KEY STAGE 4
At Key Stage 4 all students in mainstream education in England study towards their GCSE's or IGCSE's. This stands for General Certificate in Secondary Education and most students aim to get at least 5 GCSE's at the end of year 11 (usually age 16). In school everyone has to take English Language, Maths and Science GCSE, they then choose between 3 and 6 other subjects to take along side these depending on the school and their ability. Maths and Science are offered at both Higher and Core level. Higher level offers the chance to get up to an A* or grade 9, where as Core exams are for students aiming for grade C or 4/5. Below you will find the resources I used with my daughters for the subjects they chose. They chose to do the higher or extended papers so the resources below cover the content for Cambridge IGCSE exams at this level. We hope you find them useful, please do not use them for financial gain or business purposes.
EXAMS
There are a number of different exam boards that all provide GCSE curriculum; Edexcel, OCR and AQA are the main ones. Cambridge Assessment International offer IGCSE's, an international equivalent to GCSE's. We covered these as we were living abroad and our nearest exam centre was registered with Cambridge. You have to register with a school or private company that is a registered exam centre and they will enter you for the exam as an external candidate. Your child will then sit the exam at this centre at the end of the second year of the course. It usually costs around $100 per exam, but depends on the centre, in the UK it can be closer to £200 per exam. We have used both an international school and a private exam centre (tutors and exams) to sit IGCSE exams and had positive experience of both.
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DISTANCE LEANRING
As GCSE's are required in England there are a lot of online resources available alongside online teaching and tutors. As teachers we decided to do it ourselves, which also saved us a lot of money, but many others successfully use online distance learning providers. I cannot personally recommend any as we did not use them but here are web links to those I am aware of:
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Subject resources
ENGLISH
Literature
ENGLISH
Language
MATHS
Core and Higher
SCIENCE
Chemistry
SCIENCE
Biology
GEOGRAPHY
iGCSE
HISTORY
iGCSE
ART
Portfolio ideas
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
English Language is one of the 3 required subjects in most schools and colleges in England if you want to progress to post 16 study (English Language, Science and Maths GCSE at grade C or 5 or above). Where English literature focuses on studying other peoples writing, English language looks at developing your writing and reading skills. There are also elements of analysis where you have to identify and explain writing techniques and the effect on the reader. Once again we followed the Cambridge IGCSE syllabus for this subject as this was the exam board used in our closest exam centre. To my knowledge most other exam boards test the same skills and have very similar requirements, so the resources should still be useful.
There is the option to submit coursework for part of the final grade, but as a home school we could not do this, so we opted for the the 2 exam papers, both worth 50% of the final GCSE grade. Paper 1 focuses on reading skills with some writing and paper 2 majors on writing. Both papers centre around written exerts that the students have to respond to. I have outlined the papers in more detail in the resources below. Here is the Cambridge English Language IGCSE syllabus:
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The best preparation you can do with your child for this exam is to get them to read widely. The newspaper report activity outlined in the KS3 section of this site( see here ) is a very helpful weekly task as it not only develops summary writing skills, it also ensures your child is reading reports style writing on a weekly basis. The other activities that we began in KS3 and continued into KS4 that I think were very helpful to developing my daughters writing styles and skills are free writing, poetry tea and word of the week. You can find all of these in the same place on the KS3 English section. We had 5 lessons of English language every week, I split it into 2 double lessons and one single.
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It is important to introduce your child to the exam papers early on so that they know what they are heading for and can get used to the style of questions. The format of the exam is roughly the same each year (although they do make changes so make sure you use examples in line with the syllabus year you are using). Exam papers are available to download for free from the exam boards websites.
Below you will find resources I have put together to help prepare my children for this exam and one sample paper and mark scheme to get you started.
Power point on different writing styles.
Preparing for Paper 1 question 1.
Exam paper 1 from March 2022.
Reading insert from paper 1 March 2022.
Exam mark scheme.
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ENGLISH LITERATURE
The main focus of this subject is the appreciation of literature in all it's forms. You are required to look at drama, poetry and prose, ranging from Shakespeare and Bronte to more modern authors. According to Cambridge 'The syllabus enables learners to read, interpret and evaluate texts through the study of literature in English. Through their studies, they learn to recognise and appreciate the ways in which writers use English to achieve a range of effects, and will be able to present an informed, personal response to the material they have studied.'
There are different novels and poetry anthologies to choose from and these are changed every couple of years by the exam board so you need to check the current syllabus to ensure that you are studying the right ones for your exam year. For my older children I used Cambridge (CAIE) but we have changed for my youngest and are using Pearson Edexcel as we preferred their poetry choices for her exam year. Below you will find the resources I put together myself and also those I found online for free for the literature my older children studied and I will add the new material as I cover it with my youngest.
ENGLISH LITERATURE
Key Stage 4 Resources
JANE EYRE
For Paper 1 we chose Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre from the prose set text options. The set text options may have changed, so it is important that you check this on the current exam syllabus for your chosen exam board. All three of my children have enjoyed the novel. Below are the resources that I put together from things I found for free on the TES website and also my own study. There is also a number of film and TV adaptation of the book which are useful for comparisons once they have finished reading it. I hope they are of use.
