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Which one to use: Their, There or They're?

SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) is assessed across your English exams so make sure that you are happy with homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently) like this one, to avoid making easy mistakes.

Their - refers to something that belongs to someone else e.g. 'it is their dog'.
There - refers to a place. e.g. 'it is over there'.
They're - is a contraction of the words 'they are' - if you are unsure if 'they're' is the correct spelling, see if it would make sense to say 'they are' instead. e.g 'they're here' also makes sense as 'they are here'.

You might have more than one type of 'their/there/they're' in a sentence, so make sure you use the correct one! e.g.
They're playing with their dog over there.

Creative Writing Practice Question:
Write a story about an adventure at sea as inspired by this picture.

You should aim to spend about 45 minutes on this question, including 5 minutes to plan and 5 minutes to check over your answer. (If you are in year 11 and approaching your GCSEs, practice this under timed conditions).

Try to include lots of descriptive techniques and figurative language like metaphors and similes, perhaps some dialogue/ speech (as it is a story) and think carefully about how you want to open and close your story.
Extra tip: to come up with a plot that you know you can finish writing within the time limit, choose just one main event to happen and build the story around that.
Happy writing!

In your AQA GCSE English Literature exams, context is really important!
Context refers to details about the writer or the time when the text was written which might have affected the text.
For instance, 'Macbeth' is a play that shows the dangers and inevitable downfall that comes from committing regicide (killing the King). This is a play which would have reassured King James I who had recently felt threatened by the failed gunpowder plot and desperately wanted to discourage any further assassination attempts.

Make sure you know some contextual details for ALL of your literature texts (e.g. when they were written and why), including the power and conflict poems as there are specific marks available for context.

Revision Task for the AQA Power and Conflict Poetry Anthology!
Go through each poem (preferably by memory) and jot down on a piece of paper the key theme of each one (e.g. 'power of nature'). Then write down one key quote that you know you can remember and one piece of context about the poem (e.g. Wordsworth was a romantic poet).
When you have finished, you will have a collection of condensed notes of key details about each poem.
From here, you can identify which poems have similar overall themes and might compare well together, and add extra quotes and details to the poems you know best and might choose to write about in the exam.

GCSE English Literature Revision Strategy!
One of the best ways to make sure that you know enough about your GCSE literature texts is to test your ability to teach someone else about them.
Jot down a few notes about key characters, plot details, context, quotes or key language and structure techniques and borrow a friend or family member.
Present these ideas about the text to them as if you were the teacher.
To take this a step further, find a practice exam question for your text, prepare for 5 minutes looking over it, and then explain to the other person how to answer a question like this.
If you are able to confidently teach somebody else about your texts, you will hopefully know them really well!

If you have upcoming English literature mock exams, start learning quotes from your literature texts as soon as possible!
In the exam, you will need to remember the quotes that you want to analyse and write about.
Try writing key quotes on post-it notes and sticking them up around your room or home - make sure to read them every time you walk past!
Extra tip! Write something you can analyse about the quote on the back of the post-it note e.g 'simile about deception' etc. This way, you already know what you will say and analyse about the quote when you use it in your answer.

Non-Fiction Writing Practice Question!
If you are sitting your GCSE English Language exams with AQA, this question will help you prepare for Q5.
Try to complete this question within 45 minutes, including 5 minutes to plan and 5 minutes to check your work at the end.

'Buses in both cities and rural areas offer an essential form of public transport. We need to invest more money and time in improving bus services and discourage use of cars in favour of using more environmentally-friendly public transport.'
Write an essay to be published on your school website, arguing your point of view on this statement.

Make sure to pay attention to the 'essay' form of this question and use lots of persuasive techniques in your answer like statistics, hyperbole and emotive language, as well as techniques like metaphors and similes.

Revision Task for anyone studying 'An Inspector Calls' for their GCSE English literature exams!
This revision task focuses on character.
For each of the key characters in the play, write a brief summary of the role they play/ who they are, and then select a quote for each of them from the beginning and the end of the play, that demonstrates their attitude towards helping others and showing social responsibility.
If possible, add a few notes of analysis for each quote.
This task will be extremely useful when writing about any of these characters in the exam, especially if you get asked about how the characters do or do not change between the beginning and end of the play.

Things you need to write about for unseen poetry! (AQA English Literature)
1. Language.
You need to pick out and analyse specific language techniques, words and phrases to explain and support the meaning of the overall poem.
2. Structure.
You need to comment on how the poem's structure contributes to its meaning. Does it have a regular or an irregular metre/ rhythm? Is there anything interesting about the stanza or line lengths? Is there any important caesura or enjambment?
3. Overall meaning and interpretation.
Once you have analysed language and structural features, you then need to explain how these create the overall meaning, and your interpretation, of the poem. What is it trying to say? Make sure to refer to directly back to the question.

