[MUSIC PLAYING] PAM MCLOUGHLIN: So when did you actually start teaching 2.0?
RACHAEL GREEN: So we started teaching in September.
We teach the specification to all of our year-10 cohorts.
And I trialled it this year with two year-11 classes.
So every year, I take two year elevens.
I take a high ability, and a sort of middle-to-low ability class.
And I've trialled it with both my year-11 classes this year.
And obviously, they've sat paper one a couple of weeks ago.
And on Friday, they're sitting paper two.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Brilliant.
OK, that's fantastic.
So it's interesting that you've chosen across the ability.
And how are you finding the students-- well, first of all, when you first started teaching,
you had to implement it into your department, into your team.
How did that go?
Or was it just that was going to do it?
RACHAEL GREEN: No, so we all trained.
And then obviously, I decided to do it with my year-11s so that I could obviously talk
through the process.
And because I've now taught it to three classes, I'm becoming quite familiar with it.
So it's always good to have somebody that's more familiar.
But we used all of the available training materials.
We spent quite a lot of time, as a department, talking through the specification.
And there are a lot of parallels with, obviously, the regular language spec.
And we were able to draw a lot of those parallels.
We've got quite a developing team in that we're not all very experienced.
And so we do a lot of moderation, and standardisation, and department training anyway.
So it was nice to have something that was new to all of us, and that we could actually
get really excited about, and get stuck into.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Oh, that sounds brilliant.
RACHAEL GREEN: Yes.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: You just used the resources that were available off the website?
RACHAEL GREEN: Yeah, so we've used those.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: So we have to understand those?
RACHAEL GREEN: Really good.
We used the-- for paper one and two, we've used the anthology with their--
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: [INAUDIBLE] brilliant.
RACHAEL GREEN: Yeah, we've used all the text from those.
And we've used the sample questions from those as well, sort of to teach around.
And we use the packs that you put together.
And the knowledge organisers, we use those as well.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Brilliant.
RACHAEL GREEN: And we've also used the sample materials.
Particularly, they've been very useful for me doing it with a year-11 class.
Having quite a lot of sample papers has been really useful in terms of helping students
figure out the appropriate amount of time for questions, and maybe which questions they
might want to tackle first, or obviously, there's still a choice of writing questions.
And I really like the fact that it's obviously the different style of writing questions now.
And students have a bit more support.
So I quite appreciated that.
And obviously, because we're a bit in [INAUDIBLE] school, we've used the literature and colour
anthology particularly for paper 2 as well.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: And how did you find that?
You're finding the anthologies really useful, and you like the texts?
RACHAEL GREEN: Yeah, we really like the texts.
I really, really like the language paper 2 texts.
I think you've chosen really exciting fiction.
And I've really enjoyed that.
Obviously I've taught-- I've been an NXL teacher pretty much my whole career.
I've seen, obviously, all of the specs.
And the paper, too, obviously used to be non-fiction.
And you could never really gauge what sort of thing might come up because obviously it's
just non-fiction if anything.
Whereas the children have got really stuck into the fiction.
You've chosen some really good novels.
And actually it's been really exciting that there's one, particularly, in the anthology.
It was an autobiography.
And I actually had to go away and read it afterwards because I enjoyed it so much.
I was like, I need to know what happened, like what's the story behind this?
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: [INAUDIBLE].
RACHAEL GREEN: I will-- I'll find it.
I'll find for you.
It was the-- it was one of the Shanghai ones.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: All right, then.
RACHAEL GREEN: And I needed to know.
And all the students were asking me.
I was like, well, we'll have to find out when we read it.
And we'll tell you about it.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Oh, that's so [INAUDIBLE].
RACHAEL GREEN: But in terms-- like one of our-- Yeah, it was great.
One of our school priorities is encouraging children to read for pleasure.
And if you can look at an extract from something that you're working towards an exam for, and
then actually go away and want to read that book, that's perfect.
So yeah, really enjoyed that.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah, it's really good because I think some people who've never tried anything
different, or haven't tried the new, they don't realise, actually, this is a chance
to try something different and just go with it.
So yeah.
RACHAEL GREEN: Yeah, definitely.
And like, a lot of the samples that you've chosen that the children-- some of the children
have either-- they've heard of the stories.
Or some of them have read the novels.
And it's sort of like, oh, wow.
This is real.
