Welcome to Key Stage 4Information Evening

Supporting your child’s progress in English

Sarah BellHead of KS4 English

• Structure of the new KS4 curriculum

• Ways to get involved at home

Many changes…

• Y9 students will be the second year to experience the new GCSE exams in English

• Y9 are also the second year to experience the new 1-9 marking system introduced by the government (this will already be being employed now on your child’s work)

Structure of the KS4 English Curriculum at High Storrs

Year 9: Foundation for GCSE• Taught GCSE skills (reading and writing)• Study variety of texts similar to those at GCSE

(modern prose/drama, pre C20th texts, non fiction texts)

• Analysing seen and unseen poetry• Study aspects of spelling, punctuation and

grammar (as this will be worth 40% of GCSE Language)

Y10 and Y11: GCSE English Language and Literature (2 GCSEs)OrGCSE English Language (1 GCSE)

• This will cover the same skills as in Y9• There will be no coursework or controlled

assessment

Marking and FeedbackWhat should you expect to see?

Work will be marked regularly in a variety of ways:• Deep marking at least once every half term• Specific marking of one assessment objective• Targets / Action points / EBI (Even better if…) Students are expected to act on the action points• Self and peer marking• Symbols and highlighting• Use of mark bands• Praise• Oral feedback

How can you get involved?• Discussing targets and action points• Encouraging your child to work on what they don’t

understand (and to seek help)• Encouraging reading and discussion at home of

both fiction and non-fiction:novels, short stories, autobiographies, travel journals, guide books, poems/song lyrics, magazines, newspapers, written adverts,online texts/articles/webpages

Extra Curricular Activities

There are book groups, film club and a debate group.

Please ask your child to speak to their English teacher for details or Mrs Rowan /Miss Ainslie in the LRC

Revision they could try…• Mind maps• Post-its• Notebooks• Revision guides• Charts• Revision cards• Condensing and expanding information

REMEMBER – they shouldn’t revise what they already know but focus on the difficult bits!