Your teenager, walking into their GCSE English exam knowing exactly what to do.
Our Online Learning Hub of Literature, Language and Learning
Accessible and interactive lessons that turn exam-hall nerves into quiet, practised confidence.
Built for teenagers seeking the individual support they need when they need it.
Chosen by parents and carers seeking exceptional support for their child and their family, as they navigate the entire GCSE English journey.
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Online Learning Hub with whole literature texts and exam papers broken into accessible, chunked learning to support your teen
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Mindful and emotionally intelligent sessions that value your child's individual learning and personal needs
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Built alongside free essay planners and checkers
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Available when it suits you and your family - no searching for tutor availability and suitability
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Weekly session for parents and carers where you can join our warm community and have your GCSE English, studying, revision and anxiety questions answered
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Safe and secure online learning
From teaching in the classroom, I know first-hand that sometimes students need to be able to access their teacher when it's not in 'teaching hours'.
Our Online Learning Hub offers easy-to-digest learning available when works for you and your child.
Accessible features our first thought and not an add-on, your child has the chance to develop their understanding of language, literature and learning so that they are confident and prepared for their exams and studying beyond the grade.
If revision feels like guess work, start here
Why do parents and carers choose us?
You know your child is capable; you just cannot always see how to help them prove it. The essay feedback is vague, the past papers pile up, and the closer the exam gets, the quieter they go.
The Online Learning Hub gives them a clear path through it, one lesson at a time, in their own time.
A subscription to our hub means that you're giving your child the best possible support; they can learn alongside their class sessions, and use it to give them insights, clarify answers, and deepen their understanding. They can access literature texts, language lessons, and learning skills throughout their GCSE journey.
What do we have for parents and carers?
A free weekly workshop session to:
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answer your questions about preparation, revision and the exams, with mindfulness, studying, revision and exam techniques
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discuss how you can support your teenager and family through supporting yourself
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join our warm community of parents and carers navigating GCSE English
Join us for answers on Language, Literature and Learning for the GCSE English: Sorted Online Learning Hub.
These sessions run every Wednesday and are free to join, whether you're a member of the Online Learning Hub or not - you're more than welcome to come and join our community and get hints, tips and tricks that will support you, your child and your family as you navigate GCSE English preparation.
Sign up below for the access instructions and see you on Wednesday!
How are we different to other tutoring services?
Finding the right tutor is hard.
Hours at work for you both, cohesive learning styles, and ensuring your child's needs are being met take time and effort. While you search, your child's potential and progress are waiting. You do not have time to face increasing anxiety and worry as you search.
Our Online Learning Hub gives your child supportive and structured GCSE English lessons that they can access at any time, at their own pace, with every lesson written by a qualified English teacher with 15 years in the classroom.
Online Learning Hub Membership
The Online Learning Hub holds every lesson in each course, with new lessons added regularly, all in the same calm, step-by-step style as the free ones.
Start with the free lessons now. Access the first two lessons of Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and language paper skills to see why we work so well for families.
Your child's work is saved to their account so they can come back to it. We never share it, and you can ask us to delete it at any time.
Our Essay Planner and Essay Checkers are ready to support them with their answers.
Book a meeting with us to talk about how we can support you and your child.
Language
Reading and Writing Skills
Speaking and Listening Skills
Literature
Shakespeare
Macbeth
Romeo and Juliet
19th Century
A Christmas Carol
The Sign of Four
Modern Texts
Animal Farm
Drama
An Inspector Calls
Blood Brothers
Poetry
Poetry Anthologies
Learning
Mindful Study
SPaG Essentials
Which board does my child sit?
It is the first thing most parents want to know, and the honest answer is that it matters far less than you would expect.
The reading and writing skills are the same on every board. What changes is the shape of the papers: how long they are, how the marks are split, which century the texts come from, and what each board calls the task. That is worth knowing, and it fits on one page.
So the teaching in GCSE English: Sorted is built around the skills themselves; a student who can read for a writer's methods can do it on any paper in the country. These pages are the map. Find your board, learn the shape, then get on with the skills.
