Welcome to Key Stage 4 English Mr Smith Head of Department Mrs Raeburn KS4 English Coordinator

Why is it important to be good at English? Language is the armoury of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

What exams are we preparing for? English Language GCSE English Literature GCSE Paper 1 (1 hour 45 mins) Section A: Reading one literature fiction text Section B: Writing descriptive or narrative writing Paper 1 (1 hour 45 mins) Section A: Shakespeare: Macbeth Students answer one question Section B: 19th-century novel: ‘A Christmas Carol’ Paper 2 (1 hour 45 mins) Section A: Reading 2 non-fiction texts Section B: Writing writing to present a viewpoint Paper 2 (2 hours 15 mins) Section A: Modern texts: ‘An Inspector Calls’ Section B: Poetry from the anthology Section C: Unseen poetry

Let’s look in a little more detail…

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson HALF a league, half a league,    Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death    Rode the six hundred. 'Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!' he said: Into the valley of Death    Rode the six hundred.

Remains by Simon Armitage On another occasion, we got sent out to tackle looters raiding a bank. And one of them legs it up the road, probably armed, possibly not. Well myself and somebody else and somebody else are all of the same mind, so all three of us open fire. Three of a kind all letting fly, and I swear I see every round as it rips through his life –

So we’ve hit this looter a dozen times and he’s there on the ground, sort of inside out, pain itself, the image of agony. One of my mates goes by and tosses his guts back into his body. Then he’s carted off in the back of a lorry. End of story, except not really. His blood-shadow stays on the street, and out on patrol I walk right over it week after week.

Does your son/daughter read at home? Typical question to a Y10 parent at parents’ evening: Does your son/daughter read at home? Typical answer: She/he used to.

How do I encourage my child to read? Value reading - read a book yourself – and talk about why you enjoy it. Browse for books in libraries and bookshops - if you want to buy a book for less, look for it second-hand on Amazon or Ebay. Reading social media doesn’t count. Ask questions about what they’re reading: Who is your favourite character? Why? If you were making a movie of the book, who would play this character? What’s been the best moment so far? Have you found any new words we need to look up?

How do I encourage my child to read? He had come in along the goal line from the corner flag in a blur of intricate deception. Having briskly embarrassed three or four challengers, he drove the ball high into the net with a fierce simplicity that made spectators wonder if the acuteness of the angle had been an optical illusion. Hugh McIlvanney writing about George Best

How can I support my child through English in Year 10 & 11? Actively encourage reading. This is the only reliable way of extending a student’s range of vocabulary, sentence structures, methods of description and persuasion and, most importantly, ideas. Talk. Have conversations - about anything (music, news, film, gaming, sport…) Expressing ideas and opinions in full sentences is a brilliant practice ground for writing. Ask ‘why do you think that?’ or, ‘Can you explain that further to me?’ Learn. Be prepared to discover new information and look up new words with your child.

The most important thing (if you haven’t worked it out already):