Help with GCSE English Language

[pedrosfluffybum]

My DS (15) is in year 10 and has received his mock results. He got a 3 for English Language. The exam board is AQA and they completed Paper 1. He has never liked English, finds it difficult and boring and just doesn’t engage. He never reads. Academically he’s middle of the road, better at subjects that require facts and figures to be remembered where as English language is unknown before the exam. He’s learned how to answer the questions in class but doesn’t seem to retain it because he’s not interested. School are being supportive but I’d like to support him at home as well. Has anyone got any advice as to how I can help him achieve at least a pass. Thank you.

Got mine a tutor. Best money i spent. He got a 4 in both English exams. So much is technique.
I used the same one for my daughter for different reasons. She lacked a bit of confidence and needed help with essay editing. She got 9s.

Unfortunately a tutor isn't feasible at the moment. I have the AQA revision book which we can go through but was hoping for some tips as to how to help him.

Youtube videos really helped my DS (well I hope so, we will see when he gets his results on 25th Aug!) In the year 11 November mocks he got a 4 in English Language and in the March mocks he managed to improve to a 6! Fingers crossed he did as well in the real exams.

So much is about exam technique and knowing what the examiners are looking for. Mr Bruff is great and also Mr Salles teaches English - both have a lot of videos specific to the AQA exams. Those were the two main ones we used but I'm sure there are others out there as well,

Thank you, I hadn't thought about YouTube so I'll definitely have a look. I'm sure he'll enjoy watching those over the summer holidays

Forgot to change my name 😂

Is he of the school of thought that 'you can't revise for English language'?
For DD she has revision cards where we go through what each question is, and how to tackle it. She is never going to be able to do in depth analysis, but at least she knows what she is attempting to achieve.

So eg Paper 1 Q5: 5 paragraphs

1. general description
2. move into the picture
3. zoom in on detail
4. memory
5. return to picture and conclude Use 5 senses, iSPACE sentence starters, range of punctuation, tick off as you go. Check capitals, fullstops, commas, spellings. NB The above might not be properly right, I'm remembering

He is despite me and his teachers telling him you can revise it!

Tell him it will seem even more boring if he still has to do English lesson in y12. It is a right pain not to be able to leave it behind!

The best thing to do is really study the mark scheme. If you know exactly what is being rewarded you stand a better chance of doing it. That's what I drill my students in.

My children didn't do AQA but you are in luck because there is a lot of info on how to do the exam papers on YouTube. Mr Salles is the one I would recommend.

The best advice I can give you as a parent is to open up a past paper, print off the resource/thing they read part and then in another tab have open the mark scheme. Go through each question one by one, highlight the resource with the answers and then look immediately at the mark scheme to see what they were looking for. Mark it to give both him and yourself knowledge for when you do the next paper.

For the narrative, have prepared generic stories ready to fall back on so that they aren't coming up with it on the spot. Mr Salles also shows you how to do this. Neither of my sons used revision books as that wasn't the way they learned how to retain information.

You absolutely can go into an English language exam very prepared when you know the techniques they are looking for. So along with the mark scheme, read the examiner's report too, see where students did well and what the examiners are looking for. They spell it out.

Absolutely this, he can apply himself now and get it over and done with by the end of year 11, or he can have the displeasure of resitting it if he doesn't achieve a 4. What does he think he should do?

Mr Bruff on YouTube is worth a look. He also has a couple of sample papers he has created and then his videos talk you through the questions and shows you how to answer them.

This is where I would begin.

I would say the best thing your DS can do is practise the papers. Ask the teacher for past papers and sample papers along with mark schemes. I would suggest he aims to do a couple of papers a week if you don’t have plans on the summer.

Agree with others, totally possible to prep for Eng Lang. Look up what is needed and practise questions, check the mark scheme and see what is missing.

If necessary, learn parts of speech such as metaphor, simile (some facts there).

No need to ask the teacher for past papers, it’s all online. The examiner report is especially illuminating.

Yy deffo plan out some sample essays, or at least draw up and learn some character descriptions to use.

Thanks all for your replies, some really useful advice that I can put into action over the summer. He's convinced himself that he can't do better, but hopefully I can convince him that he can.

Before you do anything, you have to find out why he feels he cannot improve on his grade. Take him out for a mum and son day and have some fun- take this opportunity to find out what is really going on. Only then can slowly implement all the other strategies.

It is worth seeing his paper to see the mark distribution. Has he lost marks across the board or are some questions much weaker than others?

We have talked about it, but he doesn't say much. I think he's felt a lot of pressure from school over the years and doesn't feel like he can meet expectations. I have been telling the school since he started that he shouldn't be in top set but they only started listening to me recently.

His teacher is kindly going to send us his paper with feedback on each question.

Does he have a mentor at school? I had a student who had similar challenges and the school organised regular mentoring sessions with set targets. I also worked independently with the student over the year and we saw a major change in his thinking; from complete non-engagement to a child who happily and confidently took his GCSE English exam.

No mentor unfortunately. I have asked the school about additional help but there's none available, which is a bit annoying as he's Pupil Premium and I thought there was supposed to be a covid catch up fund.

Part of the problem is there may be a fund, but not necessarily any spare teachers to spend the money on.

@TeenDivided fair point, still frustrating!