ROMEO AND JULIET
Romeo and Juliet was one of our drama choices for paper 2 in 2020. This has changed for Cambridge, so be sure to check on the current syllabus what the set text options are for the drama section. You can download the syllabus from the exam boards website. Below are the resources I put together from a variety of free sources. We completed this unit of work as a group as Shakespeare is also on the KS3 curriculum so it was a good introduction for my younger daughter. We were able to work through together, although only my older daughters completed more in depth work .
JOURNEY'S END
Journey's End is another drama option on the Cambridge IGCSE English Lit Paper 2 for 2022. Again check the current syllabus for the set texts for your year.
My children have enjoyed reading this play and having the recent film version available to watch at the end of the unit was a bonus. It is a good addition to a history project on World War 1. Again I pieced together a variety of resources available for free from the TES website and also elsewhere along with my own study of the text. The resources can be worked through independently or as a group. We read the play together an act at a time, my older daughters then did the work alone, while I set my younger daughter certain tasks from the unit and worked with her.
TWELFTH NIGHT
We also studied Twelfth Night as an alternative to Romeo and Juliet. We were fortunate to be able to invite other children to come along and study this together with us which I'd recommend for the plays. It really brings things to life if you have enough people to act out sections. Again I pulled together resources from a variety of free sources and made my own power points to work through. You will notice that there are group activities included as we did study this in a group context. These can be adapted and completed individually if needed. I hope you have as much fun with this as we did.
There are also 2 great versions of the play available to watch online/stream. We really enjoyed this one from the Globe Theatre recorded in 2013. We signed up to the globe and paid for it, but I have also found it on School tube here.
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Complete study guide odp version.
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Complete study guide pptx version.
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Story board activity
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Story board in correct order.
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Act 1 summary activity.
THE WINSLOW BOY
Winslow boy by Terence Rattigan is a 20th century play written in post war England. As is it not as well known a play so I've included this brief introduction from Wikipedia.
'The Winslow Boy is based on a true story of a father's fight to clear his son's name after the boy is expelled from Osborne Naval College for allegedly stealing a five-shilling postal order. To clear the boy's name was imperative for the family's honour; had they not done so, they would have been shunned by their peers and society. Similarly, the boy's life would have been wrecked by an indelible stain on his character which would have followed him through adulthood.'
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winslow_Boy).
It is a small cast, so relatively easy to read as a family and covers some really interesting themes of trust, sacrifice, justice and honour. There have been several productions of the play and also a film adaptation.
POETRY
EXTRA BITS
EXAM PRACTICE
The exam specification changes every couple of years and so it is important to check the syllabus to see which poems are required by your exam board. We followed Cambridge IGCSE English Literature in 2020 and 2022 and are currently studying the Edexcel GCSE syllabus and we are working through the belonging poetry anthology. Here are some resources you can use with any poems. Most of these were found using the TES.com website and were free to download.
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Poetry Analysis essay guide.
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List of Poetic devices.
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Poetry Analysis and reflection booklet.
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Poetry Overlay.
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SMILE poetry analysis guide.
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Unseen poetry analysis and practice guide.
Here are some extra bits I found helpful, so you might too.
CAIE English Lit Syllabus for 2022
Pearson Edexcel Syllabus for 2023/24
Cambridge teaching packs
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Edexcel Poetry Anthology 2023/24:
Here is an example of the teaching support for the poems from Pearson Edexcel:
You can download past exam papers and mark schemes from the exam board websites. It's a good idea to start looking at exam papers early on so that your child is used to the format of the papers and the style of questioning. You can also start to time them to help them get used to working at speed. I also recommend sitting your own mock exams at home 4 months or so before the real exams. The papers are pretty self explanatory with guidelines on the front. The mark schemes for past papers (answers) are also available to download from the exam board. I found it very helpful to go through the marking with my child so that they can get a clear understanding of where the marks are allocated. Most exam boards also have sample scripts of answers that other students have done with notes from the chief examiner on them so you can see what a good answer looks like and where they have gone wrong.
Here is one set to give you an idea.
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GEOGRAPHY
All of my 3 children took Cambridge IGCSE Geography. As it was my subject when I taught in England it was the easiest humanities option for me. Two of them also went on to study it at A'level. I'm in the process of taking my youngest through her IGCSE geography now so have recently looked at the resources again and updated some bits. I hope you find it helpful.
The Cambridge IGCSE Syllabus is similar to most of the other main exam boards and you will find a lot of overlap. I have made resources and adapted others to fit our needs. There are also a number of great websites for geography resources so make sure you check the online resource section here too.
Geography, like other subjects at GCSE level, is as much about developing skills as it is about new knowledge. Handling and interpreting data, map skills and field study skills all play a part and I did my best to incorporate these skills into the subject matter so that they were learning the skills as they went along. Case studies are another vital element to the Geography curriculum and although you can choose which examples you use there are required case studies outlined in the syllabus. Here is the CAIE Syllabus for 2024.