If you are not sure which board your child sits, their exam timetable or their English exercise book will say. The board name appears at the top of every past paper they bring home.
What this looks like inside the hub
The sessions teach the skill; this page tells you where your child will meet it. Each session runs about twenty minutes and is built to be worked through on screen, with somewhere to type every answer. Nothing here depends on your child sitting a particular paper, so if the school changes board, or your child resits with a different centre, the work already done still counts.
New · A focused three-month sprint
THIS IS THE BOOTCAMP
If your child has a resit coming up, or just needs to move fast, the Bootcamp is the sprint through it. 20-minute sessions aimed only at the texts and skills that matter most, ready to work through whenever suits you.
FOCUS BURSTS
Short on purpose, so your child finishes able to do more, not worn out.
CLEAR FINISH LINE
Six sessions to understand a full paper before the exam.
READY WHEN YOU ARE
Full access for the run-up to the resit, worked through independently at home.
This is your shot, and your effort levels will determine your outcome. Here, you have carefully built sessions and genuinely helpful resources, with a calm, clear path through every text and skill, so the effort you put in is rewarded.
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If your child missed the grade they needed, GCSE English: Sorted BOOTCAMP is a focused three-month push to get them ready for their resit:
🎯 A clear sprint through exactly what the resit needs
⏱️ Short 20-minute sessions your child works through on their own, whenever suits
📖 Every key language skill, plus the revision and exam technique that move marks
🧠 Dyslexia-friendly throughout, built to be kind to the way your child learns
🔑 Secure login, with progress saved; theirs for the full three months
💪 A calm, clear path, so the effort your child puts in actually counts
AQA GCSE English Language (8700)
Three quarters of GCSE English students in the country sit AQA, so if your child's school has not told you otherwise, this is very likely the one.
THE PAPERS
Paper 1: Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing
1 hour 45 minutes; 80 marks; 50% of the GCSE.
Section A, Reading, 40 marks. One unseen fiction extract from the 20th or 21st century. Four questions: 4 marks, 8 marks, 8 marks, then 20 marks.
Section B, Writing, 40 marks. One descriptive or narrative task. 24 marks for the writing itself and 16 for technical accuracy.
Paper 2: Writers' Viewpoints and Perspectives
1 hour 45 minutes; 80 marks; 50% of the GCSE.
Section A, Reading, 40 marks. Two linked unseen non-fiction texts, one from the 19th century and one from the 20th or 21st. Four questions: 4 marks, 8 marks, 12 marks, then 16 marks.
Section B, Writing, 40 marks. One task presenting a point of view. 24 marks for the writing and 16 for technical accuracy.
Spoken language is assessed separately by the school and reported as Pass, Merit or Distinction. It does not count towards the grade.
WHERE THE 19th CENTURY SITS
On the non-fiction paper, Paper 2, alongside a modern text.
WHAT YOUR BOARD CALLS IT
Paper 1 Question 2 and Paper 2 Question 3 are the language questions; the hub calls this What the Writer Did to You and Reading Closely.
Paper 1 Question 3 is the structure question; the hub calls this Reading for Structure.
Paper 1 Question 4 asks how far you agree; the hub calls this Saying Whether It Works.
Paper 2 Question 2 asks for differences between the texts, and Question 4 compares how the writers convey their views; the hub calls these Summarising and Selecting and Comparing Two Writers.
WHERE THE MARKS ACTUALLY ARE
Sixteen marks on each paper are for technical accuracy alone. That is 32 marks across the two papers, close to a fifth of the entire GCSE, awarded for sentence variety, punctuation, paragraphing and spelling rather than for ideas. It is the most reliably winnable set of marks on the qualification and it is the set most revision leaves out. The hub session Accuracy That Lifts the Grade exists for exactly this.
Pearson Edexcel GCSE English Language (1EN0)
Edexcel is the second most common board for GCSE English Language in England, sat by around one student in eight.
