First world problem: secondary extension/enrichment work in English GCSE

[Greattimestroubledtimes]

And does this exist, and do people have examples of it working well?

DD is good at English, and her head of subject has basically told her that the GCSE is not very challenging for someone like her.

Now if this were maths, she'd be doing Further Maths GCSE, or Maths Olympiads, and there would be trips to unis etc. But she's basically been told, sorry, that's just the way it is.

And yes, I can and do suggest books to challenge her but this doesn't make lessons any less dull, and frankly as this is a private school I would have thought that they could at least do that.

Apologies if this is not entirely coherent but I am at the tail end of covid and consecutive thought still eludes me

Another book she might like is 'Have you eaten Grandma?' by Gyles Brandreth.

Look at the UK Linguistics Olympiad website. She's missed the official competition this year but there are lots and lots of past papers / practice questions in languages from all over the world (no prior knowledge needed) - hopefully v interesting for someone keen on linguistics!

@ToodlesOodles THERE IS ONE? Fantastic, this is exactly the kind of thing I wanted to hear and I can take this to school as a suggestion.

I'd forgotten about that. Dd set up a linguistics soc at her school and some of them did it.

[quote Greattimestroubledtimes]@ToodlesOodles THERE IS ONE? Fantastic, this is exactly the kind of thing I wanted to hear and I can take this to school as a suggestion.[/quote]
Yes - I love it (am MFL teacher so run it in my school as extra-curricular) - and did postgrad linguistics so it's right up my street! There are mark schemes and explanations for the questions on the website too, so even for a self-starter it's a good way in. I hope she enjoys it!

Literary Criticism texts will definitely challenge her and develop her writing in readiness for A Level. Cambridge Companion series is very good and challenging reading. Any good English teacher would be doing this within class for more able students. Extended writing should be being completed several times a week and left challenging and open ended for top grade pupils. Reading non fiction connections to the literature texts also good idea. For Language you can look at things like Hegels Dialectic and Aristotelian Rhetoric. I do all this in a very comprehensive school with top set - you need to ask for more from the school.

Definitely the linguistics Olympiad. Listen to word of mouth and the history of English podcasts.

@ToodlesOodles

Look at the UK Linguistics Olympiad website. She's missed the official competition this year but there are lots and lots of past papers / practice questions in languages from all over the world (no prior knowledge needed) - hopefully v interesting for someone keen on linguistics!

Tell me more

Here it is - www.uklo.org - if you scroll down you can find past paper problems / training material etc.

Hi OP, her set text book list is quite an interesting range to be fair. I think @AuntieStella and @ToodlesOodles have some excellent suggestions, and I would also suggest that if she likes the language and linguistic aspects she should try reading some leading semioticians such as:
Ferdinand de Saussure
Roland Barthes
Umberto Eco

DH also raves about Ros Coward, who was one of his lecturers 30 years ago and still lectures (and writes) today.

@ToodlesOodles OP here under different pseudonym. Just wanted to say that DD has started working through the Linguistics Olympiad papers today and loves them - she's got through the first six of last year's and dropped two points so far so it's definitely her thing! Thank you!

www.trin.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/essay-prizes/

essay competitions like this? Or Nanowrimo for creative writing?