GCSE Results – Preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.
Let’s do worst case scenario. Thursday morning arrives and the envelope or the email containing your GCSE results is the biggest shock you have received in your life and the numbers staring back at you bear no resemblance to the grades you need to progress you to the next level of your journey. Blind panic […]
Why I can’t move on from “Of Mice and Men”
May 2016 and I returned my copy of “Of Mice and Men” to the shelf and there it has stayed gathering dust. This was as a result of one of the biggest shake ups the GCSEs had seen since their introduction in 1988. We are all aware of Gove’s changes: removing the coursework component; favouring […]
How many “Power and Conflict” poems can you spot hidden in the text? There are 15 to find.
Here goes… Some advice for all you students of AQA English and not just those in London. All that remains to be said is now that year 11 is drawing to an end, grab a tissue and get emotional remembering all the good times. Don’t go into Kamikaze mode and do daft things like burn […]
GCSE month – The New Role of the Parent
This is it. They are finally here and they will come thick and fast. The GCSEs begin this week with some ‘biggies’ and for those of you who have reaped this whirlwind before will understand that this week is now a game changer. For months we have been locked in conflict regarding revision, ironically with […]
The Problem with GCSE English Literature – The Children Don’t Know How to Answer the Question.
The Problem with GCSE English Literature – The Children Don’t Know How to Answer the Question. It really is that simple. On average I speak with upwards of twenty parents a week and the most common requirement for tuition and reason for the call is simple. “My child doesn’t know how to write the answer […]
These GCSEs Wont Pass Themselves
Why Won’t My Year 11 Son Realise GSCE Won’t Pass Themselves? I first did my GCSEs in 1988, yes, the very first year they were introduced and historically the year ‘they gave out grade A’s like advice at a wedding’ and I achieved, if I say so myself, very good, solid A*-Cs and the whole […]