THE PAPERS
Paper 1: Fiction and Imaginative Writing
1 hour 45 minutes; 64 marks; 40% of the GCSE.
Section A, Reading, 24 marks. One extract of 19th-century prose fiction. Four questions: 1 mark, 2 marks, 6 marks, then 15 marks.
Section B, Imaginative Writing, 40 marks. One task from a choice of two.
Paper 2: Non-fiction and Transactional Writing
2 hours 5 minutes; 96 marks; 60% of the GCSE.
Section A, Reading, 56 marks. Two unseen non-fiction texts from the 20th and 21st centuries, including literary non-fiction. Eight questions: 2, 2, 15, 1, 1, 15, 6 and 14 marks.
Section B, Transactional Writing, 40 marks. One task from a choice of two.
Spoken language is assessed separately by the school and reported as Pass, Merit or Distinction. It does not count towards the grade.
WHERE THE 19th CENTURY SITS
On the fiction paper, Paper 1. This is the single biggest difference between Edexcel and AQA, and it catches out families who have bought resources for the wrong board; on AQA the 19th century turns up in non-fiction, on Edexcel it is the novel extract.
WHAT YOUR BOARD CALLS IT
Paper 1 Question 3 and Paper 2 Questions 3 and 6 are the language and structure questions; the hub calls these What the Writer Did to You, Reading Closely and Reading for Structure.
Paper 1 Question 4 and Paper 2 Question 7b ask you to evaluate; the hub calls this Saying Whether It Works.
Paper 2 Question 7a compares the two texts; the hub calls this Comparing Two Writers.
WHERE THE MARKS ACTUALLY ARE
Paper 2 carries 60% of the qualification, and its reading section alone is worth 56 marks; that is more than the whole of Paper 1's reading and writing put together on the reading side. Non-fiction is where this grade is won. Students who spend the year on the 19th-century novel because it feels harder are revising the smaller paper.
The second thing worth knowing: Section B of Paper 1 is 40 of that paper's 64 marks. Nearly two thirds of the fiction paper is your child's own writing, not their reading.
Eduqas GCSE English Language
Eduqas is the England-facing qualification from WJEC, and it is level with Edexcel as the second most common Language board. On English Literature it is larger than Edexcel.
If your child is at school in Wales, they are most likely taking WJEC's Made-for-Wales GCSE English Language and Literature rather than Eduqas; that is a different qualification with a different structure. Check the code on their past papers.
THE PAPERS
Component 1: 20th Century Literature Reading and Creative Prose Writing
1 hour 45 minutes; 80 marks; 40% of the GCSE.
Section A, Reading, 40 marks. One unseen prose extract from a 20th-century literary text, usually 60 to 100 lines.
Section B, Prose Writing, 40 marks. One narrative or recount task from a choice of four titles.
Component 2: 19th and 21st Century Non-Fiction Reading and Transactional/Persuasive Writing
2 hours 15 minutes; 80 marks; 60% of the GCSE.
Section A, Reading, 40 marks. Two unseen non-fiction texts totalling 900 to 1,200 words, one from the 19th century and one from the 21st. These can be letters, autobiography, diaries, articles or digital writing.
Section B, Writing, 40 marks. Two separate transactional or persuasive tasks, 20 marks each.
Spoken language is assessed separately by the school and reported as Pass, Merit or Distinction. It does not count towards the grade.
WHERE THE 19th CENTURY SITS
On Component 2, paired with a 21st-century text. Eduqas is the only board here that skips the 20th century entirely on its non-fiction paper; your child will be comparing writing roughly two hundred years apart.
WHAT YOUR BOARD CALLS IT
The Component 1 reading questions build from comprehension to analysis; the hub calls these Reading Closely, What the Writer Did to You and Reading for Structure.
Component 2 asks you to compare the two writers' attitudes; the hub calls this Comparing Two Writers and Reading for Viewpoint.
Component 2 Section B asks for two pieces rather than one; the hub session Writing for a Form and a Reader covers the switch between them.