It's a bit more real life for them--
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah.
That's good.
RACHAEL GREEN: --than it's been before.
The non-fiction paper, so paper one, I really like the fact that the assessment objectives
are more focused because obviously, it's largely an evaluation paper.
And I really like that they know that that's what it is.
And that's the assessment objective that they're working on for most of the questions on that
paper.
So I really like the chunking of the texts.
I like that it's broken down so they only have to focus on certain areas.
And because it's one assessment objective, they can really, really clue themselves into
the types of things that they need for that sort of question.
And then the worry is more about focusing on the chunk of text, rather than what do
I have to do for this question.
So I found that that's worked quite well as well.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Wow, that's really good to hear.
RACHAEL GREEN: I feel that the timings of the papers are really good, One hour 55 on
both papers.
And the fact that they're both 50/50, it's all equal weighting.
And obviously, they were in the hall with the students doing the other paper.
And it was a little bit exciting.
They got a little bit more time.
This time they're going to get a little bit less time.
And they have felt a little bit special, actually, doing it.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Oh, yeah.
I can imagine.
RACHAEL GREEN: And they like the choice of transactional writing questions.
They-- it was quite an equal spread between what they chose when they came out.
They were telling me that-- it's quite a lot of them picked this one.
Quite a lot of them picked this one.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Well that's good.
RACHAEL GREEN: And all of the questions were accessible.
Some of them struggled a little bit with timing.
We talked quite a lot about how much time to spend.
But particularly, my more able were-- they wanted to say more.
They wanted-- they could have gone at it for longer than they had available for each question.
And I think sometimes the temptation is to spend a little bit too long on questions.
So moving forward, I'll be quite strict with that.
This is the amount of time you've got to spend on this.
Even though there'll be more that you can see that you want to write about--
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah.
RACHAEL GREEN: --you do have to move on.
But largely, they came they came out very pleased.
And in fact, all of the papers so far, both the literature papers as well, they've found
very accessible.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: How many did you say actually sat the current-- the paper one that we've
just done-- how many, in total, was that, do you think?
RACHAEL GREEN: 52.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: 52, yeah.
And so out of that lot, you sort of said there was a bit of a range of abilities.
So they ranged from target grades of--
RACHAEL GREEN: So target grades right up 8,9--
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Brilliant.
RACHAEL GREEN: --with 4, 5 borders.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah.
That's it.
Because you want to be able to make sure you can stretch and challenge.
You know, what I mean is to make sure there's enough in there for all-- that's why we believe--
we made it so it's accessible for all grades.
So--
RACHAEL GREEN: No, I really think it is.
And actually, I was having a conversation.
It's sparked on something I'd seen on Twitter, actually, that somebody was looking for a
new language spec.
And I said, I'm doing this and really enjoying it.
And--
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Exactly.
RACHAEL GREEN: --they were worried.
They said that they were worried that it might not be accessible because obviously it's designed
that it can be taught in a year, is very suitable for [INAUDIBLE] children, that maybe it wouldn't
be accessible for the top grades.
And I haven't felt that I'm teaching it to, as well, who are all grade 7-plus target grades.
I think that there's loads to go out for very able students.
They're really enjoying it.
They are finding it very interesting.
I feel that I'm teaching to the top level.
I haven't found the that tools limiting.
And I think sometimes, focusing on small chunks of text actually means that you can get right
up there with a really definite, focused analysis, that when you're looking at much-wider pieces
of text, you don't always get time to draw around.
So I haven't found that.
That's not been my experience of it at all.
And I'd be very confident to say that if you had a top group, that I think they could do
very well on this paper.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: So then, thinking about from the other end of the scale, down to sort of
the lower end, and how do you how do you feel that they're coping with it?
And how have they got on with the-- [INAUDIBLE]?
RACHAEL GREEN: Really well.
Like, I've taught quite a lot of structures, not so much about how to write answers, but
how to-- the types of things to look for in-- for certain answers.
And they've really hooked on to that.
So the types of techniques to look for evaluation questions, and things that the writer might
do, and encouraging them to look for things like facts and opinions, and moving away from
the setting ideas, theme, and events, from the previous paper, more to a sort of a holistic-writers-technique
view for the short and the long-evaluation question.
I've encouraged them to-- for the longer evaluation question, on paper one, I've encouraged them
to sort of chunk the text in the same way that, obviously, you've done it for them in
the earlier questions.
