(15 May 2014, 8:23 pm)AdamY wrote I remember the advert well. I found these adverts to be far more tolerable than the B.T. adverts featuring Nick Harper from My Family and his extended family.

Daniel Graham
‏@danielgrahamm
GCSE Physics: Where students learn how to tip disabled people out of wheelchairs. #aqa #gcsephysics

(19 May 2014, 4:03 pm)Dan wrote All I've got to say about today's Physics exam really!

(19 May 2014, 4:03 pm)Dan wrote All I've got to say about today's Physics exam really!

(19 May 2014, 4:51 pm)mb134 wrote Got a migraine in the middle feel the second paper was better though more formula based and more stuff came up that I had properly revised

(19 May 2014, 4:54 pm)Dan wrote I preferred Module 2 because it was essentially Maths with a tiny bit of Physics. The Physics that was in it was Physics I'd learnt.

I hated the Module 3 one because I hadn't learnt any of it at all. Our Physics teacher is terribly and only finished the syllabus on Friday just gone after a two hour revision session after school. He rushed it and told us to learn it ourselves, which I had tried to do.

(20 May 2014, 6:38 am)Dan wrote English Lit today... One I've been looking forward to but dreading equally as much, given that I want to continue English at A-Level (undecided as to whether that's just to AS or up to A2).
Can't say I've done a lot of work for revision on To Kill a Mockingbird, but I know An Inspector Calls quite well.

(20 May 2014, 7:29 am)mb134 wrote We're doing the woman in black and of mice and men, keep getting confused between the film of TWIB and the book

(20 May 2014, 1:01 pm)AdamY wrote I think we did 'Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry' as our main literature piece when I was at school doing GCSE's. We also did 'An Inspector Calls' at some point - I remember watching the film in class.

(20 May 2014, 11:57 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Is Mice and Men still part of the curriculum?
Been left school a long time and we did that!

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(20 May 2014, 1:01 pm)AdamY wrote I think we did 'Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry' as our main literature piece when I was at school doing GCSE's. We also did 'An Inspector Calls' at some point - I remember watching the film in class.

(20 May 2014, 2:30 pm)Dan wrote For English Literature Unit 1 (today's exam), the texts are as follows:


For English Literature Unit 4 (Thursday's exam), the texts are as follows:


It seems I was conned into studying Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" for the Unit 1 exam. We were told that "Of Mice & Men" is a foundation tier text and should be chosen by the candidates who struggle with more difficult texts. Being a higher tier candidate, there was only one option for me (and that applied to everyone who did "decide" to study TKAM at my school).

I've no idea why our teachers thought it would be appropriate to make us study Macbeth for Unit 4 either - especially when we had studied Romeo & Juliet in Year 8..!


I believe Roll of Thunder is now taught in the Year 9 syllabus (or at least it is in my school - they tend to do what they like anyway). I unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to study that text as the Year 9 English teacher who teaches it didn't actually take us for English that year - another teacher did. I've sat through most of the book in Year 9 lessons when I've had additional Media Studies lessons though. Paired with the movie, "Time to Kill", Roll of Thunder seems like it would have been a great book to prepare us for To Kill a Mockingbird at GCSE.


As a side note:
What really irritates me is the fact students can no longer enjoy literature, if they are studying it at GCSE or A-Level. I don't really enjoy reading as I find it's awfully time-consuming and I prefer to watch a movie for entertainment as I can actually see it (rather than having to imagine it), but I like English lessons when we are getting read to. Being read to is often one of those things you grow up with at bed time, and I personally think that's when it is more enjoyable.
When studying English Literature at GCSE or A-Level; students are forced to rip the text they're studying apart, analysing language and commenting on features that the author arguably mightn't have intended at the time of writing it. I went with the year group below mine to "Poetry Live", an event which was hosted in Newcastle. At the event, poets read out some of their poems on stage as well as reading a few of their favourite poems. One poet said that the poem she wrote meant something to her at the time of writing to it, but now that it's reached the public domain, it's the reader's poem to interpret and find meaning significant to them. I feel a lot of writers do perhaps have this in mind when constructing a piece of writing, and they don't want their writing being pulled apart.
I had this discussion last year with one of my old English teachers who teaches English to Year 7 and 8 students (and taught me in Year 9 also), when she was asking me how I was finding GCSE English... She agreed completely, and said it's sad that students can't enjoy the literature - she said an author's main intention is to write to entertain, and she said that she couldn't imagine an author writing for the sole purpose of the text being taught to GCSE and A-Level students fifty years in the future.