WHERE THE MARKS ACTUALLY ARE
Both components are marked out of 80, which makes them look equal. They are not. Component 2 carries a weighting factor of 1.5, so every mark earned there is worth one and a half marks earned on Component 1. Put plainly: an hour spent on non-fiction is worth an hour and a half spent on the story. Most students revise the two equally and nobody tells them.
The second thing: four narrative titles is the widest choice of any board, and it is a trap as often as a gift. Choosing quickly and badly costs more marks than a weak vocabulary ever will. The hub session A Story That Goes Somewhere in Forty-Five Minutes starts with how to choose.
OCR GCSE English Language (J351)
OCR is the smallest of the four English boards; roughly one GCSE English student in a hundred sits it. If your child is on OCR, resources written for their board are genuinely hard to find, which is part of why the hub is built around skills instead.
THE PAPERS
Component 01: Communicating Information and Ideas
2 hours; 80 marks; 50% of the GCSE.
Section A, Reading, 40 marks. Two non-fiction texts, one from the 19th century and one from the 20th or 21st. Four questions, two shorter and two longer.
Section B, Writing, 40 marks. One non-fiction task from a choice of two; the form might be description, explanation, instruction, argument or persuasion.
Component 02: Exploring Effects and Impact
2 hours; 80 marks; 50% of the GCSE.
Section A, Reading, 40 marks. Two unseen prose or literary non-fiction texts from the 20th and 21st centuries. Four questions, two shorter and two longer.
Section B, Writing, 40 marks. One creative task from a choice of two; narrative, descriptive or autobiographical.
Spoken language is assessed separately by the school and reported as Pass, Merit or Distinction. It does not count towards the grade.
WHERE THE 19th CENTURY SITS
On Component 01, the non-fiction paper.
WHAT YOUR BOARD CALLS IT
Both components use the same shape: identify, analyse, then compare. The hub calls these Reading Closely, What the Writer Did to You, Reading for Structure and Comparing Two Writers.
Component 02's focus on effect and impact is what the hub calls What the Writer Did to You and Saying Whether It Works.
WHERE THE MARKS ACTUALLY ARE
OCR is the only board on this list that gives your child two texts to read on both papers. Comparison is not a single question tucked at the end; it is built into half the reading marks twice over. A student who can hold two texts in mind at once has an advantage on OCR that they would not have anywhere else, and a student who cannot is losing marks on both papers rather than one.
Both papers are two hours, fifteen minutes longer than AQA's. That sounds generous and it is not; the reading is longer too.
Cambridge IGCSE First Language English (0500 and 0990)
Common in international schools, in UK independent schools, and among home-educated and private candidates. 0500 and 0990 are the same course; 0990 is graded 9 to 1 and 0500 A* to G.
Important: Cambridge has published a new syllabus for examination from 2027, and Paper 1 has been restructured. Anything written for the old shape, including most past papers and most revision guides currently on sale, is now the wrong shape. The figures below are the new syllabus.
THE PAPERS
Paper 1: Reading
2 hours; 80 marks; 50% of the qualification.
Four compulsory questions on three texts totalling around 1,400 words, printed in an insert.
Question 1, comprehension, 20 marks.
Question 2, summary, 15 marks for reading and 5 for writing.
Question 3, short answers and a language analysis of 200 to 250 words, 10 marks and 10 marks.
Question 4, an extended response of 250 to 300 words in a set form such as a letter, report, journal, speech, interview or article; 10 marks for reading and 10 for writing.
Paper 2: Directed Writing and Composition
2 hours; 80 marks; 50% of the qualification.
Section A, Directed Writing, 40 marks, based on a source of 550 to 650 words. A short analysis task worth 5 marks, then a discursive, argumentative or persuasive piece of 250 to 350 words worth 10 for reading and 25 for writing.
Section B, Composition, 40 marks. One title from four, two descriptive and two narrative; 350 to 450 words.
