IGCSE English Language Student Book and Workbook

Posted on October 17, 2022 by ofamily

One of the IGCSE’s (the International version of GCSE’s) that my daughter is planning on writing is English Language. And I thought that finding some sort of course work (ie activities to work through before we focus on past exam papers) would be easy to find, because it is English Language, but actually this has been one of the subjects that I have really struggled with. Right from the beginning I knew what I wanted – a student book which discusses the different topics that we need to work on (ie how to structure a diary entry or synthesising information) and then a linked workbook which had practice activities on the student book. I wanted the student book and the workbook to be linked, so that I could easily say go to the activities in the workbook and complete them, and my daughter would be able to easily find them. I did not want her to have to rely on me searching and finding everything on the internet and then waiting for me while I figure out what we needed to do next. I had already spent quite a bit of time looking at English Language past papers so I knew what we were working towards and what sort of activities I was expecting to see.

Anyway after quite a bit of searching (and I looked at books for GCSE English language as well) I decided that the Collins Cambridge IGCSE Student book and Workbook looked good and I approached the publishers to see if I could get a review copy (they kindly sent us these).

So First Thoughts on getting our books – I loved the format, the pages just looked easy to use and immediately I could see how well the workbook and student book fitted together. I knew straight away I was not going to waste time searching for anything. It was laid out in a very easy to use manner. I was also impressed with how much they have covered and after going through the contents there were no major gaps that I could think of (as we work through the books I will let you know if I find gaps).

What exactly does this student book (and workbook) cover?

That is really all that you want to cover in your Year 10/ Year 11 course work. And I have to say I like the way they start the book by focusing on key skills needed for the questions (this is actually what I felt like a few other books missed out).

Student Book Layout. Very user friendly. Pages are inviting, they tend to have smaller paragraphs, or bullet points, there are headings which help to break it down into nice manageable chunks, they include pictures and they use subtle colours to highlight items. So overall the pages are easy to navigate and in no way overwhelming.

Workbook Layout. The workbook is black and white but they still keep it very user friendly by limiting what is on a page (there is no cramming too much onto one page in this workbook). They do highlight important parts in grey. But the main thing that I really like is at the top of the page they tell you very clearly which page in the student book the activities are linked too. (I know this sounds very simple but you would be amazed at how many books do not do this).

I know everyone will be wanting to know – what about Answers. I have double checked with the people at Collins and answers for the Student Book activities are included in their Teacher’s Guide. I have not seen the Teacher’s Guide but the feedback I did get about it as that there are some suggestions in the Teacher’s Guide on how to extend the activities that are included in the Student Book (again I want to stress I have not personally seen the Teacher’s Guide). But it does sound like it may be a useful resource. Then I have been informed that you can request the answers for the questions in the Workbook and they will be given to users.

Okay so we have only just started using this but so far – my daughter is finding it easy to use, she is working through the first chapter independently. She tends to do a double page out of the Student Book one day and then on the following day she will work through the linked pages in the Workbook. She likes the explanations and the layout and is happy with the activities. I will admit that we have already done quite a lot of work on the first 7 topics covered in chapter 1 so I have not felt like we needed to extend it in any way (ie I have not felt like I needed to find her extra activities on what has been covered). However whether that will be the case as we progress I am not sure about. I think with some of the topics I may want to give her extra practice, but only time will tell if we do.

We do have the answers for the workbook questions, so she marks those herself and I must admit I find having those answers very useful so if you do get the workbook I would strongly suggest requesting the answers.

We do NOT have the Teacher’s Guide and at the moment I am reading through the answers she writes for the activities from the Student Book and then giving her any feedback that I think she needs.

So far this is ticking all the right boxes for us and I actually feel like they have taken a bit of a weight off my shoulders. We have a clear logical guide on what we need to work through, I feel like it build nicely, we have explanations, examples and then activities to practice. My daughter is happy with the structure and I am thrilled that we found these two books.

You can get both of these books directly from the Collins website – Cambridge IGCSE English Language Student Book, Cambridge IGCSE English Language Workbook.

You can also buy them from Amazon – here are the links – IGCSE English Language Student Book, IGCSE English Language Workbook.

