GCSE L1-5

Continuing with the theme “A celebration of British fruit”, this reading comprehension resource is about the delightful medlar fruit. At Levels 1 and 2 there are additional punctuation and grammar questions, spelling, and fact and opinion. There is also a speaking and listening group discussion/ presentation task. At Entry 3 there is a revised text with questions and discussion ideas. The final text is simplified for Entry 1 and 2 with some appropriate questions.

Editor's notes

This activity uses the prologue of The Secret History (Donna Tartt, 1992) to examine structure, language features and basic inference skills.

Editor's notes

Cleverly constructed questions and clear layout creates a super, very accessible and useful resource. :)

I attach an annotated version of the resource ‘Education - a sorry story’.  I’ve found all the resources around this text / story really useful for my FS L2 classes and have led into good discussions and onto some useful comparisons with other related texts. 

Editor's notes

A selection of  reading (inference) tasks and creative writing prompts on the opening lines of Young Adult novels. 

Editor's Notes

Written for GCSE learners. Another highly original and engaging resource from Steph :) 

Covers opening lines from seven YA novels including John Green (Paper Towns), Rin Chupeco (The Never Tilting World) and Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me).

A collection of 14 screenshots from films and tv series and brief prompt questions. This resource can be used as an introduction to inference as a skill, and scaffolded with further questions. 

Popular films and TV series used such as Barbie, Bridgerton and The Avengers.

Editor's note

An extract from Phoenix by SF Said with AQA exam-style questions (Q1-Q4) for GCSE English Language Paper One. 

Editor's notes

Another fab set of GCSE reading question from Matthew Ruddle with, as usual, a marvellous choice of text. Each question includes useful hints making this resource ideal for revision, practice or private study / homework. 

Phoenix is SF Said's third book.  All three books have been awarded or shortlisted for various children's literature awards.

AQA Paper 2-style exam questions and non-fiction extracts. One extract is taken from Sinead O'Connor's memoir "Rememberings" (2021) and the other is from Stephen Hough's memoir "Enough: scenes from Childhood" (2023). In the real exam, Source B is always a 19th Century text, but here I've used another contemporary text, so that learners can more easily practice the exam skills of comparing two pieces of writing. In these extracts, both writers reflect upon the first time they encountered a piano.

A two-sided A3 'place mat' that has the following

An extract from When I Was Ten (Fiona Cummins 2021) with questions 1, 2, 3 and 4. AQA Paper One-style exam practice. 

Editor's Note

Another wonderful text extract from Matthew Ruddle. If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. 
Ideal for exam practice and revision. 

GCSE English Language Paper Two AQA exam-style texts and questions 1-4. 
Based on a contemporary source from Jay Rayner (2023) and a Victorian article (Henry Mayhew 1865).

Editor's notes
Another excellent GCSE Practice resource from Matthew with, as usual, a super choice of texts.