How to start learning Shakespeare!
If you are about to start looking at a Shakespeare play for the first time, or struggling with a play you have already been learning, here is how I suggest you start when you first look at Shakespeare.

Whilst the language might feel really old, the plots are often quite exciting and this is what I recommend you start with first. Google plot summaries or YouTube explanations of the play and make sure you are happy with what happens in the story before you start trying to read it (it will make it a lot easier!)

If you can find out about the plot in detail - as in what happens in each act and each scene - you should be able to follow along with what is happening even if the language is still confusing!
Start with this, and then move on to looking at the language and working out what is being said.

The skills required for your GCSE English Language and Literature exams are highly transferable and interchangeable.

When you are writing an essay on one of your literature texts, you will need to select and analyse evidence to support your points.
This could be analysis of language or structure, both of which you will have learned and practiced for your English Language exams.

Use that knowledge to your advantage to select and analyse quotations and key moments in your literature texts in the same way.
To prepare for your literature exams, revise and memorise quotes in advance that you already know that you can analyse.

SPAG!
(Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar).
These are important skills that will be tested in your GCSE English exams.
If you know that you struggle with punctuation, spelling or grammar, start practicing and focusing on these areas now.
If you consistently spell words wrong, I recommend keeping a spelling diary where you jot down all the words you struggle with so that you can easily revise them.

If you are approaching your English Language and Literature GCSEs, you need to be confident with analysing language.
Language analysis is one of the most important skills that you will be asked to demonstrate in both your language and literature exams.
Make sure you are confident with identifying and explaining the effect of a writer's word choices as well as recognising language techniques like metaphors and similes.

Practice reading a text, summarising the impression you get from it and picking out and considering specific words and phrases that give you these impressions. Then, try explaining the effects of these words in your own writing.

Practice timed writing!
If you're in year 11 and are a little nervous about your upcoming English GCSEs and mock exams, practicing timed writing will help you to feel a lot more confident when you get to them.

Often, students' greatest problem in exams is timing, so start doing some timed writing practices now to get a good idea of how much you can write in a certain time frame.

Start by setting a ten minute timer and making a note of how much you can write in response to a practice question in that time.
This will help you develop your time management skills to utilise during your mock and real exams and boost your confidence as they approach!

Reading!
Reading is undoubtedly one of the BEST ways to improve your reading, writing and analytical skills.
And this can be any type of reading - anything that is enjoyable and entertaining.
If you are looking to improve your English skills, try reading for fun if you don't already. And if you really don't enjoy sitting down with a book, try listening to an audio book whilst you do something else!

Creative writing prompt:
Write a description inspired by this picture.
When you are doing this, make sure you don't accidentally turn the description into a story by giving it a plot. Instead, choose different aspects of the photo to focus on and try to use as many descriptive techniques (including metaphors and similes) as possible!

Are you in year 10 or 11 approaching your GCSEs and feeling nervous about learning all of your literature texts?
If so, the best way to get started and to feel confident with your texts by exam time is to break it down.
Firstly, make sure you know the basic plot of all of your texts (there are lots of Youtube videos you can watch that will summarise this for you).
Once you are happy with the plot, you will then be able to think about the text in more detail by considering the characters, the themes, and then by starting to make notes on key quotes and techniques that are used.
If you haven't looked at a text for a while, do some brief revision by trying to recall (and then checking) key plot details, character names and key events. If you keep reminding yourself of the essential aspects of each text throughout the year, you will feel a lot more confident with them when you come to revise for exams!

Creative Writing Prompt:
Write a story as inspired by this picture.
Use this prompt to help develop and practice your writing skills. Have a go at planning a brief plot and then start writing. Try to include techniques like similes, metaphors and personification!
Remember to check back through your work when you are done.

Beatrice Garland's 'Kamikaze', included in the AQA GCSE Power and Conflict Anthology. The poem tells the story of a Kamikaze pilot, who, flying over the beautiful landscape beneath him filled with childhood memories, changes his mind. However, when he returns home, his family never speak to him again and sometimes 'he must have wondered/ which had been the better way to die.'

This is a poem which could be interestingly compared with other war poems in the anthology, comparing the supposed 'glory' of warfare with its reality and considering the effect that nature has upon the soldiers. 'Bayonet Charge', among others, might compare well in this regard.

