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Y9 Exam Support Information

Your Spring Term English exams - w/b 09 February 2026

Exam 1: Reading 

  • It will have 3 sections: multiple choice, short questions and longer response,.

  • It will focus on Lord of the Flies and Poetry.

Exam 2: Writing:

  • You will be given an image and will write a short description

  • You will need to focus on language and structural choices

Content to revise:

 

Lord of the Flies

Poetry

Descriptive Writing

Plot

Character of Jack

Character of Ralph

Theme of leadership.

Theme of power.

Understanding ideas in poems.

Language choices a poet uses.

Structural choices a poet uses.

Descriptive language choices:

How to use sensory language

How to paragraph effectively.

How to use a variety of punctuation

 

How can I revise for this exam?

You will need to revise at home and will use some of the strategies you are learning during tutor revision sessions.

This includes the six strategies for effective learning:

  • retrieval practice,
  • spaced practice,
  • dual coding,
  • interleaving,
  • concrete examples,
  • elaboration

Your homework on Educake will link to skills you need to revise.

Image shows 6 strategies for effective learning: retrieval practice, Spaced practice, Dual coding, Interleaving, Concrete examples, Elaboration

 

 

What does this look like?

Retrieval practice

Create a timeline of events for the novel - Lord of the Flies.

Image shows an illustrated timeline of Lord of the Flies described below.

  1. The boys are stranded on a desert island.
  2. Ralph meets Piggy and is chosen to be 'chief'.
  3. Jack decides he will oversee hunting.
  4. Ralph and Jack argue and the group splits.
  5. The littluns become scared of a 'beast'.
  6. The boys create a signal fire which burns out of control.
  7. Jack finally kills a pig.
  8. Simon is killed.
  9. The conch is smashed and Piggy is killed.
  10. The boys are rescued.

Using elaboration

Choose a theme and create a mind-map about it, using quotes from the book and add your notes to each quote.

Image shows a mind-map of the theme of violence from Lord of the Flies. The word violence is written in the centre, lines come out and connect with quotes. Under or by each quote are notes. 3 different colour pens have been used to show different aspects of the theme.

Use MILES to help unpick Unseen poems

M Meaning
I Imagery
L Language
E Emotion/Feeling
S Structural choice

Spaced practice

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many years must a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?

  • What is the poet’s message?

  • What language choices do they make?

  • What structural choices have they made?

 We go to MILES to help unpick unseen poems

    Dual Coding
M Meaning

Icon is a question mark in a circle indicating meaning

I Imagery

Icon is a picture in a circle to represent imagery

L Language

Icon is a speech bubble representing Language

E Emotion/Feeling

Icon is a happy face and a sad face to represent emotion or feeling

S Structural choice

Icon is a structure chart similar to an organisation chart with squares instead of people representing structural choice

Writing Skills to revise:

  • Practise using figurative language – write sentences using similes, metaphors and personification.
  • Practise using sensory language to create a setting
  • Look at an image and compile interesting vocabulary choices to describe the image. 
  • Review how and when to use different types of punctuation.

Write a description as suggested by the images below:

  • plan 3 paragraphs for each
  • Include similes, metaphors

Image shows the impressionist painting "Woman with a parasol" by Monet

 

Image shows the German Romanticism painting  "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" by Caspar David Friedrich, of a man standing on a rock with his back to the viewer staring out over a stormy sea. He appears to be holding a walking cane

 

 

Image shows a dramatic photograph of rocks at Killiney Beach

 

 

 

Tagged  English