(20 May 2014, 4:03 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Foundation tier for Of Mice and Men? It wasn't the case when I did mine. The grade I got, would indicate it wasn't either.
The other yr11 text was The Tempest - which after a quick look on google is GCSE and A-Level.

In yr10, we did Romeo & Juliet and Animal Farm (which may or may not have influenced my political leanings ).

Mind, the teacher we had for English (same for Lit, Lang and Spkng/Listening), was poor. A lot of people started to fall back.
He didn't last long at the school and was 'moved on' the year after we left.

(20 May 2014, 4:08 pm)Dan wrote We studied Animal Farm in Year 9 opposed to at GCSE level, and I rather enjoyed it. Was gutted when I found out a few pages in that it wasn't actually about talking animals...

(20 May 2014, 7:30 pm)AdamY wrote The class I was in was not granted the opportunity to study Animal Farm, however a class a few sets lower than mine did. There were always some raised eyebrows when the topic of Animal Farm was raised amongst those who didn't study it in lessons. When I went to school there was a notorious bestiality porno-movie doing the rounds which was also called Animal Farm. I think those who didn't study it incorrectly assumed both were one and the same.

I did get the chance to read Animal Farm many years later. I enjoyed it!

(20 May 2014, 7:48 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Our teacher obviously hadn't seen or heard of the pornographic Animal Farm and couldn't understand our reaction when he wheeled in the tv/vcr stand one lesson and announced which film we would be watching.

(20 May 2014, 9:43 pm)AdamY wrote Ha! I wonder if there's a flip side to that.

Has someone, somewhere, entered a seedy little cinema expecting to see a film about alluring to the grotesque nature of the Stalinist regime; and ended up watching a film which just grotesque in nature and form.

(21 May 2014, 7:18 am)marxistafozzski wrote I did Of Mice and Men at School and a few of Billy S' works, I enjoyed OMAM but hated Shakespeare, my old granddad(god rest his soul) used to say "that bastard has caused no end of grief for schoolkids for 500 years, he should have been drowned at birth

Did not matter in the end as I was not entered for an English GCSE...

Out of interest, did anyones history lessons involve Blackadder Goes Forth, when we were studying the First World War, quite early on we were shown the last ever episode where they went over the top and was told we were viewing it to show about how stupid the conflict, bad decisions that were made and the utter sense of hopelessness

(21 May 2014, 8:33 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Knowing our English teacher, any porn he brought in - would not have got the average 15yr old lad excited.
He was as camp as Christmas.


Aye, in Humanties (history component), we watched it.
It will have been yr8/yr9 though.

(21 May 2014, 2:18 pm)marxistafozzski wrote I noticed a few whileo ago there was talk of Blackadder Goes Forth being included in the cirriculum and I think it was Michael Gove was not amused by it and said it is was left wing propaganda nonsense, well it amused me to hear that

(21 May 2014, 6:32 pm)AdamY wrote I think Michael Gove is left-wing propaganda nonsense. An abstract caricature of an education secretary comprised of everything rotten about how the privileged view state education and how it is taught. Such a concept can only exist within the twisted mind of a left-wing rabble-rouser seeking to incite revolution.

Unfortunately, the Frankengove fell into the wrong hands!

(22 May 2014, 3:52 pm)Dan wrote Had a good Business Studies exam on Wednesday. I think almost everyone came out of the exam hall and said that they found it alright, which was great to hear compared to the usual exchanging of answers and deep regrets.

Likewise, had a good English Lit exam today. The given extract for Macbeth was one I'd already written an essay on in-class. This was last year, but I remembered most of the points I made in the essay. Thomas Hardy bit was alright too.

No more exams for 11 days!

(22 May 2014, 3:58 pm)mb134 wrote Do you not do a poetry bit for Lit? Just ours was today. History tomorrow, Britain 1890-1918 ......

(22 May 2014, 4:00 pm)Dan wrote We did English Literature Units 1 (Exploring modern texts) and 4 (Approaching Shakespeare and the English Literary Heritage) opposed to Units 1 and 2.

We did a little piece of coursework on poetry, but that was it.

(25 May 2014, 10:19 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/article1414764.ece?CMP=SOC-appshare-XJC4722134818-tw-and-1.8

We were just chatting about this!