Taken from John Agard's powerful poem 'Checking Out Me History', which is included in the AQA Power and Conflict Anthology.
This poem, whilst it has a playful rhythm and rhyme scheme, contains a very serious and important discovery as the speaker finds out about his own history which had been buried and kept from him. He learns the important stories of his past, finally 'carving out me identity'.
The poem compares well with other poems which think about the way that human power is used and abused to oppress groups of people. In this sense, it may compare well with 'London', where the abuse of power in the city creates 'mind-forged manacles' among its people.

Carol Rumens' 'The Emigree', included in the AQA Power and Conflict Anthology. This beautiful and pertinent poem adopts the voice of a speaker having fled their country as a child, but whose nostalgic memory of it remains one of affection and beauty: 'it tastes of sunlight'.
This poem compares well with other poems that use memory to explore human power and conflict, like 'Remains', 'War Photographer' or 'Poppies'.

'Tissue', by Imtiaz Dharker, included in the AQA Power and Conflict Anthology, is a poem which reflects the irregularity and brevity of human life.
Dharker considers the different uses and meanings of 'paper' and 'tissue', and the effect of the natural world upon it, eventually turning her exploration to the 'living tissue' of mankind, considering our place within the world.
This poem contains lots of ambiguity which means you can consider it in many different ways, including thinking about the power of nature as well as the futile power of humans. Within these themes, this poem might compare well with 'Ozymandias'.

Congratulations to everyone who has received their GCSE results today!
My students all put in so much work, made so much progress and showcased just how intelligent, brilliant and creative they are.
I hope everyone is happy with their results today but always remember that your unique brilliance can't be defined by a number.
Be proud, celebrate and get excited about the wonderful future that awaits you! Well done!

A huge good luck to everyone who will be receiving GCSE results tomorrow!
I am so proud of how hard all of my students worked for their exams, regardless of the results, but I hope that everyone will be happy with the results they get!

Carol Ann Duffy - 'War Photographer'.
Appearing as part of the AQA GCSE Power and Conflict Anthology, this poem looks through the eyes of a war photographer at the images and memories of pain that he captured, while he develops his photographs.
These dark horrors are replaced at the end of the poem by the impending casual selection of images by the photographer's editor, and the fleeting sadness readers will feel before they return to their 'bath and pre-lunch beers'.
This poem compares well with other poems which consider the effects of memory and conflict, like 'Remains' and 'The Emigree', as well as poems which think about conflict more generally.

Jane Weir's 'Poppies'. Also included in the AQA GCSE Power and Conflict Anthology, this poem expresses a mother's grief at losing her son to war.
She recalls saying goodbye to him as he left, placing a poppy on his lapel, and ends the poem caught on memories of her child, leaning against the memorial 'like a wishbone'.
This poem compares well with other poems which think about memory and the after-effects of conflict like 'Remains' and 'The Emigree'.

Simon Armitage's 'Remains', included in the AQA GCSE Power and Conflict Anthology, is a first-person perspective poem expressing the trauma of PTSD.
Exploring the psychological effects of conflict on a modern soldier, this poem could be used in a useful comparison with the effects of human conflict in any other war poem in the anthology.
It may also compare well with 'War Photographer', considering the effect of memory and conflict on an individual.

Ted Hughes' 'Bayonet Charge', included in the AQA GCSE Power and Conflict Anthology.
This World War One poem depicts a soldier running in a bayonet charge towards his enemy, panicked and terrified as he contemplates his fate in the 'cold clockwork of the stars and nations'.
The charge is not glorious or noble, but agonising, spurred by 'His terror's touchy dynamite' in which 'King, honour, human dignity etcetera' are 'dropped like luxuries'.

This poem works well for thinking about human conflict and would compare well with other war poems like 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', among others.

Seamus Heaney's 'Storm on the Island', included in the AQA GCSE Power and Conflict Anthology, expresses the true power of nature as the speaker experiences the force of a storm on their island.

Written in blank verse, this short, single-stanza poem represents nature as a destructive and terrifying force, against which the people can do nothing but try to protect themselves in their houses.
This poem works well when looking at the power of nature and so compares well with any other poems in the theme, like 'Ozymandias' or 'Extract from the Prelude' among others.

Taken from Wilfred Owen's 'Exposure' in the AQA GCSE Power and Conflict Anthology.
This World War One poem expresses the horrors and futility of war from the collective first person perspective, 'we'.

The soldiers are attacked and killed by the weather as opposed to the enemy, caught in a state of fear, confusion and anticipation as they continually wait while 'nothing happens'.
This poem enables you to think about both human conflict and the power of nature. It would compare well both with poems about being at war, like 'Bayonet Charge', as well as poems in which nature threatens the humans who must try to defend themselves against it, like 'Storm on the Island'.

