The main GCSE exams happen at the end of year 11. This is crucial year of study as a student needs to remember all the learnings from Year 10 onwards to achieve success in GCSEs. Year 11 expects a student to be well versed with the subjects they have chosen for GCSEs. The schoolteachers keep on assessing the students during the year from their class test scores. These scores or grades are handy for the teacher to predict the grades for the student. These predicted grades are useful to understand a student’s progress and also to apply for sixth form stage at different school.
Current Year 11 students will study GCSE’s in all subjects, mandatory and chosen one. GCSE’s will be graded using the numerical 1 to 9 system. The diagram below shows the appropriate comparison between the current GCSE grading system and the old ‘legacy’ system.
There are five exam boards. All your courses will be studied and assessed through one of these. They are:
OCR (www.ocr.org.uk)
AQA (www.aqa.org.uk)
EDEXCEL (www.edexcel.org.uk)
WJEC (www.wjec.co.uk)
EDUQAS (https://www.eduqas.co.uk/ )
At Champs Learning we offer tuition in 5 subjects:
1. Maths
2. English
3. Physics
4. Chemistry
5. Biology
Session Plan:
We understand that we have one hour per subject per week as compared to more than 5 hours per subject at a school. Thus, the curriculum is well structured to accommodate all the important topics from each subject. Curriculum for each subject is spread over 42 weeks. So for every subject we have 42 teaching sessions.
For GCSE year 11, we have 10 weeks of exam paper practice session after the completion of the whole curriculum. These sessions are specifically designed to prepare students for their real exams, with exam like question, exam techniques etc.
Books:
The session plan for year 10 is structured with 8 books for each subject and 8 topic tests. Each book is further divided into 4 weeks and every 5th week, we conduct an assessment on that book or topic. All the content including books and tests are designed by faculties at Champs learning. The session plan is made flexible to accommodate extra time for doubt solving and also for challenging content for higher set of students.
Our books are concept and exercise books. Only Champs Learning have created these books as per the topic for each subject. It becomes very helpful for a student to revise a particular topic.
Assessment:
After every concept or book, we conduct an assessment. This normally has a cycle of 4 weeks. This gives a fair idea to a student and teacher about the depth of understanding. Accordingly, teacher adapts his teaching sessions. We do also conduct end of the year assessment and conduct a detailed feedback session on these exams.
Each student is guided with marking scheme and exam patterns with real practice. Each doubts of every student is paid attention.
Class size: All the classes for GCSE and Key stage 3 at Champs Learning have small groups of students. This helps teachers to attend each student individually and engage for every subject. Students in small groups enjoy the advantage of personal attention and also the benefits of common queries or doubts.
Teachers:
All the teachers at Champs Learning for GCSE are PGCE qualified and have secondary school teaching experience. They are subject matter experts and teach their subject individually. All of them follow Champs Learning books and the boards for which student preparing for.
Every teacher carry a very high success record for their students.
Success:
All our students have been achieving high grades from 7 onwards consistently. We are proud of them. Each student gets personal attention for his academic progress and mentored for high success in the final exams.
Results of 2018-2019 and 2020 have witnessed consistency in the success stories of our students. Most of them enjoyed the grade 9 with very few at 7 and 8.
GCSE English Literature, and GSCE English Language (along with all other subjects) have been redesigned to become more demanding, bringing the UK’s 16 year old school-leavers up to par with international standards.
Firstly, there are no set texts for the new English Language syllabus; pupils are expected to read a “wide range of texts” from the 19th, 20th and 21st century (a timely reminder to ensure that your child is reading for pleasure at home, from the earliest age possible!)
The reading assessment will comprise 50% of the new exam, and will be based on unseen texts from the past three centuries, both fiction and non-fiction. Pupils will be expected to evaluate the writer’s choice of vocabulary, form and structural features.
The writing assessment makes up the second 50%, with pupils expected to write clear and coherent texts. A weighty 20% of the marks for this exam are awarded for range of vocabulary and sentence structures, spelling and punctuation (an extension of the previous SPaG marks – spelling, punctuation and grammar).
There will continue to be a speaking and listening examination, however the results for this will be reported separately, and will not directly count towards GCSE marks.