Some centres offer a coursework portfolio in place of Paper 2, and a separately endorsed speaking and listening test. If your child is entering privately, ask the exam centre which routes it offers before assuming coursework is available.
WHERE THE 19th CENTURY SITS
Nowhere, as a requirement. Cambridge sets no period and prescribes no texts; everything is unseen and chosen by the examiners.
WHAT YOUR BOARD CALLS IT
Question 1 comprehension is what the hub calls Reading Closely.
Question 2 summary is Summarising and Selecting.
Question 3's language task is What the Writer Did to You.
Question 4 and Paper 2 Section A are Writing for a Form and a Reader.
Paper 2 Section B is The First Line and the Small Moment, and Describing Without Listing.
WHERE THE MARKS ACTUALLY ARE
Cambridge is the only qualification here that marks summary as a skill in its own right, and it is worth 20 marks of Paper 1. Summary is not a soft option; it is the hardest thing to do well under time pressure, because it means reading everything and keeping almost none of it. Most students have never been taught it directly.
The word counts are strict and they are marked. Writing 500 words for a 250 to 300 word task costs marks that no amount of good vocabulary recovers.
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Language A (4EA1)
The other qualification people mean when they say "IGCSE". It works nothing like the Cambridge one, so it is worth checking which your child is entered for; the code on the past paper will start 4EA1.
THE PAPERS
Component 1: Non-fiction Texts and Transactional Writing (4EA1/01)
2 hours 15 minutes; 90 marks; 60% of the qualification.
Section A, Reading, 45 marks. One text from Part 1 of the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Anthology, plus one unseen extract. A mixture of short and long answers.
Section B, Transactional Writing, 45 marks. One task from a choice of two, with a set audience, form or purpose.
Component 2: Poetry and Prose Texts and Imaginative Writing (4EA1/02)
1 hour 30 minutes; 60 marks; 40% of the qualification.
Section A, Reading, 30 marks. One essay on a poem or prose text from Part 2 of the Anthology.
Section B, Imaginative Writing, 30 marks. One task from a choice of three.
Some centres offer a coursework route (4EA1/03) in place of Component 2, and an optional spoken language endorsement reported separately. Private candidates should check with their exam centre before assuming the coursework route is open to them.
WHERE THE 19th CENTURY SITS
Nowhere as a requirement; the Anthology non-fiction is largely modern.
THE ANTHOLOGY
This is the one qualification here where your child knows some of the texts in advance. Part 1 holds ten non-fiction pieces and Part 2 holds ten poems and short prose texts.
Most of those texts are still in copyright, so we name them rather than reprinting them, and we send you to Pearson's own anthology, which is free and licensed for exactly this. The hub teaches the method on the four that are out of copyright, and the method is what transfers.
WHAT YOUR BOARD CALLS IT
Component 1 Section A is a mixture of comprehension and analysis; the hub calls this Reading Closely and What the Writer Did to You.
Component 1 Section B is Writing for a Form and a Reader.
Component 2 Section A is a single essay; the hub session Saying Whether It Works and the Golden Essay Structure cover it.
Component 2 Section B is The First Line and the Small Moment.
WHERE THE MARKS ACTUALLY ARE
Component 1 is 60% of the qualification and half of it is your child's own writing, marked out of 45. Writing carries more weight on 4EA1 than on any other qualification here.
The Anthology is the most wasted advantage in GCSE English. Ten non-fiction texts, known in advance, and a great many students walk in having read them once. Knowing four of them properly beats knowing all twenty vaguely, and the hub session on Reading for Viewpoint is built to be run over an anthology text at home.
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SOURCES CHECKED, 5 SEPTEMBER 2026
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AQA GCSE English Language 8700, specification at a glance
Pearson Edexcel GCSE English Language 1EN0, specification
Eduqas GCSE English Language, specification and November 2024 grade points (for the weighting factors)
OCR GCSE English Language J351, specification and at a glance
Cambridge IGCSE First Language English 0500, syllabus for 2027 to 2029
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Language A 4EA1, specification