Dear Parents/Guardians, 9th Sept 2025
Year 11 students have now completed the whole of the GCSE English Literature course. I would like to thank you for your support of both us as a Learning Area and your child during last year. We are very proud of how hard they worked and delighted at their considerable success and pleasing results. We hope to continue this into the forthcoming new school year.
In lessons, we are now preparing for the English Language GCSE, which will be the focus for Yr 11. There will not be a resit opportunity for GCSE English Literature, due the complex demands of new coursework tasks.
English sets have been reorganised in order to ensure pupils are in the correct groups for the English Language course, following Baseline testing in June 2025, with catch up sessions completed for those who missed them then. The groups will be monitored closely throughout the year to make sure pupils are in the right place for their ability/current working grade/target grade.
As there are no tiers in English Language GCSE, all pupils will sit the same examination, so it is possible for your child to achieve the very highest grades in any of the teaching groups.
There are a couple of important events in the rest of this year for which we would like your particular support:
- GCSE English Language Mock exams x 2 (PPEs):
• Monday 10th November – P1, 2 & Tutorial: PPE 1 Unit 2 paper
• Tuesday 11th November – P1, 2 & Tutorial: PPE 1 Unit 3 paper
Each of these 2 exams lasts 2 hours and will start at 8:30 am. It is essential that pupils arrive on time for a prompt start.
- NEA [Coursework]
● Fortnight beginning Monday 17th November – Group Discussion Oracy Exams
Pupils will be allocated a slot on one of the days during this week in a small group [3 pupils] and will then go to a separate room in order to undertake a Group Discussion prepared in advance in English lessons and at home, on a topic set by the exam board. This will be recorded as per the WJEC exam board specifications. There will be no audience for this.
This Oracy exam will contribute towards the final GCSE English Language grade, worth 10% of the grade. It is essential, therefore, that your child prepares thoroughly for this task, attends their allocated slot promptly and does their very best.
The pupils’ performances in both the PPEs [mock exams] and the NEA will be used to reorganise sets for January 2026 and provide us with valuable information about what we need to focus on with students in the latter part of Year 11.
There will be a final Unit 3 mock exam [PPEs] in Yr 11, on Tuesday 24th February 2026 which will allow pupils to identify key areas on which to focus their revision.
I would like to close by asking you to encourage your child to attend all lessons on time, ready to learn and do their very best in all classwork, homework, NEA task [coursework] and mock exams [PPEs].
Thank you in anticipation of your support again this year,
Mrs L. M. Taylor
Raising Standards Leader: English & Literacy
LTaylor@cathays.cardiff.sch.uk
