GCSE

The Power of the Motif: How to Ace Descriptive Writing

After reading many torturous stories (‘and then… and then… and then…), I think that most of us have been steering our students towards the Descriptive rather than the Narrative task in the GCSE English Language Paper. The focus on one place or situation frees up many students to concentrate on… Read More

Cranking up the challenge

A crucial question to explore as teachers of science is: what will an examiner do to assess whether students are working at the top grades? What does he or she reach for to test whether a candidate can access the marks that would correspond to Grades 8 or 9?  It’s… Read More

Why Knowing Religion?

Knowing Religion is a new series of nine Key Stage 3 RE textbooks out this month. In this blog, we discuss the books with Series Editor and author of Islam, Christianity and Biblical Literacy, Robert Orme. Read More

We’re in here for the long haul

One of the issues that’s exercising quite a few minds in science education at the moment is how to cover the content in the new GCSE specifications in the time available. Many people are, very understandably, flipping through not only the amount but thinking about the depth of the material… Read More

Hammering it home: how writers use imagery to create effects!

By Peter Morrisson He’d left his laptop open, and still switched on. As her hand had brushed against the screen, it had shamelessly flickered into life, brazenly displaying the profile of a young woman with a shock of red hair, piercing green eyes and heavy pancake makeup who called herself… Read More

Five ways to manage exam stress

If your child is revising for GCSE exams, this can seem stressful for them and for you. This is a brand new experience and their results really do have an impact on their future. That’s pretty intense pressure. So how can we help them through this time and make it as stress free as possible? Read More

Ed Walsh: Name the Prequel

One of the games I used to play with my children was suggesting the (imaginary) movie prequel. As they got older, and better, we had to give points and you got more for being less obvious.  ‘Prince Kong’ wouldn’t do well, for example but ‘Reservoir Puppies’ was better and ‘Humming… Read More