Structured starters with room to innovate. Uses a matrix grid approach to lesson starters. 18 weeks’ worth of ready-to-use activities for Years 10-11. Designed to support GCSE preparation. Consistent sets of varied activities cater to all abilities and help keep lessons lively. Can be integrated alongside your existing bank of starters. Could also be used as homework banks and ready-made cover lessons. An accompanying PowerPoint version is available for download.

Structured starters with room to innovate. Uses a matrix grid approach to lesson starters. 18 weeks’ worth of ready-to-use activities for Years 10-11. Designed to support GCSE preparation. Consistent sets of varied activities cater to all abilities and help keep lessons lively. Can be integrated alongside your existing bank of starters. Could also be used as homework banks and ready-made cover lessons. An accompanying PDF version is available for download.

AQA GCSE English Language Paper 1 Question 1 mocked-up question sets for revised summer 2026 exam entry. Activity pack designed to help your students prepare for the new style Paper 1 Question 1 from summer 2026. 24 sets of mocked-up multiple-choice questions (including AQA’s exemplar ‘Life of Pi’ set). Question sets are based on KS3 and KS4 fiction sources used previously by AQA. Questions have been matched to Assessment Objective 1: “Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas.” To accompany this activity pack, a PowerPoint is available for download.

AQA GCSE English Language Paper 1 Question 1 mocked-up question sets for revised summer 2026 exam entry. PowerPoint designed to help your students prepare for the new style Paper 1 Question 1 from summer 2026. 24 sets of mocked-up multiple-choice questions (including AQA’s exemplar ‘Life of Pi’ set). Question sets are based on KS3 and KS4 fiction sources used previously by AQA. Questions have been matched to Assessment Objective 1: “Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas.” To accompany this PowerPoint, an activity pack is available for download.

Worksheets to accompany PowerPoint. Exploring the connotations of various colours, images and symbols. A ‘Last Lesson Friday’ set of activities: purposeful, productive but (relatively) painless … you never know, students may even find them fun! The initial focus is on thinking skills. Students are asked to draw on their own personal experiences to consider the associations we choose to make with different colours, images and symbols. Thereafter we segue into designing a sign and crafting an informative article. Why bother? The ‘design-a-sign’ challenge is a real-world conundrum – to date, it has defeated the collective brain power of the world’s finest adult minds. But hey, what do they know? Maybe the freethinking, inspired genius of untrammelled youth can hit the elusive jackpot.

PDF flashcard version of the accompanying PowerPoint. Does exactly what it says on the tin: read some story starts; pick one; continue the story … not necessarily to its conclusion, although that option remains on the table for life’s inveterate over-achievers. Then we introduce redrafting, with the emphasis on making small focused changes and reflecting on the choices made.

The PDF version that accompanies the PowerPoint. Exploring ways of capturing the reader’s attention via that crucial, all-important opening sentence. Then you get to craft your own story start opening, based on a picture stimulus, and subsequently are asked to reflect on your language choices. A Diamond 9 sequencing activity is available as an optional extra.

An optional PowerPoint to accompany the ‘Poetry Language Punctuation Key Devices’ PDF activity pack. Walks students through 12 key prose-fiction language devices.

Exploring the connotations of various colours, images and symbols. A ‘Last Lesson Friday’ set of activities: purposeful, productive but (relatively) painless … you never know, students may even find them fun! The initial focus is on thinking skills. Students are asked to draw on their own personal experiences to consider the associations we choose to make with different colours, images and symbols. Thereafter we segue into designing a sign and crafting an informative article. Why bother? The ‘design-a-sign’ challenge is a real-world conundrum – to date, it has defeated the collective brain power of the world’s finest adult minds. But hey, what do they know? Maybe the freethinking, inspired genius of untrammelled youth can hit the elusive jackpot.

An optional PowerPoint to accompany the ‘Poetry Language Punctuation Key Devices’ PDF activity pack. Walks students through 2 x sets of 12 scrambled poetry devices.

Put anything under a microscope and it tends to look fabulous (and OK, sometimes a bit gross or scary). In similar fashion, you can elevate a piece of descriptive writing by choosing to focus on a small number of features and thereafter describe them in detail. That’s the theory anyway, so that’s what we aim to do here. And then we refine our approach by chucking in ‘the five senses’ and some figurative language.

Walks your students through some key technical terms, introducing a variety of poetry, language and punctuation devices. Suitable for both Key Stages 3 and 4. Saved as a PDF document. Time to dust off the scissors, the Pritt sticks, the Sharpies and the highlighters. This is an unashamedly old-school resource pack. Perfect for last lesson Friday! The activities are designed to be fun and engaging while delivering purposeful learning. It’s all simple, straightforward, traditional stuff. Based on the reactions of my students, the pack ticks all the right boxes. Put simply, it works – nuff said.

The focus here is on character description. A fast gallop (or a gentle canter if you prefer – you set the pace) through some typical features of descriptive writing: nouns and adjectives; withholding information; figurative language; show not tell; etc. The materials could be used for topic introduction or topic recap – they work both ways.

A whizz through the concept of box planning: take a picture stimulus, select several key features, and use these as the basis for crafting a piece of creative writing, constructing either a descriptive or a narrative account that is inspired by said picture. Nuff said.

Diamond9 ‘Story Starts’ sequencing activity that accompanies the ‘Narrative Writing Story Starts’ PowerPoint and the PDF version of the materials. The Diamond9 activity could be dropped in as a quick and easy homework task.

Does exactly what it says on the tin: read some story starts; pick one; continue the story … not necessarily to its conclusion, although that option remains on the table for life’s inveterate over-achievers. Then we introduce redrafting, with the emphasis on making small focused changes and reflecting on the choices made.

A quick introduction to some popular ways of structuring a story – nothing too taxing here; intentionally easy peasy lemon squeezy. Then a look at one of those ways of telling a story: the hardy perennial of the ‘flashback narrative’. Here it is all about generating initial narrative ideas; if you want, you can take it further, working up those first thoughts into a full blown plan followed by a write-up. A little bit of independent research is also thrown into the mix for added piquancy.

PDF version of the materials to accompany the ‘Picture the Person’ PowerPoint. The focus here is on character description. A fast gallop (or a gentle canter if you prefer – you set the pace) through some typical features of descriptive writing: nouns and adjectives; withholding information; figurative language; show not tell; etc. The materials could be used for topic introduction or topic recap – they work both ways.

PDF worksheet that accompanies ‘Narrative Types’ PowerPoint. Matching activity: pair up definitions with different types of story structure.

PDF Worksheet to accompany the ‘Zoom Devil in the details’ PowerPoint. Activities comprise writing a description of an everyday object, followed by describing a chocolate.

Kind of a “Now let’s bring it all together!” summative end-of-topic creative writing activity. Take a little bit of this, add a little bit of that, shake-it-and-bake-it, and turn out a story. The key ingredients are some picture stimuli and song lyrics: respond empathetically to the former and deconstruct the latter, then “Deliberate, cogitate and digest” (Thanks muchly Loyd!) what you have learned to subsequently cook up a compelling story.