National 5 English

[Flossy05]

My son is doing Nat 5 English this year. All the skills required to pass this course- RUAE, writing different types of essay etc. are being taught now. Just wondering why these skills aren’t taught during the BGE. It all seems very rushed with a lot to fit in in a very short time and not much opportunity to practise skills? Is this what other people have experienced with this subjects. My son works hard but he is really stressed about this.

Where I teach they are. Same with where my DDs went to school. Same authority different school but I have taught in several .Questions at the end of chapters of our class novel built to introduce and replicate skills for RUAE, critical essays covering all genres across the BGE, not timed closed book but certainly same type of questions same structure in answers. My S3 are doing Persuasive Writing on topics inspired by Black History Month, ickle firsties spooky creative writing on the lead up to Halloween . Personal, reflective writing is embedded from S1 as the links well with reflection on learning in their profiles.

However, just because it wasn't presented as a N5 RUAE , CE or Folio (even though I mention these far distant entities from very early) some pupils might say or think they were totally new constructs despite my efforts.

We also have pupils with gaps if (for numerous understandable reasons) they had not taken part in remote learning in elockdowns.

The only totally new concept for pupils and in DDs experience was the Scottish Text and they generally find that not too bad.

But I realise all schools are different. Just wonder what your DS has been doing for 4 years in English- maybe having much more fun than my pupils

Oops lockdowns, not sure where the rogue "e" came from and 3 years of course.

I'm not entirely sure what's asked of at Nat 5, but I sat higher english not so long ago.

My ds is P7 and I can see that he's already learning lots of the skills that are the building blocks of good essay writing. He's done persuasive writing, analysing sources, research and enquiry skills, extended writing including planning and structuring, quoting sources etc. I'd be very surprised if essay writing skills came as they need to cram in at Nat 5 level.

Yes, different genres of writing are taught in primary - persuasive, recount, setting and character ( creative), biography etc.
Children also practice reading for information- skimming and scanning, note taking and answering literal, inferential and evaluative questions.

And, as pp said, sources are taught too (primary and secondary sources).
Perhaps offer to have a discussion with his teacher. You'll probably both feel better.

*practise

Thanks all.
I think my concern is that since being at high school he has only written 4 essays (and only two were marked). He has only read one novel, a poem and one play during his time at high school. Last year they didn’t read anything, the watched films.
I’m really not sure what else he has done but I’m sure there must have been other activities that play to the skill set required. He certainly doesn’t feel that he has had sufficient practise at essay writing to now be faced with writing a folio piece.
He has good literacy skills and left primary school working confidently within CfE level 3 but the high school don’t tell us what level they are working at. I have asked but they always side step giving me an answer.
He hasn’t had any work marked so far this year but all for all other subjects he has had lots of tests. Hopefully he will get some positive feedback and that will build his confidence.

The brightred English course book (not the study guide) is good if he wants to revise RUAE at home, it is a bit intimidating when you first look at it but ds worked through the exercises with me over a few months and it really helped with his confidence. He ended up with an A at NAT5 and Higher.

He might pick up some tips for his folio too. Ds never used the sections for critical essay or Scottish text so not sure about them, but improving his ruae will give him more confidence for Scottish text.

The Flash Revise RUAE is really good for honing in on specific question types. There are Flash Revise Guides for Scottish Text but only a limited selection. I always direct pupils and parents to SQA Understanding Standards (for all subjects not just mine) as the marker commentaries are really helpful. For Folio and CE the seeing "what a good one looks like" is beneficial.

Pupils sitting N5 in this cohort haven't had a "normal" school year since S1. It amazes me sometimes that they are putting one foot in front of the other. No wonder they feel stressed and underprepared, the system just expects them to be like every year prior to 2020 , not taking into account what they've been through. Absolute stars, the lot of them.

Our school teach these skills during the BGE stage too. They generally do around 3 critical essays on different genre, a creative piece, a discursive piece and a solo talk*. They also do RUAE using the same types of questions as N5 once a week. I'd be surprised if most schools don't do similar. Is the 'watching films' maybe a media study, or stimulus for a different type of writing?

