Year 10 to Year 11: How to Help Your Child Prepare for Their GCSE Year
A question I am often asked is ‘how can I help my child get ready for year 11?’ and in the conversation that follows, several concerns are voiced by parents. For example, ‘he failed his year 10 mock’, ‘ she just doesn’t seem to understand how to write the answers’ or ‘it’s all very different to when I was at school, I don’t have a clue how to help’ and, of course, ‘if I try to help, I get my head bitten off’!
Happily, all of these barriers can be overcome! The good news is that the summer isn’t about turning your home into a classroom. Nor is it about you becoming an expert English teacher, knowing the exam markschemes or knowing all the quotes from all the texts! Instead, there are a few simple things you can encourage while still making sure your teen has plenty of time to relax and enjoy their summer. The aim of the summer isn’t to finish Year 11 before it begins. It’s to help your child arrive in September feeling rested, curious and ready to learn.
The Post It Note vs The Filing Cabinet
One thing I often tell students is that their brain has two important memory systems. Their working memory is like a Post-it Note – it can only hold a small amount of information before it becomes full. Long-term memory, however, is like a filing cabinet. Once information has been properly learned and stored there, it doesn’t disappear. During Year 10, students have been filling that filing cabinet with Shakespeare, Dickens, poetry, language techniques and essay skills. Over the summer they won’t suddenly lose all of that knowledge. They might just need a little help finding the right files again in September.
That’s why a little and often approach is so powerful.
Five simple ways to keep English alive over the summer:
1. Keep reading
Read a short story or even a paragraph together, listen to an audiobook on a long car journey. Reading anything helps to build that ‘reading muscle’ in the brain – audio books help with following a plot and making characters come to life.
Maybe watch an adaptation of a Shakespeare play or a novel (there is an excellent and entertaining version of A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carey – very true to the original and very well produced). Watch adaptations of teen novels eg Harry Potter, The Hunger Games or Maze Runner – then, perhaps, have a go at reading the book.
The aim isn’t to “do school” throughout the holidays; it’s to keep curiosity alive.
2. Keep talking
Read a newspaper article together or simply talk about the stories you’re watching on television. Discuss which characters you like or don’t like, why they act how they do, what impact their actions have on other characters and if you think they will change.
If Shakespeare or Dickens were alive today, they would probably be writing soap operas!
3. Build routines
Spend ten minutes a day writing something. It could be a note to a grandparent, a diary entry about their day, thoughts about a book they are reading for pleasure, a letter to a character in a text, an email to an author asking questions about their plot choices …
Little and often is key – if you were running a marathon, you would build up your training over a period of time, not go out and run 26 miles on your first attempt! It’s the same with writing – practice builds stamina. Start short and build up.
4. Transfer knowledge to the filing cabinet
Encourage your teen to choose two quotes to remember from each text they have studied – write them on post it notes or flash cards; stick them round the bedroom mirror, on the fridge (on the back of the loo door is a great place!) and then see who in the family can remember the most and the most accurately.
Test each other by starting a quote and getting the other person to finish it. As an extra challenge, get your teen to explain why they chose those quotes and what they think the writer wants us to think, feel or imagine when we read/hear it.
Give points for accuracy; bonus points for explanations – points mean prizes! Prizes can be as simple as choosing a movie for the family to watch, favourite dinner that night.
5. Make it a family affair
Rope in older brothers, sisters, cousins, friends who have enjoyed English to support with discussions
Get your teen to explain the plot of Macbeth to the dog. Read a poem to the cat. If you live in the countryside, the cows are excellent listeners too! Animals never interrupt, criticise or tell you you’ve got it wrong. They simply listen. By explaining ideas out loud, students often realise just how much they already know—and, just as importantly, where they need to think a little harder.
Ask grandparents about their childhood and write an account of their stories as a gift
Remember:
Students don’t need to know everything before Year 11 starts.
They need to arrive believing they can improve.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “This sounds exactly like my child,” please remember that they’re not alone. Every year I work with students who arrive feeling overwhelmed, lacking confidence or convinced they’re “just not good at English”. I’ve seen students leave Year 10, convinced they’ll never achieve a Grade 4, who go on to achieve Grade 6 or even Grade 7 by the end of Year 11. Confidence, the right support and steady progress really do make all the difference.
If you’d like to find out more about how Elevate English supports students through GCSE English, I’d be delighted to hear from you.
