Lydia Ridding, English Subject Advisor

Back in 2020, our previous Subject Advisor Isobel Woodger explored how to support students who were studying English at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Lydia Ridding revisits some of the suggestions and considers some new ways those who are home educated can access engaging activities and resources.

OCR resources

If you are studying for one of our qualifications from home, rather than through a school or college, you are welcome to access the resources we provide on Teach Cambridge, the secure area of our website. Please complete the private candidate request form mentioned on our Teach Cambridge page. 

The most useful sections are below.

Delivery guides are fully resourced webpages (and often PDF documents too) covering key topics. These pages have subject content, conceptual and contextual ideas about the topic within the qualification. Lots of activities and information summaries are available.

Teaching activities are straightforward activities for use in the classroom that could be adapted for distance learning methods.

Teacher guides is an area for guides to teaching particular skills as well as additional resource booklets.

Professional development materials. You can access the materials from previous courses we have run for teachers. These include the presentation materials and any additional exemplars or activities provided in the session. These can be found under the ‘Training’ section under ‘Past courses’.

Ideas for home learning

Key Stage 3 

This is an ideal opportunity to explore some wider reading. We have previously suggested book reviews, or some creative writing inspired by students’ own reading. Our colleagues at Lit in Colour have produced some excellent resources on Stolen History by Sathnam Sanghera and City of Stolen Magic by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak. A good place to start might be the reflective practice video; it provides a clear and engaging introduction to the topic of Empire: 

Stolen History (KS3) by Sathnam Sanghera 

City of Stolen Magic (KS3) by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak 

Engaging with Empire: Reflective practice teaching resource

Key Stage 4 

Of course students are able to use past papers but, there are lots of other things to do. 

Students could listen to some short pre-1900 fiction via Audible: we’d suggest Four Classic Ghost Stories, featuring Poe, Wharton and Stevenson. This can help students prepare for unseen passages in GCSE Literature while also developing their literary knowledge for GCSE Literature. 

Using short stories as style guides for students to emulate can be really generative – see our blog on creative writing. 

Take a look at whether the BBC’s iPlayer can help support textual study with television and stage adaptations.

Key Stage 5 

Podcasts and article summaries can be valuable ways to develop contextual awareness at A Level, but we wanted to focus on some activities that can be done with and without internet access. 

• Write like Rhys: Write a short story responding to a gap in one of their core texts, similar to Jean Rhys’ response to Jane Eyre with Wide Sargasso Sea, or Sandra Newman’s Julia, Orwell’s 1984 from a fresh perspective. 
• Own anthologies: Create their anthology of wider reading built from: poems they think connect to their text (with editorial commentary); a monologue in the voice of a character of their choosing; flash fiction based in a chosen setting from their text. This can be done individually or collated from the whole class. 
• Concept webs: Start by identifying three key concepts to their text or topic. Then map them against each other, additional concepts, and contextual information. 
• Questioning the question: select a discursive question and ask them to identify assumptions the question is making, what definitions they need to provide and sub-questions they need to answer in order to write a fully rounded response. See a visual example using the Twelfth Night question from 2018 here:

Online resources

BBC Bitesize has a range of useful online activities for GCSE English Language, GCSE English Literature and Functional Skills. 

Shakespeare’s Globe has a range of online options. 

English and Media Centre have created some free work packs for KS3 and KS4 students from their fabulous resources. 

Two other quizzing platforms with lots of pre-created sets of questions are: Quizlet and Kahoot!

Stay connected

If you have any other resources you’d like to share, tell us your suggestions in the comments below, or email us at english@ocr.org.uk or message us on X (formerly Twitter) @OCR_English. You can also sign up to subject updates to keep up-to-date with the latest news, updates and resources.

About the author

Prior to joining OCR in June 2023, Lydia spent 20 years working in a range of sixth form colleges across the country, teaching A Level and GCSE qualifications in English. She was a coursework moderator with OCR for a number of years and has an MA in Victorian Studies from Birkbeck University.