Dear parents/carers

Firstly, I would like to take a moment to thank year 10 for all their effort and commitment to their

studies over the last year – it has been a very successful start to their GCSE experience. After a year

that has been understandably full of challenge and hard work it is important that all students take

time over the summer to relax and enjoy their holiday.

We have however been asked by some parents as to what work their son/daughter can be doing over

the summer to help them prepare for their all-important final year of GCSE. The core subjects have

therefore suggested the following work that can be carried out over the holiday period:

English

The English department recommends that in order to be fully prepared for the start of Year 11,

students should take the opportunity to do some reading. We have produced a reading list that aims

to support both the literature and language courses.

Gothic texts: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Dracula by Bram Stoker The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Classic texts: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Dystopian texts: 1984 by George Orwell

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Legend by Marie Lu

Red Blood Road by Moira Young

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Alternatively, reading a selection of non-fiction texts would prove beneficial, with autobiographies,

biographies and feature articles being a good starting point.

We would also recommend re-visiting aspects of the course already studied this year, with the Pixl

English app being a good place to start. This can be found at https://englishapp.pixl.org.uk/. Students

can log-in using the centre ID: MB4177 and the username and password which are both simply their

first initial and surname.

The English department would like to wish all our students a well-deserved summer holiday and look

forward to seeing them on their return in September.

Maths

The Maths department recommends 2 main resources that can be used to develop and secure Maths

content over the summer holidays and throughout year 11.

Firstly there is the Pixl Maths app which can be found at https://mathsapp.pixl.org.uk/ . Students can

log-in using the centre ID: MB4177 and the username and password which are both simply their first

initial and surname. This gives them access to questions across the full GCSE and has questions that it

will mark for you, as well as explanation videos. When using this, it is still really important that the

questions are done with pen and paper, as most questions are too hard to do in your head. The second

resource is the Corbett Maths website, found at https://corbettmaths.com/ . This website has many

worksheets, exam style questions and videos all sorted by topic. While the website won’t mark

questions for you, they do provide all the answers that you can use to manually check.

We would recommend that students occasionally look at one or other of these resources over the

holidays to keep on top of their learning and ensure that they are well prepared for Maths in year 11.

This will also give students the opportunity to work on some areas that they found difficult in the end

of year exams and improve on these before coming back in September.

The Maths department wish all our students a restful summer holiday and look forward to working

together in year 11 to get them the best possible Maths GCSE grade.

Science

There is a mock paper 1 exam for all three Sciences in November and we are also aware that some

pupils would like to prepare and start revision early. With this in mind we have placed resources and

mini quizzes for all three Sciences on Doddle, please feel free to use these resources to help your

revision schedule, and just to give you a head start in September.

There are also lots of resources on the shared area in science which include, revision mats, past paper

questions, checklists, maths skills and equation practice.

I hope that all students are able to find the right balance of taking time to relax but also continuing

their preparation and studies so that they feel fully prepared for a positive start in what will be a vital

year of their education.

Yours sincerely,

Head of Key Stage 4