In addition to the resources I found online and created we also used the Cambridge IGCSE textbook. If I refer to the textbook in the power points below it will be one of these textbooks which are both helpful additions. Both can be sourced easily online, although there may be newer editions available now.
GEOGRAPHY KS4 RESOURCES
POPULATION AND SETTLEMENT
This is the first of 3 sections within the syllabus. Population and settlements is then divided into 7 further topics. I produced a power point for each topic that my children worked through, completing the tasks and making their own notes as they worked through. The required Case studies are included in each power point.
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1.1 Population Dynamics
1.2 Migration
1.3 Population Structure
1.4 Population Density and Distribution
1.5 Settlements (rural and urban) and service provision
1.6 Urban Settlements
1.7 Urbanisation
THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
This section covers more physical geography and was our favourite. It looks at the natural environment, how specific features are made, how systems work and how they are impacted by humans. It is broken down into 5 sections:
2.1 Volcanoes and Earthquakes
2.2 Rivers
2.3 Coasts
2.4 Weather
2.5 Climate and Natural vegetation
ECONOMIC DEVELOPEMT
This theme is more heavy on human geography as it looks at development indicators and resource management. It is broken down into 7 topics:
3.1 Development
3.2 Food Production
3.3 Industry
3.4 Tourism
3.5 Energy
3.6 Water
3.7 Environmental risks of development.
Additional Geography Resources
Here is a powerpoint on Global Commons that I prepared to help my eldest with her AQA A'level Geography.
KS4 BIOLOGY
At GCSE you have 2 options you can study a combined science which has elements of all three sciences: physics, biology and chemistry. If you take this exam it is worth 2 GCSEs. Your other option is to take the separate sciences, you can choose do to all three separately if you want to, but it would be a lot of work! You only need one science at GCSE so if it is not your passion it is ok to just do a single science. My daughters did Chemistry and Biology at GCSE so I have resources for these two sciences.
Biology is a big subject and there is a lot to cover. We have all really enjoyed studying it and being reminded of how amazing our world is and how brilliant the human body is.
Here is the syllabus for the Cambridge IGCSE Biology:
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The syllabus is broken down into 21 topics. The exam can be taken as either a core exam or extended exam and the syllabus outlines the different content for each. If you choose to take the core exam the highest grade you can achieve is a grade C. Students who do not enjoy science and do not wish to continue to study it after age 16 will often choose to take the core exams. There are 3 exam papers at both extended and core level; one multiple choice, one Theory based question paper with written answers and one alternative to practical paper where you are given results and information about experiments and have to answer questions based on experiment skills. A big part of GCSE science is practical work and this can be a challenge outside of a school setting. It is hard to source the necessary equipment and chemicals so we relied heavily on watching videos of the core experiments and making notes on them. You will notice this in the resources. This is not ideal, but it worked. My older daughters both went on to study their chosen science at A'level in school settings without any problems and picked up the practical skills quickly.
We used the Cambridge IGCSE textbook in addition to the power point resources and you will notice that in the power points I refer to questions and task in the textbook. It is available to buy online, although there may be newer editions out now.
BIOLOGY RESOURCES
Cambridge IGCSE Biology Syllabus 2023-25
Unit 1: Characteristics and classification of living things.
Unit 2: Organisation of the organism
Unit 3: Movement into and out of cells
Unit 4: Biological molecules
Unit 5: Enzymes
Unit 6: Plant nutrition
Unit 7: Human nutrition
Unit 8: Transport in plants
Unit 9: Transport in animals
Unit 10: Diseases and immunity
Unit 11: Gas exchange in humans
Unit 12: Respiration
Unit 13: Excretion in humans
Unit 14: Coordination and response
Unit 15: Drugs
Unit 16: Reproduction
Unit 17: Inheritance
Unit 18: Variation and selection
Unit 19: Organisms and their environment
Unit 20: Human influences on ecosystems
Unit 21: Biotechnology and genetic modification
KS4 CHEMISTRY
Chemistry is a really interesting subject to study and although it was completely new to me, as I had never studied it before, I honestly found it really enjoyable to teach. Don't be scared off by the amount you have to cover. As I mentioned before it can be difficult to get hold of materials for the experiments in England although we did find some experiment sets for both Biology IGCSE and chemistry IGCSE sale at an ebay shop here is the link if the shop which is called 'kitchen-chemistry' is still there.
Like Biology there is the option to study the core subject (limited to grade C as the highest grade) or the extended, the syllabus outlines the difference in content. There are 3 exam papers for both core and extended following the same format as Biology: a multiple choice paper, a theory paper, and an alternative to practical paper. I taught this in 2018 to 2020 so the resources below cover that syllabus. It is best to double check to see if there have been any additions to the current syllabus, or anything taken out to be sure that you are covering everything you need for your year.
We used the Cambridge IGCSE Chemistry textbook as a back up to the other resources. When I refer to a textbook in the power points below it is this book I am referring to. It is available to buy online although newer editions may now be available.
KS4 CHEMISTRY RESOURCES
Here is the Cambridge IGCSE Syllabus for 2023-2025.
States of matter and diffusion.
Separating mixtures.