So giving them a clue as like, look, this is-- they're focusing on one area here.
If you focus on the beginning, here, what can you find?
If you focus on the middle--
So they've actually found, from doing the questions that are focused on a certain number
of lines, or a box that's there in front of them, when they come to do the longer questions,
they're taking the skills that they've gleaned from there, sort of a bit of a model, like,
oh, it's a scaffold out.
Right.
I'll take this this chunk.
I'll write about this.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yes.
RACHAEL GREEN: So I think for-- and I've found that sort of came naturally as we were working
through it.
It was like, oh, we'll do-- you're really good at the short evaluation question.
Obviously, the question is phrased slightly differently.
It's more about how far do you agree with an opinion.
But still, in terms of looking for the techniques within the text, and choosing the quotations
by chunking it, they've been able to tackle the longer texts in a much more accessible
way than I think they were doing on the other paper.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah, that's interesting.
Isn't it?
And it's-- and so as you say, it really is from your lower ability, all the way to the
middle, and then the higher--
RACHAEL GREEN: Yeah, definitely
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: [INAUDIBLE] end of the scale.
So that's what [INAUDIBLE].
RACHAEL GREEN: The writing questions, there's often, with the lower ability, quite a fear
of how to start.
And you've taken that fear away by giving them a question that has the starting sentence,
which quite a lot of them like.
Personally, I still like them to use the bullet-point question because it gives them a little bit
of a prompt, what to write about going through.
But if you've got that crippling fear about writing, which a lot of the lower-ability
students have about extended writing, you've started them off.
And it's almost like, oh, well that awful moment of not knowing how to write from the
beginning, is gone.
So they've appreciated that as well.
And I like the fact that, on paper too, obviously, you've got the starting sentence.
But you've also still got the pitchers to hook into if you need.
So again, it's quite a nice choice, I think, that you've catered for everybody with the
writing.
So I like that too.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Well, that's really good to hear because that was the idea when it was
being developed, obviously.
So it's great to hear that that's exactly how it's coming across.
And that's what [INAUDIBLE].
RACHAEL GREEN: Yeah, it is.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah, brilliant.
One of the questions is going to think, while we're talking about that then, so in terms
of everybody else who's teaching it, are they feeling the same about it?
And they're sort of enjoying teaching it to their learners?
RACHAEL GREEN: Yeah, very much so.
We have focused largely with-- because obviously, we're teaching it to year 10, we're focused
largely on paper one, because obviously, we're covering the concept for the literature spec
this year as well.
So they haven't had much opportunity, on paper, to yet.
We've started we've started to teach a little bit, and obviously with some transactional
writing practise.
But the paper one, they've really enjoyed the hooking into the short evaluation questions,
particularly for my team that haven't talked through stage four before because obviously,
they're trainees, or they're [INAUDIBLE], whichever, or ECTs.
It's nice that, again, you can focus on particular objectives first.
So by honing your skills on paper one, you've got your evaluation teaching nailed.
And then you can move on to the exciting language and structure analysis.
I also really like that you've separated language and language and structure for some of the
questions.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Right, yeah, OK.
RACHAEL GREEN: I've found particularly, actually, for the higher ability, the focusing just
on the language has actually meant that they're very focused.
And the use of sophisticated terminology, talking about the nuances of the text, it's
better focusing on just the one.
I've found that.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah, well that's pretty good.
That's great, yeah.
I mean, it sounds like you're really enjoying it.
So I'm really happy to--
RACHAEL GREEN: I have.
I have.
And I didn't--
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: You're upset about it.
I can feel that.
I feel like you're quite excited and passionate about it.
So that's great.
RACHAEL GREEN: Yeah, no, I have really enjoyed it.
And I'm always a bit nervous about starting with a new spec.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Of course, yeah.
RACHAEL GREEN: I'm aware that teachers are always nervous because the more you teach
a spec, the better you get at teaching it.
So it's always a little bit of a risk.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Exactly, yeah.
RACHAEL GREEN: Because I had three classes doing it, I feel like I've got up to speed
with it quite quickly.
And I have-- I feel good with it.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah, that's good.
RACHAEL GREEN: Because obviously, we're a very big match.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah, exactly.
RACHAEL GREEN: And largely-- a lot of schools do AQA.
