Revision Courses

English Language IGCSE/GCSE

This course provides help with skills useful for IGCSE and GCSE English Language exams and is suitable for Year 11 students sitting all exam boards. Examples of exercises will be taken from a variety of past papers.

Length of course: 5 half-day sessions
Boards: Edexcel (4EA0) and CIE 0500/0522

Course Details

  • Enable students to communicate accurately, appropriately and effectively in speech and writing
  • Enable students to understand and respond appropriately to what they hear, read and experience
  • Encourage students to enjoy and appreciate a variety of language
  • Complement students’ other areas of study by developing skills of a more general application (eg analysis, synthesis, drawing of inferences)
  • Develop the ability to read, understand and respond to material from a variety of sources, and to recognise and appreciate themes and attitudes and the ways in which writers achieve their effects
  • Develop the ability to construct and convey meaning in written language, matching style to audience and purpose
  • Organise ideas into sentences, paragraphs and whole texts using a variety of linguistic and structural features
  • Use a range of sentence structures effectively, with accurate punctuation and spelling

Sessions will teach students to:

  • Understand and collate explicit meanings
  • Understand, explain and collate implicit meanings and attitudes
  • Select, analyse and evaluate what is relevant to specific purposes
  • Understand how writers achieve effect
  • Articulate experience and express what is thought, felt and imagined
  • Order and present facts, ideas and opinions
  • Understand and use a range of appropriate vocabulary
  • Use language and register appropriate to audience and context
  • Make accurate and effective use of paragraphs, grammatical structures, sentences, punctuation and spelling
  • Write to inform, explain and describe
  • Write to explore, imagine and entertain
  • Write to argue, persuade and advise

The following areas will be covered and will take into account the specific needs of the students within a particular group:

  • Different types of exam question: An explanation of the different sections of the papers
  • Exam technique/ Essay skills: Timing and structure
  • What examiners are looking for: The different assessment objectives will be explained
  • Writing from a stimulus: Short stories, novel extracts, biography/autobiography/speeches, newspaper/magazine articles, travel writing, diaries/letters, advertisements/leaflets/brochures, web pages
  • Revision tips: Preparing for the exam, advice for the final weeks of revision

Mathematics GCSE

The focus of the course will be to cover the four key areas of GCSE Mathematics: ,Number; Algebra; Shape, Space & Measure; Data Handling, paying particular attention to individual problems such as non-calculator skills and looking at general examination technique and practice.

Aside from any pilot schemes, the National Curriculum requires all exam boards to offer a similar specification at GCSE, so this course is appropriate for all GCSE Mathematics candidates at Higher level.

Length of course: 5 half-day sessions
Boards: Suitable for all boards

Course Details

Specifications for GCSE Mathematics can be split into four parts: Number; Algebra; Shape, Space & Measure; Data Handling. The focus of the course will be to cover these four areas, paying particular attention to individual problems such as non-calculator skills and looking at general examination technique and practice.

Aside from any pilot schemes, the National Curriculum requires all exam boards to offer a similar specification at GCSE, so this course is appropriate for all GCSE Mathematics candidates at Higher level.

The course will focus on functional elements of mathematics, mathematical definitions and key terms, and the importance of quality written answers.

  • Number: Basic arithmetic; Dealing with negative numbers; Fractions and percentages; Ratio; Powers and roots; Estimation and appropriate degree of accuracy; Measure, conversion and possible effect of errors on calculation; Trial and improvement methods; Standard form; Evaluating formulae (including examples with negative and fractional numbers)
  • Algebra: Sequences and number patterns; Symbolic notation; Expressing general laws in symbolic form; Manipulation of formulae; Factorisation; Powers and roots; Direct and indirect proportion; Solving simple equations and inequalities; Simultaneous equations; Quadratic equations; Trial and improvement for polynomial equations; Growth and decay rates; Graphs of functions and inequalities; ; Graphical solution of equations; Sketching and comparing graphs of functions
  • Shape, Space & Measure: Drawing and measurement; Nets and accurate drawings; 2D and 3D drawings; Angles; Symmetry; Similarity; Bearing; Three-dimensional co-ordinates; Plane and solid figures; Areas and volumes; Arc length and sector area; Congruent triangles; Similar solids; Vector addition and subtraction; Transformations; Loci; Pythagoras’ theorem; Sine, Cosine and tangent (two-dimensional problems); Sine, cosine and tangent of any angle including three-dimensional problems; Graphs of trigonometrical functions; Sine and cosine rules
  • Data Handling: Design and use of an observation sheet/questionnaire; Sampling; Statistical diagrams including histograms; Scatter diagrams and the idea of correlation; Probability (estimating probabilities; independent and mutually exclusive events); Mean, Median and mode; Frequency polygons and cumulative frequency diagrams; Upper and lower quartiles; Tree diagrams
Publisher: Pearson

Title: Edexcel GCSE Mathematics A Linear Higher/ Foundation

ISBN: I978-1-84690-083-9.

Students will be supplied with the course text and a workbook at the beginning of the year.

French Language IGCSE/GCSE

The course aims to provide a structured and systematic revision of the essential GCSE topic areas, vocabulary and grammar. The course is also appropriate for students following IGCSE specifications.  As some schools will have already completed the Writing and Speaking units prior to the Easter holidays, each course will be divided into two sessions. Students may book one or both sessions as appropriate.

Length of course: 5 half-day sessions
Boards: All boards

Course Details

The aim of the course is to give plenty of exam practice in the above skills while consolidating vocabulary and grammatical knowledge. The areas and topics will be selected from the following and adapted to the group’s needs.

Grammar

  • Articles
  • Present tense
  • Adjectives and their agreements
  • Comparison for adjectives and adverbs
  • Possessives
  • Negatives
  • Questions
  • Commands
  • Past tenses
  • Pronouns with the perfect tense
  • Future tense/near future tense
  • Infinitive
  • Pronouns
  • Conditional tense

Topics

  • Home – local area, family and the environment
  • Lifestyle – health, relationships, choices, fashion, food and drink
  • Leisure – free time, the media
  • Holidays – travel, sport, tourism
  • Work – education, school, future plans, jobs