Letter to parents of Year 11 Students

Dear Parent/Guardian,

We would like to take this opportunity to inform you about our ongoing programme of support for your son in the run up to their English GCSE.

Firstly there will be an opportunity for students who have underperformed in their Controlled Assessments to sit a new Controlled Assessment task.  Your son’s teacher will inform you if your son needs to take advantage of this opportunity.  Please refer to the calendar which has the dates of the Controlled Assessments.

On this calendar, you will also see an evening which is entitled “Parent-Son Evening” this is an event designed to help you get to grips with the realities of learning in English. It hopes to be a fun and collaborative experience for both you and your son, with engaging revision activities and games to get you into the English GCSE mindset.

Another exciting opportunity for students will be on Tuesday 20th March when students who studied “Of Mice and Men” are being offered the chance to attend a study day at the British Film Institute on the Southbank.  This will involve the students taking part in a workshop examining the book in conjunction with the two film versions.  The day will support your son’s work on ‘Of Mice and Men’ for the English Literature examination and also be useful if they are re-sitting their ‘Of Mice and Men’ Controlled Assessment for English.  A permission letter for more details and information about payment will be sent to you at home.

Finally please see below for a list of useful resources/links to support your son in the last few months of his English GCSE:

www.aqa.org.uk – the website for the examination board; all students are studying for AQA English Language and English Literature GCSE.

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/ – follow the links to English and English Literature to find a wealth of useful revision resources.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site – The Guardian newspaper’s site for children’s literature; this has some useful resources and links for exploring literature and language.

Revision Guides:

AQA GCSE English and English Language revision guide; AQA GCSE English Literature Poetry and Anthology Revision guide.  Publishers: Nelson Thornes. (These are available for both the Foundation and Higher Tier.)

York Notes for GCSE Guides (available for “Touching the Void” and “Of Mice and Men”).

Yours faithfully,

LNS English Department