Full pathway · AQA 8700 and 8702
GCSE English, stage by stage
Six taught stages covering both English GCSEs: set texts studied closed-book, full essay tasks with model paragraphs, and exam-style papers that mark themselves.
GCSE English
Pathway progress
0 of 15 lessons
Marked checks
60
inside the taught lessons
Essay tasks
6
one per stage, with a plan and a model
Exam-style papers
5
across Language and Literature
Switching up from KS3
Move your home page to GCSE and add both English courses to your plan. Nothing in your KS3 work is lost.
The exam journey
GCSE Shakespeare: Macbeth
Macbeth read closely: ambition, guilt, kingship and a full extract-to-whole-text essay.
0/3 done
- Macbeth 1: ambition and the seed of an idea30 min · 4 marked checks
- Macbeth 2: guilt, kingship and the supernatural30 min · 4 marked checks
- Macbeth 3: writing the full Section A essay35 min · 4 marked checks
Essay task · 30 marks + 4 AO4 · 50 minutes
Shakespeare essay: conscience in Macbeth
Starting with a soliloquy of your choice, write about how Shakespeare presents Macbeth's changing relationship with his own conscience, in that speech and in the play as a whole.
AO1 personal response · AO2 language, form and structure · AO3 context
- Thesis: what Shakespeare does with conscience, in one sentence.
- Paragraph 1: close analysis of the chosen soliloquy.
- Paragraph 2: where this began — earlier in the play.
- Paragraph 3: what it becomes by Act 5.
- One context sentence per paragraph, after the analysis.
GCSE nineteenth-century novel
A Christmas Carol and Jekyll and Hyde — structure, character change and Victorian context.
0/3 done
- A Christmas Carol: structure as argument30 min · 4 marked checks
- Jekyll and Hyde: duality, secrecy and the Victorian city30 min · 4 marked checks
- Nineteenth-century novel: the whole-text essay35 min · 4 marked checks
Essay task · 30 marks + 4 AO4 · 50 minutes
Nineteenth-century novel essay: wealth and responsibility
Write about how the writer presents the relationship between wealth and moral responsibility in your studied nineteenth-century novel, and how that presentation develops across the whole text.
AO1 whole-text argument · AO2 methods · AO3 Victorian context
- Turn the question into a defendable claim.
- Four paragraphs following the text's chronology.
- Short embedded quotations from your evidence bank.
- One context sentence per paragraph.
- Three minutes checking spelling of names and quotation punctuation.
GCSE modern text essay
A modern play of ideas, and the conceptual essay it needs.
0/2 done
- Modern text 1: responsibility and structure30 min · 4 marked checks
- Modern text 2: building the conceptual essay30 min · 4 marked checks
Essay task · 30 marks + 4 AO4 · 45 minutes
Modern text essay: one generation judging another
How does the writer of your modern text present the way one generation judges another? Write about the ideas and the methods used to present them.
AO1 conceptual argument · AO2 staging and structure · AO4 accuracy
- Ninety seconds: list three moments, confirm the choice of question.
- Write the conceptual line and reuse it in every topic sentence.
- Five-move paragraphs: claim, moment, method, effect, purpose.
- Close on the audience's position at the final curtain.
GCSE poetry: anthology and unseen
Anthology comparison from memory, then unseen poetry read cold.
0/2 done
- Anthology poetry: comparing power and conflict30 min · 4 marked checks
- Unseen poetry: reading a poem cold30 min · 4 marked checks
Essay task · 30 marks · 45 minutes
Poetry comparison: power that lasts and power that fades
Compare the ways poets present the limits of power in one named anthology poem and one other poem from the same cluster.
AO1 comparison · AO2 language, form and structure · AO3 context of both poems
- Choose the second poem for contrast of method, not similarity of subject.
- Three comparative paragraphs, both poems in each.
- Name form and explain what it does.
- Quote from memory in short phrases.
GCSE Language Paper 1: fiction and description
Unseen fiction: language, structure, evaluation and 40 marks of descriptive writing.
0/2 done
- Language Paper 1: language and structure on an unseen extract30 min · 4 marked checks
- Language Paper 1 Question 5: descriptive and narrative writing35 min · 4 marked checks
Essay task · 40 marks (24 content, 16 accuracy) · 45 minutes
Language Paper 1 Q5: descriptive writing
Describe a place at the moment it changes, as suggested by an image of an empty harbour at dawn.
AO5 content and organisation · AO6 technical accuracy
- One place, one moment, one shift.
- Five paragraphs: wide, narrow, closer, shift, resolve.
- Deliberate sentence variety; one semicolon, one colon.
- Five minutes proofreading for tense and spelling.
GCSE Language Paper 2: viewpoints and perspectives
Two centuries of non-fiction, comparison of attitudes, viewpoint writing and the spoken endorsement.
0/3 done
- Language Paper 2: summary, comparison and two centuries30 min · 4 marked checks
- Language Paper 2 Question 5: writing a viewpoint35 min · 4 marked checks
- Spoken language endorsement: presenting and responding25 min · 4 marked checks
Essay task · 40 marks (24 content, 16 accuracy) · 45 minutes
Language Paper 2 Q5: viewpoint writing
A local council plans to close your nearest library on Saturdays. Write a letter to a councillor arguing your point of view.
AO5 form, audience and organisation · AO6 technical accuracy
- Match salutation, register and sign-off to a letter.
- Concede, then answer; strongest point second.
- Plausible specific evidence, sparing rhetoric.
- Call to action in the final paragraph.
Exam-style papers
Paper 1 practice: reading an unseen extract
Reading skills from Questions 1–4 in exam order, using original extracts written for practice.
Paper 2 practice: two texts, two centuries
Retrieval, summary with inference, non-fiction language, comparison of attitudes and viewpoint writing, using original paired sources.
Literature practice: methods, context and comparison
Exam-style thinking for extract work, context, poetry comparison and unseen poetry.
Paper 1 practice: Shakespeare and the nineteenth-century novel
Extract-to-whole-text thinking on Macbeth and a nineteenth-century novel, with context marked as AO3.
Paper 2 practice: modern text, anthology and unseen poetry
Conceptual essay planning for the modern text, comparative poetry choices and unseen poetry method analysis.