Gcse lit

[Manasprey]

If you can't start teaching it at the end of yr9 anymore, and your kids do the bare minimum themselves, how tf do you get lit and lang all covered well enough? Everything we do has to be done in lessons, as we can't rely on kids working at home or attending extra sessions, but we are massively struggling to get through it all.

And how many lessons per fortnight do you get?

Eight lessons per fortnight for Lit and Lang. We usually finish the Lit texts by the Christmas of Year 11 (one per term) and then spend the final term revising.

This.

We have 7 lessons. I think we're spending too long on lit, so don't have much time for lang. We will have finished lit by Xmas this year- just- but we did a text in yr 9. Next year we won't have that , so I just can't see how we're going to fit it in. Language suffers as it is.

We spend about 3 months total on Lang. So many of the skills are the same

Over the 2 years?
We've always thought the same, but we were massacred in language this year. Writing is particularly poor. But then, so many of our kids just don't answer all the questions.

Yes, in two years.
My key advice is always to attempt all questions. It's easier to pick up 4 marks on paper 2 Q4 than 4 extra on Q5

So is mine. But we even had kids who didn't even attempt whole lit qs. And who totally ignored entire writing sections on language.

Build the writing practice into the Lit: Write a review of your modern text, describe a setting in the style of Dickens, rewrite a poem as prose, etc, etc.

(I’m not dismissing the problem btw. It’s a huge course to fit into a tiny amount of time, but this is how we do it).

Also make lots of connections from Lit to Lang. “See how we’re analysing this extract from A Christmas Carol? You’ll need to do the same in your language exam…” (even better, give them a non-fiction text based on the same topic and get them to analyse that)

We also do it in two years but with eight lessons a fortnight. Seven isn’t enough IMO. What do Maths get? You’re delivering a whole extra GCSE compared to them!

At my school, standard GCSE allocation is 3ppw for each subject. For many years, English and maths each got 4 - English to teach two GCSEs and maths one! When I became HOD a few years ago I pointed out the unfairness and lobbied hard for extra English time. We now have 5ppw, which is actually fine. However, I would never say that to the HT, as being one lesson short when we should have 6ppw is a bit of a get out of jail free card if the results are disappointing.

Wow! We have 4 hours pw in Year 10 and only 3 in Year 11. Until three years ago it was 3 hours in each. It certainly isn't enough.

I can’t believe how low some of these curriculum allocations are. Your schools must have very large curricula or very short weeks. Are you meeting 32.5 hours?

It’s strange how different it can be isn’t it?

It’s always driven me bonkers that maths get so much more curriculum time than English, yet our results are compared. I just take reassurance from the fact I’m not a science teacher (check how much time your triple scientists get: it won’t be much!)

@ThanksItHasPockets - yes, my school does have a large curriculum. They also get 3 hours of PE/Games in a week in Years 10 and 11. I want more time, but also see the benefit of the broad curriculum.