GCSE English Language Descriptive Writing Model Answers in a book

Posted on July 10, 2024 by ofamily

We are busy preparing for our IGCSE English Language exam and I have to admit that even though my daughter loves writing, the writing component of the exams are quite specific in that the exam boards are looking for very specific answers that tick the right boxes (it really is not creative writing anymore it is more writing in a format that the exam board requires). So I was getting a bit nervous about what was really required and how it should look. I have read the specification, I have read student books and I have looked at the exam board mark schemes but I still felt like what I really wanted was a set of good examples that I could read. I felt like I needed to read a number of good examples and I also felt like my daughter needed to read some good examples so that we both truly understood the writing style that they wanted. And that was when we discovered this gem – Revise GCSE English Language Descriptive Writing Model Answers and Practice.

Now before I go any further I want to stress this is just Descriptive Writing. In the IGCSE English Language exam the kids get to choose between writing a descriptive piece and a narrative piece. We have already decided that we are going with the descriptive piece so we are focusing on that. But if you have not decided that and want to keep options open then I want to stress this book only covers descriptive writing, narrative writing is in this book – Revise GCSE English Language Creative Story Writing.

So what exactly does this book contain? This is a book which contains 12 examples of descriptive writing questions along with 12 potential model answers. The idea is that by reading a number of different pieces of GOOD descriptive writing you and your kiddo will have a better idea of what is expected.

They have also included a really useful checklist of things to try and include in your descriptive writing piece (we really like this little checklist).

This is NOT a student book with activities to complete. These are examples of the type of writing that your kiddo is aiming for.

Have we found this book useful? Yes. Both my daughter and I think it was worth the money that we paid for it and we both feel that reading these examples have helped us better understand what we are aiming for.

Do we recommend this book – Yes!

But please I want to stress this is ONLY descriptive writing and it is 12 sample questions with 12 potential answers (this is NOT an activity book or a student book).

Admin – I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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Rosie Raja Undercover Codebreaker, a WW2 story

Posted on June 27, 2024 by ofamily

I have mentioned multiple times that I love using historical fiction as a way of getting kids interested in a historical period. So when I saw that there was a new story about WW2, and it revolved around a twelve-year old girl and her quest to find a spy at Bletchley Park I was immediately intrigued. And the main reason was because it sounded like something my daughter would have enjoyed when she was younger and to be honest I went through a stage where I was really searching for good historical fiction with strong female characters for her to read. I sometimes struggled to find suitable stories, so I thought if I struggled there would be others also struggling…………..hence even though this book is now too young for my daughter the fact that it is something that would have appealed to her made me want to read to and write a review for others.

The story starts with Rosie (the main character) and her dad parachuting into France (her dad is a British spy and she often joins him on his missions because it helps with his cover). Right from the beginning you understand that Rosie is going to be a unique and strong character. She was raised in India and only moved to England with her dad after her mother passed away.

They are in France to try and find out the identity of a spy but things go wrong and they end up having to escape back to Britain. Once they are back in Britain they go to Bletchley Park to try and find the spy. When they are stationed at Bletchley Park, Rosie and her father are on a mission to uncover the Nazi spy, and again Rosie makes a few mistakes but we see her learn from her mistakes and try even harder. (I am trying not to give too much away)

Okay so I loved that the story revolves around an interesting young girl and one who is not a typical British girl (this would have applied to my daughter as she really liked stories around female characters who did not fit the standard mold). I really enjoyed the way Rosie’s character is written, yes she is brave but she makes mistakes and gets carried away, something which I think is totally normal and makes her believable.

The story is set in WW2 so it deals with WW2 situations and focuses on the codebreaking side of the war (something which is fascinating to learn more about). But the author does an incredible job of bringing in other WW2 topics in an effortless manner, I loved the way she managed to drop in Dunkirk (when Rosie was escaping from France) and how she effortlessly included a discussion on Russia’s involvement in the war and how people where already worried about the idea of communism spreading. There are also small but interesting bits about kids been evacuated, soldiers recovering from injuries, the resistance movement, even how the troops comprised of men from the Colonies. Oh and the way she just drops in the fact that the house Rosie is staying in has an outside toilet was brilliant and then later on in the story when Rosie has to go to the loo in the middle of the night and tells herself from now on she must not drink water at night to avoid having to use the loo, that was just so real for me and something both my kids would have totally picked up on and enjoyed. It’s small things like this that made the story stand out for me.