Admin – Like I mentioned above I approached Collins to ask if we could these books for a review because I thought they looked good. All opinions expressed are mine or my daughters. This is NOT a paid for 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 use and love.

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Loving our Year 7 Maths Books

Posted on October 12, 2022 by ofamily

One set of resources that I am really loving at the moment are my son’s Year 7 Maths books. For the simple reason that they require no prep work on my side, so they are really saving me time.

Honestly we choose our chapter – we are not working through the chapters in the order of the book (personal preference), then he reads the explanations, goes through the worked examples, if he has any questions he comes to ask me otherwise he starts working on Band 1 and Band 2 of the questions. Once he has finished he marks his own work (if there is anything he does not understand he checks with me). Then the next day he normally does the questions out of his practice book, again he marks it himself. And the following day he goes back to the student book, works through Band 3 (possibly extra questions if we think he needs it) and then he is really to start the next sub-topic. Really straight forward, he can work though it as his own pace, he asks when he needs help but otherwise everything he needs is there.

Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education

These books always have an explanation of the Maths concept followed by multiple worked examples. And these worked examples are key because they show the kids how you would actually tackle a question step by step.

Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education

Then the combination of using the Student book with the practice book (or practice books there are 2 practice books to choose from), means the kids get lots of different questions so they get a lot of practice. And the practice is laid out from easy to hard so the kids can start with the easy questions, build up their confidence and then work up to the harder questions.

The whole set up is just working really well for us.

I know that if we work through the entire book we have covered all the Maths we need to for this year.

  • Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education
  • Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education
  • Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education

So really it is my one-stop Maths.

This series comes with two different Practice books and the idea is you choose the practice book based on the level that you kiddo is working at. I have to admit we like having both practice books. I use the Secure and Develop questions after he has worked through Band 1 and Band 2 from the student book (although I don’t always get him to do all the questions) and then I like getting him to work through the Extend practice book after he has tried Band 3. My son does have a good Maths brain, so I do like having the Extend questions as a way of challenging him.

Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education

In the past I used a wider range of books with my son and it worked perfectly fine but it did mean that I would have to spend quite a bit of time prepping what we actually did day in day out because we would dip in book 1 and then go to book 2 and possibly book 3. It worked really well but it was time consuming and as I am now guiding my oldest through her Year 10 course work, time is becoming more and more precious and having a resource that I know covers everything, has the explanations and questions (You download all the answers from the Hodder site) has just been a massive help.

If you are a home educator these books really do cover everything you need for Year 7 Maths and I highly recommend them.

Here are the Amazon Links for our Year 7 Books

Mastering Mathematics Book 1 – the student book

Mastering Mathematics Practice Book 1 – Secure and Develop

Mastering Mathematics Practice Book 1 – Extend

For those of you wondering about the actual series – the entire series covers all three years of KS3 – Year 7 (book1), year 8 (book 2) and Year 9 (book 3). We I did use the Year 9 books with my daughter and we really enjoyed them, we used a few sections of out the Year 8 book – think it was 2 chapters.

Mastering Mathematics KS3 Maths series for Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9

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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The Percy Jackson series

Posted on October 11, 2022 by ofamily

I am always searching for good book series, books that grip the kids have the start and keep them reading book after book and I have to say this one did not disappoint. It was perfect for my 11 year old son. He devoured book after book, not wanting to put them down.

Percy Jackson starts off as your average kiddo, living in New York, with his mom and struggling at school. He is dyslexic and struggles with his school work (it turns out that actually he struggles because everything is in English and he reads Greek perfectly – a little detail that my son just loved). Anyway his normal life is turned upside down when someone steals Zeus’ lightning bolt and for some reason he gets blamed. He ends up being whisked off to a half-blood camp (kids who have have a Greek God as a parent) where he starts training and learning about his abilities only for that to be interrupted when he decides to go on a quest. And of course the quest involves lots of adventure but is all turns out okay, which of course means he is around for a bunch of other adventures all detailed in the subsequent books.

