How can my daughter improve GCSE English language grade? Please can anyone help?

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I’m a bit stumped and wondered if anyone could help me.

DD is due to take her GCSE’s this summer. She needs a 6 in English language to progress to her chosen A-levels. In her mocks she got a 5. She writes well and her punctuation and grammar are good. I’m just wondering how she can elevate her work so that she gets a higher grade in the exam. Her English teacher is really poor and she isn’t giving her much advice.

I’d be really grateful for any guidance, advice or tips.

Have you looked at CGP books for English language?

We’re quite close now but Save My Exams often does a 7-day trial.

It’s not just a SPAG qualification - it’s about persuasive writing etc - what board is she?

I saw this on TSR: https://www.youtube.com/MrSallesTeachesEnglish
I can't really comment but he is supposed to be really good.

Get her mocks and find out if its the reading or writing questions where she is losing marks. Reading questions are jump through hoops style: get mark schemes and make sure she ticks the boxes. Writing: practise extended and complex sentences, more complex vocabulary that is easily adapted for any question, such a good adjectives for colours, synonyms for walk/talk/do. Feel free to PM me!

The board is Eduqas. I have bought the CGP books. The problem is, both of us find it difficult to see what she could do better even after reading the CGP book. I read examples of what her work should look like and it seems to meet that standard to me.

I’m not sure if her teacher is being really harsh on her. There’s just no feedback from school and not much work being sent home.

using more complex language is definitely something we need to work on.

I will have a look at the YouTube video.

thank you so much all.

Not much time left now but book her a few sessions with a tutor?

I’m not really able to afford a tutor. I sit with her every night and try to help. It’s frustrating because I know she is very capable. I wonder if she just didn’t try very hard in her mock.

She’s very overwhelmed too which is making discussions about it difficult.

Mr Salles bumped my DS up by at least a couple of grades from his mock result.

I bought loads of other revision material, but he didn't use any of that.

I’m just having a look now. He seems to make the learning very accessible.

I don’t think there are many good Eduqas section A videos out there but the section B material is ok. If you pm pics of her papers I can tell you where she has gone wrong.

I am a Teaching Assistant with adult students about to sit their GCSEs. Buy the Eduqas books. While you don't know the actual texts you will get on the day, the questions are pretty much the same - yes they will be slightly tweaked to fit the texts but not by much. If your daughter works through the actual book for the exam board, she will get practice for questions that will be the type on her paper.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/English-Language-Complete-Revision-Practice/dp/1789082439/ref=asc_df_1789082439?mcid=9ec2a8413b843343848fb78059f77d52&th=1&psc=1&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697256443846&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4705263620630932666&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046325&hvtargid=pla-634446600402&psc=1&hvocijid=4705263620630932666-1789082439-&hvexpln=0&gad_source=1

Also the bbc bitesize site is good, as much practice as possible and read questions carefully

Big words.
Write lots.

Mine also did Eduqas for English Language. A lot of the YouTube stuff is geared towards AQA.

The best advice I can give you is walk yourself and your DD through the past papers. They are all online, pull up the question paper, print it off if possible so she can section off when it says in lines 4-12 she draws a square bracket around those lines so she only looks at answers within those lines. Then open the mark scheme for the same paper.

Read the mark scheme, do not skip to the answers, look at the Assessment Objectives. Understand there are levels to the AOs.

Look at the first question, talk about what the answer would be, then look at the mark scheme. The mark scheme shows you exactly what they are looking for. Walk through each question together. Then for the next paper, see how well she does without help from you, she gives you the answer, you check the mark scheme.

Re the narrative. they are not expecting anything incredible, they are 15/16. What we did to prepare was descriptives down for people, weather and settings. Google words to describe rain or wind, then look at synonyms, you can't really prepare a full narrative but they are looking for use of language and punctuation.

Mine had descriptors for a park, a school playground and a beach. Both day and night, rain and sun, November and July. Contrast November on a UK beach to July. We took a lot from Stacey Reay on Youtube who won teacher of the year.

I think as an adult it is easier to see when it is all spelled out in the mark schemes. If you get chance read at least one examiner's report that talks about what people did well etc. Look at your DD's school book too and what she has been doing in class.

For English Lit, Mr Salles was the game changer plus the CGP revision book on the poems which my DC's school used in class as a teaching aid. Concentrate on form and structure, get that into any response on analysis. Salles is great for quotes plus AO3 for understanding that everything is a work of fiction, written to make the audience feel a particular way. The beginning and end of any poem or book is important.

We had Mr Salles book for Romeo and Juliet, in that he says every question can be relayed back to patriarchy. Juliet chooses to marry Romeo for agency, at the end of R&J Romeo kills Paris, marrying for love trumps an arranged marriage.

Thank you so much. That’s genuinely so helpful and I really appreciate it.