Key DatesLanguage Paper 1 (Reading) – Tues 02 June 9amLanguage Paper 2 (Writing) – Tues 02 June 10am Literature Unit 1 (Novel and Unseen Poetry) – Mon 18May 9am (1 hour)Literature Unit 2 (Novel and Play) – Fri 22 May 9am(2hours)

Reading

Two non-fiction texts

Four equally weighted questions (/10)

1 hour

Supporting your child when revising for theREADING paper.• Timings • Question types?• Encourage them to read and discuss.• Practise, practise, practise!

Writing

Two tasks (each /20)Sentence structure, punctuation and spelling

(7 marks)

Content and organisation (13 marks)

1 hour for both.

Supporting your child when revising for theWRITING paper.• Bank of examples• P.A.F• Sharpening their writing skills• Speed planning• Go ‘back to basics’• Practise, practise, practise!

Create a ‘bank’ of example texts• Leaflets (delivered through the post or at your

doctor’s surgery)• Reviews (online or in magazines/newspapers)• Formal letters (look online for good examples)• Feature articles (in Sunday supplements or

some magazines)• Reports (look online for good examples)

Purpose = why you’re writingPersuade, argue, advise, explain

Audience = who you’re writing fore.g. students, MP, general public, pensioners etc

Format = how you’re going to writeStyle (e.g. formality, tone)Form (e.g. letter, article, report, leaflet, review, speech)

Sharpen their writing skills Different sentence types for variety Use different ways to start sentences Revise different connectives/conjunctions Read an article of around 500 words and try

to summarise it in 100. Or an article of 750 words in 200 and so on.

Improveschool

New computers

New uniform

New school rules

Better food

New playing fields

New sports equipment

More teachers

Longer school dayNew buildings

More text books

Practical support you can give your child:• Encourage them to go through their writing

and see if they can identify words they tend to use all the time (e.g. nice, good etc.)

• Use a thesaurus to find alternatives or synonyms of these words. Practise using them in their timed revision work.

Punctuation• Encourage your child to go through their work

and identify any errors that have been highlighted by their teacher. Common errors include:– Using too many commas and not enough full stops

(known as ‘comma splicing’);– Forgetting to use apostrophes to show possession or

missing letters (e.g. it’s for ‘it is’);– Using & instead of ‘and’.

Spelling• Encourage them to through their work and try

to identify spellings they get wrong frequently. For example, ‘their’ and ‘there’ or plural spellings wrong.

• Try different strategies to try and learn theses keywords.

• Practise, practise, practise!

• http://www.englishmaven.org/Pages/Punctuation.htm

• http://www.ldonline.org/article/6192/.