Both my son and I read all 5 of the books. I started reading them, because I was not sure how I felt about the stories. My son loves Greek Mythology but a lot of Greek Mythology is questionable and can sometimes be a bit too spiritual, in a negative way for us. So I read the first one, loved it and ended up reading the entire series while he chased me to finish them (it was a bit of a competition seeing if I could read the book quick enough for him). Yes there is Greek Mythology, yes they talk about the fact that the kids are born because the Greek Gods have affairs but there is nothing graphic. And although it does deal with Greek creatures and strange mythical events I did not feel like there was a funny spiritual vibe about the books like I have felt with some other stories. For me they were great adventures with a fun twist of kids who have some unusual powers.

I also thought the quality of the writing was excellent. I really appreciate it when kids’ authors write good quality books – books with well crafted, rounded characters, characters who you end up loving but characters who are not perfect and who make mistakes. I loved the way the author described scenes and events, he used some brilliant imagery and powerful words. I really was impressed with the writing and think it is a great example for kids to read (I really do believe if our kids read high quality books it helps them with their own creative writing because they have examples to base their stories on).

My son loved the stories but he does know his Greek Mythology really well and he did pick up that a few of the details in the stories did not quite fit in with the original Greek Myths (honestly I think most kids would not pick this up these small details but for him that was the one thing he did find fault with the books). He did however say that if there were more books in the series he would have happily read more (which is a big compliment coming from him as he often reaches his limit of books around the 4th or 5th).

If you have a kiddo around 10/ 11 (and older) who loves a good adventure and finds mythical creatures interesting then this series is going to be a massive hit. Both my son and I highly recommend it.

Admin – This is just a post about some books that my son LOVED and that I think are really well written.

Book sets from the Books2Door website
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An Inspector Calls Workbook for GCSE or IGCSE English Literature

Posted on October 6, 2022 by ofamily

Just to clarify – We are only going to start working through an Inspector Calls after Christmas but I have already done all my prep work for it and I have my resources all lined up so I am sharing the resources that we are planning on using now and when we actually work through it I will write update posts giving extra feedback that I think is needed. I am doing it this way so the readers looking for options can read the posts now.

I knew I wanted a workbook for An Inspector Calls based on the fact that we used a workbook when we did Macbeth and both of us (my daughter and myself) found it incredibly useful. As we worked through the different activities in the workbook I definitely saw our understanding deepen, so for all of the texts that we are going to be covering for our IGCSE English Literature course I will look for workbooks (but workbooks where I think the activities extend our understanding). My first pick was the Oxford Workbook because I have the Oxford Literature Companion (so I assumed the two would work well together) and because the Macbeth workbook that we used and found so useful was an Oxford one (so I assumed this one would be of the same standard).

This workbook is split into 7 main sections and I have to save I appreciate all 7 of these sections.

Plot, Context, Characters and Themes – these are all the areas that I was expecting. I feel like I have a fairly good grasp on them (I have already done a lot of research and prep work for An Inspector Calls) but even so I like the activities, the way they have broken these down and then built them up. I like the fact that as we start discussing these topics I can open up this workbook and get my daughter to work through an activity. And yes even though my daughter and I do a lot of her literature verbally (ie we discuss it together) I still like her to sit down and write out her thoughts. I found with the Macbeth workbook that just sitting down and putting pen to paper really solidified her thoughts and her understanding.

Language – this is probably the area that I was most concerned about, helping my kid discuss the use of language, understanding why the writer used the language he did. So to say I am thrilled with this section is an understatement. The way it is set out is perfect, it just makes sense and I know working through this section will really help her answer any language linked question in a paper.

Performance. Both my daughter and I are more comfortable discussing novels as opposed to plays so I am really thankful they have included this section. I found looking at this activities really enlightening and I had a few “ahh, I get it now” moments. So for us this section is going to be brilliant.

And then finally the Skills and Practice section. This builds on the activities that the kids have done in the workbook, it takes that understanding they have been cementing and helps them start thinking about structuring their answers.

So content wise I am beyond satisfied with this workbook, it is what I was hoping for and more.

Activity wise, I like the varied activities, I like that they get the kids to think even more deeply about the play and I do feel like they have are really well chosen activities and activities that are worthwhile doing.

