has lots of past paper questions so your child should read them through and see how the exam is organised. It is the same sort of pattern each year and your child has already had a go at lots of questions during lessons.

You can help your child by reading it with them and saying what you think your child needs to do. They can listen to you, or more likely put you right.

You can also help by buying your child some highlighter pens – and getting them use them to spot the answers they need to give in the examples in this booklet – before bringing them in for their exams. In the exam they have to read text and then answer questions on it – so they can highlight the answers to the questions as they read it through.

Extra Revision Help

We have also produced video tutorials on this exam which your child can access via this Teams link.

Simon Daniels, Head of English, said: “Your child is well-prepped for this exam and it is just a case of working hard and delivering all they have learnt. They have been shown how to answer the questions, they have prepared answers, they know what to expect. It is all about them reminding themselves on everything, being clear on what they will face, and seeing from you that they can do it. Every child we have in Year 11 can do well here – at some point they have all got a Grade 4 or better.”