There's only a few of us that do at NXL.
We've always been an NXL school.
And myself and the head of English, we are senior team leaders for quite a few of the
papers.
We are big on NXL.
But I think this spec is really nice, in terms of the paper one focus for AQA is 19th-century
non fiction.
And so if people wanted to be thinking about moving over, there are quite a lot of transferable
skills from AQA.
It's not it's not completely alien.
It's not as different as moving from the traditional AQA respect to the traditional NXL spec.
It sort of bridges the gap a little bit between.
And I think that you could move quite comfortably from AQA to this an NXL paper.
And obviously there's, again, like I said, the separation of the language.
And the language and structure is also a little bit more similar.
I know there's not a separate structure question.
But also, some parallels to the paper there as well.
So I think, yeah, I would-- I've had meetings and things.
I would definitely recommend people to give it a go.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah, well that's good.
RACHAEL GREEN: And it's definitely-- I have taught it to my year-11 classes in a year.
You can definitely do that.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: I don't know.
Have you ever been to any of our webinars that We've done?
You know, like you have Julie Hughes doing it.
And I go on there--
RACHAEL GREEN: Yeah, and we've had-- Yeah, I love-- I've been to writing training with
Julie.
She did it for the [INAUDIBLE] schools.
And I love Julie's writing sessions.
Like, my writing teaching is always better if I've been to one of Julie's sessions.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Right, OK.
Oh, that's interesting.
Yeah, well, that's good.
I'll pass that back to her.
So yeah.
It's good that-- because she's the one who obviously wrote the scheme of learning, and
all the resources.
And then we did the knowledge organisers as well.
So it's good, just great, to hear that you've used all those.
So do you have to then-- I'm just trying to understand what it's like, sort of, in your
scenario, in your school.
So would you-- do you all have to create there is-- what I'm trying to say is, you know on
a daily basis in your lessons, how does [INAUDIBLE]?
RACHAEL GREEN: How do we do it?
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah, exactly.
RACHAEL GREEN: So as a team, we have schemes of learning.
So we obviously adapt them for our learners.
So we've taken the NXL resources and adapted.
We've made PowerPoints, et cetera, from those.
We've written some model answers.
And that Lit in Colour anthology's brilliant.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah, well I'm so glad you liked that.
And what about the mock scheme when you've gone to do your-- when you've gone to do your
mocks prior to the exam, how have you found the Sams, and all that sort of thing?
And then [INAUDIBLE].
RACHAEL GREEN: --that are left?
Really helpful.
Obviously I'm very familiar with the old writing specification.
And obviously, it's still the 24 and the 14.
But the actual wording of mock scheme is a little bit different.
I actually think it's easier, particularly if you've got a set of papers in front of
you that maybe you want to rank.
The banding, I think, makes it quite clear.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: That's interesting.
RACHAEL GREEN: So that's been very accessible.
And in terms of the indicative content, that's been very good as well because obviously,
there's-- I've looked at it and I've interpreted what I think you ought to do for the question.
But it's obviously nice to then look at the sorts of things that you've picked out as
indicative content.
And I've tweaked a little bit.
I've probably included some things that maybe I wouldn't have, having seen examples of those
in the indicative content.
So that's been really useful as well.
And in terms of the mark scheme, it's as accessible as ever.
It's very clear how to place in the band, and then to choose a mark within the band,
based on how well-- how many of the bullets they've picked, how well they've done it.
So yeah, no, I found the marking good.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: That's good.
that's good.
RACHAEL GREEN: The department's enjoyed it.
We've done-- yeah, we've done some moderation together.
And we're sort of in agreement.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Have you seen the resource book that we've got for it.
I don't know if you've come across that.
I don't know if it's something you would be interested in.
I've got here, actually.
Just thinking about it now.
That's that one there.
RACHAEL GREEN: Oh, no.
I haven't seen this.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah.
It's a new one.
I don't know why it's a bit blurry because-- I wonder if I put it here.
RACHAEL GREEN: Oh, that's better.
I can see now.
No, I've not seen that.
And I'm very interested--
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: [INAUDIBLE]
RACHAEL GREEN: --if you're interested in having a look at that.
PAM MCLOUGHLIN: Yeah, two weeks ago, I think it came out.
It's on the Pearson-- on the website.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It's been really nice talking to you.