Course Content

Hi 

You’re here because you are currently studying towards GCSE English Language (the AQA syllabus), or you know someone who is. Welcome. This website serves not only as the course’s blog but as a place where you can take a look at the content before you decide to enroll. 

Let’s go through the different kind of content on Pass GCSE English. First of all, what do you see when you login? Click on the picture to get a larger view.

When you login to the course, you get what you can see above. The only thing you won't currently see are the badges on the right hand side. You have to earn those, so at the beginning you won't have any. Don't worry, though - that can change really quickly.

There are three blocks. The first block (shown on the left here) shows the different parts of the course (it is separated into sections, much like chapters of a book).  

 You can click on any of the titles to get to that specific element of the course. 

Plus, you can see if you have already done something if there is a green dot next to it. If you want to go to a specific task or see which ones you have completed (they are the ones in green).

As you can see, there is an induction process to this course. This is so we know where you are starting from in terms of your GCSE English studies. We also want to tailor new resources to according to student demand and this is a first step in getting your voice heard by us!

The central block contains the sections of the course. Again, it is scrollable as there are a lot of sections. The screenshot below gives you an idea about how it is structured - each question in the exam has a section of its own.

Let's say we click on to Paper 1 Question 2. When you are there, you can see all the activities on the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) associated with that particular question.

This gives us the opportunity to take a closer look at some of the course elements,

Each question has a number of interactive lessons.

This student seems to have done quite a lot - you can see the status on the right hand side - showing what is to do and what has been "Done", so they can easily track what they have already covered. Even if they have completed a lesson, students can repeat them as often as they wish.

There are no grades associated with completing lesson - that comes later, of course!

You can read more about our lessons here.

Then there are quizzes. These are marked by the VLE.

For each quiz, students have to read a short extract and then answer a number of questions. They are mostly multiple choice, but there are also ordering, short answer, drag and drop, and fill in the missing word questions. They are designed to be fun but also to get students reading interesting texts, with plenty of opportunities to see how previous students have attempted the questions, and model answers.

As you are working towards success in your exams using this VLE, you will be awarded badges when you improve skills.  Below are some of the badges you can be awarded!

As you can see, the names of these badges are deliberately quite silly.  You can read more about them on our blog post. Yet each of them represents a skill that students acquire while progressing through the course, so there is a serious intention despite their overall silliness!

Talking of serious intentions, there comes a time when you have to do the exams. We help you to prepare for the exams by giving you assignments to do which are marked by teachers who currently teach GCSE English.

When you get to the point that you are ready to have worked marked by a real human being (which is what really separates us from other sites!) then you can complete the assignments, Each question has an exam question for you to have a go at.

When you have submitted your assignments, you will receive prompt written feedback from a teacher, which will tell you how well you have done on the question and what you could do to further improve your work. This is something which is, we believe, unique to this GCSE English VLE (Virtual Learning Environment).

Not only that, but there are full mock exams too, which are also marked by English teachers.

 Students are given a grade from 9-1 for the mock exams with written feedback and exemplar answers.

There are an increasing number of activities on the website, some of which are created by the students themselves, To the left you can see the different types of activities on the site.  Forums can be created by students to ask questions and get answers from other students. Glossaries are created to create a dictionary of terms used for this qualification.  Choices and Surveys are used to gauge how students are applying themselves and what they feel they are doing well (and also what they feel they need to improve).

Each time a new activity appears on the VLE, students receive an email telling them about it. As we expand the course we hope that this will give our students more opportunities to prepare for their GCSE English exams in an engaging and interesting way.

Over the course of the last two years we have put together a booklet which we give away free with the course. It is called Core Texts and it contains the extracts that are used on the VLE all in one handy place. The texts have been very carefully curated to provide you with some exciting reads - and not just by the same old authors (although some are there, of course!).  We are committed to diversifying the curriculum for our learners and the contents reflect that commitment.

Additionally we also provide links to some of the best blogs written by GCSE English teachers. No need to sit there and do searches - we've got them for you.

This looks like quite a lot of content, doesn't it? Yes - and the course is not complete yet either. That's why we are currently charging only £50 per student for a whole year's access to all the content.