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Original poster

GCSE English

36 replies

pilates · 11/03/2017 11:42

I am not sure if I am worrying over nothing but my DD's English class have not finished the curriculum, apparently they still have poems to finish. They are still doing mocks which seems quite late in the day. I thought they would be using the time left to be revising what they have already learnt not learning new material.

OP posts:
Trifleorbust · 11/03/2017 19:40

The curriculum is huge. Most students in most schools will still be covering content.

Redsrule · 11/03/2017 18:43

With the new spec this is inevitable. I teach in one of the most successful non selective schools in the country and we still have poems to cover. The courses are separate but skills overlap so analysing poetry is good revision for Section A of Lang Paper 1 and 2.

ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged · 11/03/2017 18:25

We finished the curriculum by Christmas and are revising it all now. I'm not sure that was the correct approach tbh. Next year I might spend longer doing each text in detail (allowing much less time for revision). The studied poetry is actually a tiny percentage of the final mark so they shouldn't spend too long on that (it's hard not to though).

@allthebestnamesareused - are they sticking with that approach for the new specs? I can't see how they'd fit it all in!

boobyooby · 11/03/2017 18:16

Nor here .... daughter is finding it very stressful as am I now ! Bit of a relief to find we aren't alone though Cake

LIZS · 11/03/2017 18:12

Not finished here yet either.

Original poster
pilates · 11/03/2017 17:29

Oh ok, interesting. Agree there does seem so much to cover in English.

OP posts:
jeanne16 · 11/03/2017 16:31

English is very rushed in schools and they really struggle to finish the syllabus. My son's school really rushed the poetry at the end. Get him to look for Mr Bruff's online lessons on the poems. It really helped my son scrape an A grade in English Lit.

Allthebestnamesareused · 11/03/2017 14:53

At my son's school they do texts etc similar to what they will do for GCSE in year 10 but not their actual GCSE texts. They do it all in year 11 otherwise the kids are sick to death of going over and over the same material.

(This is a selective school with 94% A*/A grades so it obviously works for them).

Monkeyface26 · 11/03/2017 14:41

My dd is in the same position. Probably going to be another 2 weeks until they finish the poems. It's a good school but there are still several subjects in which they are still finishing the curriculum- history, chemistry, biology, rpe. There is just a lot to get through. Try not to worry.

mumsneedwine · 11/03/2017 14:34

Oh and my class got 22 A*s and 9 As. Talk to the teachers if worried but it's very useful - if he's finished everything else then his teachers are fab

mumsneedwine · 11/03/2017 14:33

There are still 2 months left til exams start. I doubt any subject will finish until Easter - I finished my Chemistry last year 3 weeks before exam 😳. Don't panic - I'm sure they have already covered poetry in some form