But a few extra points. First there are no answers for this. I am not too fussed about that at this stage as we are planning on working through the play together and it will be a case of – try these activities, now lets discuss your answers and see if there is anything extra that we could add. So it suits our style of English Literature.

Also throughout the workbook they have included little blocks called Upgrade. These are exam tips and I have to say some of them seem so self-explanatory but when you read them you do think – Yip I do need to remember that, glad I was reminded of that.

So thoughts on this workbook – I think it is going to be an incredibly valuable resource for us and good value for just £5.99.

We got our Workbook directly from Oxford University Press – here’s their link – An Inspector Calls Workbook.

I have also seen it in a few bookstores and you can get it from Amazon – OUP’s An Inspector Calls Workbook

Admin – A few months ago Oxford University Press did send me some resources for us to use in our home education. Which resources we used, and which resources we choose to write reviews and the opinions expressed in the review was al up to me. This is NOT a paid for 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 use and recommend.

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GCSE Animal Farm Revision Guide from Twinkl

Posted on October 2, 2022 by ofamily

We are going to start Animal Farm in a couple of weeks so I have been doing some extra background reading, and one source I found and really enjoyed was the Animal Farm Revision Guide from Twinkl.

Initial Thoughts – Brilliant summary, lots of interesting comments about structure (which made me think) and I loved the questions, they way they gave suggestions on how to structure your answer and then the model answers but I am not a fan of the fact that you cannot print the document out. This document has been written as a digital revision guide with the idea that you view it online and you don’t print it out, if you try (like I did) the pages that print out does not look like the pages that you view in PDF, there are blocks containing definitions which end up hiding the text.

Okay so a bit more detail.

The first 4 days of the guide just talk about the guide and and the exam.

Then it is a section about the author, I found this fascinating and I think it is a brilliant 4 pages for all students to read because once you understand a bit about the background of the author and his intentions you really do start understanding the story. Excellent 4 pages.

The next 4 pages were on Form and Structure and honestly any kid who is studying this work should read these 4 pages but that is also were I started to get a bit frustrated with the fact that you cannot print this out. Honestly if I was a student I would want to print these 4 days out, make some of my own notes long the side margins and then place them with my other notes. However because this guide is meant to be viewed on your computer if you try and print it out you get definitions printed out ontop of the text. Really frustrating. I suppose your kid can read it and then write their own summary notes of what they have read, but that does just seem like a waste to me.

Okay then the Who’s Who – A lovely summary of the characters in this book. Really lovely summary, a liked that each character had it’s own block and an image which helps visual learners. A really good 5 page character summary, although again I did want to print these pages out and actually give them to my kids so they could write in extra bits about the characters in the margins.

Next you have the summary pages, 10 pages in which each chapter is brilliantly summarized. Really a great few pages. Now I know this guide is written for kids studying Animal Farm for their GCSE’s but honestly if you are choosing to read Animal Farm with your kids in KS3 you could always choose to ignore the exam question pages and just focus on these fact pages because the background info, the summary of the characters and the summary on chapters are excellent and incredibly useful. I was really impressed with the way they managed to wrap the whole book up into these 10 pages.

Okay and then next 51 pages deal with the 4 main themes of the book. Yip that is a lot of pages on themes but when you start reading them you understand why they have devoted so much time (or so many pages) to the themes.

Each theme section is split into 2 pages talking about the theme, then 2 pages putting the theme in context (this is gold) and key quotes that relate to the theme. Again even if your kiddo is not writing an exam on this but just reading the book these pages are excellent. Now you get the exam type questions, followed by a hint on how to structure your answers and some sample answers. If your kiddo is writing an exam on this book then these pages are amazing, I loved the help with how to structure answers and the sample answers were brilliant to read.

I really do think this is an excellent resource. Excellent. If I was a student studying Animal Farm I would want to have this but I would want to be able to print it out and add in my own extra bits along the margin.

For the purposes of this post I did manage to print out a few pages and do some editing so you could see the pages but please don’t download the PDF, view it and them try and print the whole document out, your pages will not print as you view them.

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