Even though the story is focused on WW2, the fact that Rosie grew up in India has an Indian mother and still has family living in India means the discussion about India’s fight for freedom becomes a thread that is woven into the story. I was not expecting it but once you understand Rosie’s background it just ends up being a natural discussion about her family and country of birth. So you end up getting what I would have considered a second historical springboard (what I mean by this is if I used this with my home educated kids as a springboard for topics I would have used it to launch a topic on the codebreaking, general WW2 discussions, Russia’s involvement and I would have also got them to read more about India, what was happening in that country and why.)

As a parent this is a fun, engaging and entertaining historical fiction read for kids.

As a home educating parent this could be a gem. It is well written and entertaining and it could easily be used as a starting point to some interesting discussions and possibly some good topics for your home educated kids to dive into.

For those of you interested here is an Amazon link – Rosie Raja, Undercover Codebreaker

Admin – When I saw this book being released I asked for a review copy because I thought it looked interesting. This is NOT a paid for post I was just given a free copy of the book to read for review purposes.

I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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Maths revision Year 8

Posted on June 14, 2024 by ofamily

We have gotten to that stage of the year where my son has finished some of his subjects and we are now either moving on or doing some revision. For some subjects like History we have actually started his year 9 content a little while ago with the thought that if we finish his year 9 work early we can just start with his IGCSE content a bit early but Maths is different. Even though we have finished his Year 8 Maths I don’t want to move on just yet instead I want to do some revision. Now don’t get my wrong my son is actually not bad with Maths, he tends to grasps the concepts quite easily but he does not have the best memory, so even though he did not struggle with the Maths and he actually sailed though it I still feel like we need to do some revision. So for easy revision and a quick way of knowing that we have covered everything I got him a copy of the CGP Year 8 Targeted workbook.

Let me start by saying for new home educators – these revision workbooks that you can buy at most bookstores are designed for school kids as an extra resource. They DO NOT take the place of a student book, they are meant to be a revision tool, so they tend to have no explanation and limited examples. You often get a page or two of examples on a topic which is totally fine for revision purposes but it is not sufficient if you are using this as you main source. As a home educator you will need a Maths student book. (Okay I just wanted to clarify that for any newbies as I often see this question about the revision workbooks that you buy in the stores).

So this workbook includes everything that they cover in Year 8 Maths and very importantly it has answers at the back (I really hate it when they make you pay extra for the answers).

Okay so it cover all of Year 8 Maths and has the answers – two very important facts. But what I also like about this workbook is the pages are not over crowded (some of the revision workbooks tend to try and squeeze way to much onto one page).

The book is split into 5 sections and at the end of each section they do include 2 pages of review exercises (which is really just some extra practice).

And my son enjoys the comments in the boxes at the bottom of the page.

It is just a revision workbook but it has everything that you need so if you are looking for a revision workbook then this one ticks all the boxes.

Admin – We bought this workbook ourselves, this post is not linked to the publisher in any way. I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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Terry Deary’s Horrible True Tales

Posted on May 24, 2024 by ofamily

I have said countless times that I am a fan of historical fiction so when I heard there were two new books out – Terrible True Tales Egyptians and Terrible True Tales Romans I was immediately interested to see what they were like. And yes these are for the younger kids (they recommend ages 7+) but I believe that entertaining historical fiction can get kids interested in history regardless of their age, so I asked for some review copies to have a read myself.

The author has taken true events like Caratacus persuading the Roman senate to spare him and then weaves a story around the true events. At the end of each story he always explains which part is fact and which is fiction and he then he also gives two ideas on activities which the kids could do based on something from the story (really perfect for use in home education).

The stories are light and entertaining (perfect for younger kids) and they are written in an easy style so these could serve as early chapter reading books. Personally I think they would be great to read together with the kids so you could discuss interesting bits.

Each book contains 4 short stories. In The Eqyptian book the stories are – 1. The Gold in the Grave. This is fun story about grave robbers, as I was reading it I did wonder how many schemes the people tried to rob the graves and if any of them ended up dying in the graves. 2. The Plot at the Pyramid. An interesting story about the people who have to help build the pyramids and what could have gone wrong. 3. The Magic of the Mummy. This story is about how a young girl has to mummify the pharaoh’s cat but instead she creates a wooden mummy and takes his cat home as a pet. Again you discover lots of interesting facts about their whole process of mummification and the death rituals. 4. The Phantom of the Nile Menes. A story about a trainee scribe and a possible ghost.