In saying all that, I'd certainly not guarantee that any of the current S4 would necessarily make the connection between their BGE work and what they're doing now...

Thanks for all your wise words and study guide recommendations. I will look into those. You are absolutely right @Lidlfix, they have missed so much over the last two years and it isn’t really being acknowledged by the powers that be.
It doesn’t really seem fair to pupils or teachers that this year’s senior phase is being expected to pick up where we left off pre-pandemic. Fingers crossed that there isn’t any further disruption.

@Haudyourwheesht I think they were doing a critical analysis of the films. The critical essay for the this year’s folio is also on a film.
My son would rather be doing a book but he is probably in the minority.

The West OS app (available via glow) has step by step videos which take you through the different skills required for Nat. 5. There are videos on how to answer the different types of RUAE questions, how to answer the set text questions and how to set out the essays.

[quote Flossy05]@Haudyourwheesht I think they were doing a critical analysis of the films. The critical essay for the this year’s folio is also on a film.
My son would rather be doing a book but he is probably in the minority.[/quote]
@Flossy05 the folio is just one piece this year and will be:

Imaginative
Personal Reflection
Discursive/Persuasive

Definitely will not be a critical essay. That will be a practice for paper two.

@lovablequalities Thanks, I will need to check this out.
They have definitely been told that they are writing a critical essay which they might chose for the folio. I know that they will also be writing a creative essay. I was under the impression that they would then chose the best one (?)

@Flossy05

Definitely won't be for the folio. 100%.

Folio is usually two pieces one imaginative or personal reflection and one discursive/persuasive. Covid-19 changes mean only one piece.

The critical essay is part of paper two. We will be gathering evidence of critical essay performance in case exams are cancelled or a pupil is off but it's not part of the folio.

@lovablequalities
Thank you! I tasked him with finding out what exactly he was doing and he has confirmed today that the film study that they are working on is for the critical essay practice- as you said!
His teacher very kindly sent me a document explaining everything that they would have to do so I feel much more informed now and much less confused. He also seems a bit less stressed now that he knows what he needs to do.
He’s normally pretty on the ball- what’s with teenage boys, they seem to lose any common sense!

@Flossy05

BBC bite size and The Learning Cauldron on YouTube are good online resources.

The other place for excellent support is e-sgoil who have a very comprehensive tutor programme for most subjects. Highly recommend even if we don't go back to lockdown. It's free too.

The N5 English texts are utterly dire. I can't believe how awful it is. There's much better and more engaging Scottish literature out there.

Agreed! I remember being at an authority wide network group when the announcement of SSTs was made. We were all so disappointed and frustrated 😢. I try to make up for it with my selection of texts for CE but that's a paltry 20% of the course.

Consultation they said mmm.

DCs English teachers were always complaining about the texts too but DD who took English to AH actually liked most including Bold Girls and Slab Boys which Head of English was scathing about. She loved Morgan and Carol Ann Duffy (they are definitely not dire).

To be honest for my boys it was just about getting a good pass so whatever was shortest and easiest to read was fine by them.

@PrimalLass

The N5 English texts are utterly dire. I can't believe how awful it is. There's much better and more engaging Scottish literature out there.

ds did Of Mice and Men and Sail Maker for NAT5, both of which he enjoyed.

Higher last year was Sorely MacLean and The Yellow Wallpaper both of which he hated and had to work hard on. He was so glad to be able to drop English going into S6 and had a ritual binning of all his English notes after I told him no, you can't burn them.

We thought Sailmaker was awful. Plus there is no recorded performance that we could find. I hated Of Mice and Men when I did it.

It's just all irrelevant to 15-year-old boys. Do something like the Christopher Brookmyre that opens with a jobby on a mantlepiece ...

And I have an English degree so do like literature.

Sounds like my son is really going to love the texts then. At least I have had advance warning of the moan fest that will ensue