The new English Literature syllabus focuses on ‘classic literature’ and ‘substantial whole texts in detail’, taken from the following categories:
Students will be examined in two key components:
Pupils will be expected to read ‘beyond’ the text, and spot differences between what is stated, and what is potentially meant. They will also be required to understand what is perhaps implied by a word in the context that it is used.
Again, pupils need to look beyond what is written to pull deeper meaning from texts — perhaps by understanding the writer’s social/historical context to inform evaluation. Pupils will also need to support / oppose a point of view, or make an informed personal response by referring to evidence in the given text.
Pupils will need to use linguistic and literary terminology to evaluate grammatical and structural features (such as, but not restricted to, phrase, metaphor, meter, irony and persona, synecdoche and pathetic fallacy)
Comparing both seen and unseen texts for theme, characterisation, context, style and literary quality.
Students will be expected to tailor their writing effectively to suit different purposes or audiences. They may be required to: Describe, narrate, explain, instruct, give and respond to information, and argue
Beyond an imaginative and creative use of language, and the appropriate selection of vocab, grammar, form and structure, pupils also need to be mindful to maintain coherence and consistency throughout their response.
Pupils will be expected to select, organise and emphasise key facts and ideas. Where appropriate, they should also cite their sources effectively in order to support their views.
Pupils should again use imaginative, creative and persuasive language (such as rhetorical questions, antithesis and parenthesis) in order to create an emotional impact.
20-25% of the marks in the final exam will include making comparison with unseen texts, again raising the importance for pupils to be in reading and analysing texts (is your child reading for pleasure yet?!)
A slightly less weighty 5% of marks will be awarded for vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling and punctuation.
While the exam boards, on the face of it, are providing a large selection of texts which the pupils may study, the reality of the situation is that schools make this selection for the pupils. We’ve highlighted the most popular choices in the tables below.
Schools will select one play from the following for students to study
Play title | Edexcel | AQA | OCR |
---|---|---|---|
Macbeth | Y | Y | Y |
Romeo and Juliet | Y | Y | Y |
Much Ado About Nothing | Y | Y | Y |
Twelfth Night | Y | ||
The Merchant of Venice | Y | Y | Y |
Julius Caeser | Y | ||
The Tempest | Y | Y |
Schools will select one novel from the following for students to study
Play title | Edexcel | AQA | OCR |
---|---|---|---|
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – R L Stevenson | Y | Y | Y |
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen | Y | Y | Y |
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë | Y | Y | Y |
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens | Y | Y | Y |
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens | Y | Y | |
Silas Marner – George Eliot | Y | ||
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley | Y | Y | |
The War of the Worlds – H G Wells | Y | ||
The Sign of Four – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Y |
Schools will select one text from the following for students to study
Play title | Edexcel | AQA | OCR |
---|---|---|---|
Animal Farm — George Orwell | Y | Y | Y |
An Inspector Calls — J B Priestley | Y | Y | Y |
Lord of the Flies — William Golding | Y | Y | |
Hobson’s Choice — Harold Brighouse | Y | ||
Blood Brothers — Willy Russell | Y | Y | |
Journey’s End — R C Sherriff | Y | ||
Anita and Me — Meera Syal | Y | Y | Y |
The Woman in Black — Susan Hill | Y | ||
The History Boys — Alan Bennett | Y | ||
DNA — Dennis Kelly | Y | Y | |
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (play script) — Simon Stephens | Y | ||
A Taste of Honey — Shelagh Delaney | Y | ||
Telling Tales — AQA Anthology | Y | ||
Never Let me Go — Kazuo Ishiguro | Y | Y | |
Pigeon English — Stephen Kelman | Y | ||
My Mother Said I Never Should — Charlotte Keatley | Y |
Energy
Electricity
Particle model of matter
Atomic structure
Forces
Waves
Magnetism and electromagnetism
Space physics
Reproduction In Humans
Genetics & Inheritance
GCSE Biology Evolution
Living Organisms
Nutrition, Digestion And Excretion
Atomic Structure And The Periodic Table
Chemical Changes
Chemistry Of The Atmosphere
Chemical Analysis
Bonding, Structure And The Properties Of Matter