The Roman stories are – 1. The Captive Celt. A young British boy is taken back to Rome as a slave after his tribe is killed and he now has to adjust to life. He happens to meet a British Chief who is also captured and who manages to convince the Roman senate to spare his life. I found this very interesting as I was fascinated by the fact that it was based on an actual British chief Caratacus who really did persuade the Romans to spare his life. 2. The fatal Fire. A young servant girl witnesses how a fatal fire in Rome starts and who actually started it. This was a fascinating read and did get me thinking about what people in power could/would do and what it would have been like being that servant with no power. 3. The Grim Ghost. A young boy is helping prepare the food for a feast when the master of the house (Pliny) ends up telling him a ghost story. I enjoyed this one because Pliny was a famous for the letters that he wrote including one about the the day that Mount Vesuvius exploded. And apparently Pliny was also famous for the feasts that he held and the ghost stories that he told. 4. The Goose Guards a story about the Gauls attacking, Romans trying to survive and some geese. It might sound strange but apparently the geese guards were a well known Roman legend.

All of the stories are fun and entertaining (I possibly enjoyed the Roman tales more) and all of them include lots of interesting facts about the life of that time. Your kids will learn a lot about life in Roman and Egyptian times just be reading these short stories, I personally think they would be perfect for home edders.

For those interested I am including Amazon links (affiliate).

The Terrible Tales Romans

The Terrible Tales Egyptians

Admin – I did request review copies of these books. I was not paid for the post.

I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we recommend.

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Momentum and Collisions GCSE Physics Topic Pack from Oaka Books

Posted on May 21, 2024 by ofamily

We have been focusing quite a bit on our Biology and History but I am now starting to get more geared up for Physics because we are planning on writing that in a years time, so there are probably going to be a few more posts on IGCSE Physics resources. To start with I thought I would write about one of GCSE Physics Packs from Oaka Books. If you have read our blog in the past you probably would have read about the Oaka Books topic packs that we used in our KS3 Science, my daughter always loved them so I was naturally interested in their GCSE Physics Packs. We decided to give their Momentum and Collision pack a try.

Format wise the GCSE Science Packs are very similar to the normal Oaka Books Topic Packs with just a few small changes. In the Pack you get your Topic Booklet (which are your notes), a Write Your own Notes booklet, which is a booklet where the kids need to write in key words and phrases and this booklet is slightly different to the other Write Your Own Notes because there are NO key words at the top of the page (in the KS3 Science Topic Packs they include the key words at the top of each page), now the key words are on a separate sheet, the idea being your kids can choose to use this sheet or ignore the sheet and complete the notes on their own (this is a small change but one that we really like). And the other change is instead of a learning game (in the KS3 topic pack there is normally a mini version of board game include) now you get question cards.

The actual format of the pages is the same as in all the Oaka Packs. The pages in the topic booklet and the Write Your Own Notes are identical, except there are some gapes in the Write Your Own Notes.

The pages are summarized into blocks of information. This makes it very easy to read and helps the kids focus on the Key Facts (we love this format).

They also always include some sort of graphic in each of the blocks, which is always a great help for kids who are visual learners.

Content Wise what exactly is included in this pack?

  • The difference between speed and velocity (ie scalar vs vector).
  • Momentum, mass and velocity and how to calculate both momentum and velocity.
  • How momentum and mass affect collisions.
  • Elastic and inelastic collisions
  • Kinetic energy and collisions and kinetic energy and explosions.
  • Conservation of momentum including some great examples (loved that they included these examples).
  • Newton’s Third law (action and reaction).
  • Calculation unbalanced forces, mass, velocity change, contact time and rate of momentum change.
  • Safety features and collisions
  • Stopping time and unbalanced force.
  • The unbalanced force acting during a collision.

So Our thoughts? We love the format of the topic books, they do a great job in summarizing the information and highlighting the key points. We like the Write Your Own Notes as it tests if the kiddo has understood what she read and the question cards are a bonus.

As always Oaka Books have done a great job.

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