Taken from Alfred Lord Tennyson's 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', included in the AQA GCSE Power and Conflict Anthology.
This poem glorifies the deaths of the six hundred men of the light brigade, who charged into certain death because, unknown to them, 'someone had blunder'd'.
However, while Tennyson praises the soldiers' nobility, this poem can also be read as a subtle critique of the mistakes of the upper class generals that led to such a tragedy.
Consider the representation of conflict and war in this poem, and the forms and uses of power which led to the deaths of the Light Brigade.

Robert Browning's 'My Last Duchess', published in 1842 and included in the GCSE AQA 'Power and Conflict' Anthology. This poem is a dramatic monologue narrated by the Duke whose 'last Duchess' died in suspicious circumstances...
This poem is useful for considering human power, in particular the abuse of human power in order to suppress or silence others. Through this idea, it might compare well with poems like 'London' or even 'Checking Out Me History'.

Taken from 'Extract from The Prelude' by William Wordsworth in the GCSE AQA 'Power and Conflict' Anthology. This poem expresses both the beauty of the natural world, and its intimidating power as the speaker is humbled by his discovery of the 'huge peak' of an unexpected mountain.
Like 'Ozymandias', this is a useful poem to consider in relation to the power of nature, as well as for thinking about mankind's attitude towards their place in the natural world.

Taken from William Blake's 'London' in the GCSE AQA 'Power and Conflict' Anthology, this poem expresses the horrors of living in London during the Industrial Revolution.
This poem is a useful one to write about concerning the abuses of human power, whilst considering the dark implications of the metaphorical 'mind-forged manacles' of those suffering.

Percy Bysshe Shelley's 'Ozymandias', a sonnet depicting the long forgotten and broken statue of Ozymandias - 'king of kings' - in a representation of the powerlessness of humans against time and nature, and the foolishness of Ozymandias' arrogance.
This poem appears first in the GCSE AQA 'Power and Conflict' poetry anthology and is very a useful poem to know well as you can write about it for both human power and the power of nature.

The AQA GCSE Poetry Anthology contains 15 poems. For the exam, you will be given one poem and a question, which will ask you to choose the second poem to compare it with.
Whilst 15 poems may seem overwhelming, the key with feeling prepared for this part of the exam is to first be confident with what each poem is generally about, to start grouping together poems which compare well with each other/ are about similar things, and then to become very confident with specific poems from each group.
Ideally, you will have a strong knowledge of every poem, but having a few that fit into different themes (e.g. power of nature, power of man etc.) that you know really well, will help you feel a lot more prepared and make the poems feel more manageable.
To help with an initial overview of each poem, I will be posting quotes from each poem in the Power and Conflict Anthology, along with some ideas about the poem as well as other poems that they might compare well with.
These are simply suggestions and there are many other ways that these poems can be thought and written about, so please also follow your own individual ideas!
Follow to keep up to date with these poetry posts!

Do you have a favourite book?

Reading of any kind is one of the best ways to dramatically improve your writing skills. Find something you genuinely enjoy reading and see if you can get into the habit of reading regularly for fun!

Is your child going into their GCSE year and looking for a boost in their confidence and English skill set?
I have a degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Oxford and am offering private online one-to-one tuition for GCSE English students as summer booster sessions before school restarts, to help create the right foundation in skill set, confidence and momentum as they head into their GCSE year.
Please message me for details or to arrange a preliminary phone call to discuss tuition.

Does anybody keep a diary?..A diary where you write your thoughts and experiences as well as simply your to-do list or upcoming plans?
A diary is an incredibly useful way to practice and refine your writing skills, to learn how to express your mind and thoughts on paper, and also to get out any ideas or reflections out of your head and onto the page.
If you are looking to develop your writing skills before your GCSE exams, starting a diary might be a useful way to do so!
You don't need to overthink what you will write about, you could simply record what you did that day, what you are hoping to do tomorrow, something that made you happy, something that made you laugh etc. Have a try and see how it goes. You might be surprised by how much enjoy it!

Nonfiction!
If you will be taking your GCSE English exams with the AQA exam board, language paper 2 will be a nonfiction paper. It is important that you feel comfortable reading and writing about nonfiction for this paper.
Nonfiction writing is everywhere - adverts, newspaper articles, blogs, letters etc. Try to familiarise yourself with nonfiction writing - read a newspaper article and consider and discuss the writer's perspective with someone. What is their perspective and how do we know this? Is it persuasive? Do you agree?
The more nonfiction you have read and thought about before the exam, the more confident you will feel with analysing it, and even with writing your own!