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From a GCSE examiner’s point of view, I believe most students do not underperform in writing because they lack ideas, motivation or effort. Much more often, they underperform because they have been taught a version of GCSE writing that does not reflect how writing is actually assessed. Year after year, the same issues surface in exam papers. Students rely heavily on scaffolds , they misunderstand what “complex language” really means and accuracy at sentence level is sacr

There’s a lot of talk everywhere about the new 2026 GCSE MFL exams and for good reason! The updates are designed to make language learning more meaningful, focusing on real communication rather than memorised scripts and let's hope they will! The part, I would like to focus on in this post is the Role-Play  section in the speaking exam. If you’ve ever taught GCSE languages, you’ll know role-plays have always been around in some form but the new version asks students to use th

When we talk about language learning, “speaking” often feels like the ultimate goal. It’s what learners and parents usually see as...

This academic year has been an incredibly full and rewarding one for me, filled with opportunities to speak at conferences locally,...

As language teachers, we’re always looking for ways to boost engagement, increase confidence and help our learners feel that what they’re...

Using the target language (TL) in Modern Language lessons is both a commendable and complex endeavour. However, for it to be successful,...

When we talk about teaching languages, it’s easy to get caught up in the grammar structures, the tenses, or the ever-growing pressure of...

Preparing for exams that involve reading comprehension requires more than simply answering questions at face value. To truly excel , our...

This blog post was written by Esther Mercier. About the author of the post: Esther Mercier - My name is Esther Mercier, I am originally...

This blog post was written by Jennifer Wozniak-Rush. About the author of the post: Jennifer Wozniak-Rush is an Assistant Headteacher for...