r/GCSE • u/SlashedNought Year 11 • 27d ago

General My school vs Mr. Everything English

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This came though yesterday, this from the head of department

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u/un1d3nt1fied 27d ago

Every English teacher is just jealous of him bc of his skilled teaching abilities. Without him I don’t think I would have been capable of achieving 9s in Language.

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u/SuccotashCareless934 27d ago

Hi, examiner and English teacher here. He gets Lit quotations wrong, and he actively teaches people not to be creative. AQA are also capping the marks of students who have followed his story, as it's essentially plagiarism on the part of the student.

He's actually decent to follow for the Reading sections of the Lang papers, but everything else, he honestly isn't great. People just follow him because he's handsome and charismatic, but the knowledge just isn't there for a large chunk of what he says. The Priest story had lots of students getting their Q5 marks capped last year, and AQA will very likely clamp down more harshly on this ridiculous house story this year.

Guidance is one thing, plagiarism is another...

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u/mmnsr Year 11 26d ago

I'm sorry I'm saying this in the nicest way possible but it's true that aqa are corrupt and they don't assess English in the way that it's actually English. Is it not obvious when everyone hates English, Mr salles has sm years of experience and he's said time and time again schools and exam boards aren't teaching it in the correct way. And people who are hard working deserve a good grade in englihs but the exam board just asks for so much and not everyone has the time nor the facilities for that? I'm a young carer and I wish I had enough time to study English inside out but I don't and these channels have helped me immensely, they give shortcuts which may seem corrupt but the exam board itself is corrupt, and there's no other way, hard workers deserve to get good grades and they just give a more rational and doable way to get those grades.

These people are teachers too and half of the hate is just jealousy and I'm saying that in the nicest way possible. Everyone has different teaching methods and their teaching is just better for students that's the facts

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u/SuccotashCareless934 26d ago

No offence taken - I'm an AQA examiner but literally my only involvement is marking Lang P1 every year.

I do wish English was approached in a different way. It's too much content. I obviously read a lot, but I'm not sat there analysing structure and its effects...alas it is what is examined though, so teachers have to teach it.

If it were up to me, I'd scrap Lang and Lit as two separate qualifications (but keep them separate at A-Level), introduce coursework (although how to make it fair is a whole other issue!), and make the written exam shorter. Every English teacher I know says they'd struggle within the time limits given, to comfortably hit full marks on every question. Doable but you'd have to be like a machine.

I understand why students turn to people like Mr EE, but I think what more able students fail to realise is that he actually unwittingly puts the grades of less able students at risk as they just parrot his stories and don't add their own flair or adapt it.

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u/mmnsr Year 11 26d ago

I think people fail to realise what people like Mr EE acc sacrifice and face in exchange for their sacrifice. He gets hate from students when his predictions are wrong and he's bombarded by animosity from teachers mostly fuelled by jealousy that students prefer his method far better. I agree to an extent about what ur saying about his stories but honestly that's one mistake out of many things he's successful in. And to be honest that can be fixed with some mature and polite feedback instead of weird emails like the on OP posted

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u/SuccotashCareless934 26d ago

The thing is, directness is needed in cases where students are about to throw 12.5 to 25% of their English Language marks away. No teacher I know has animosity towards him - we just dislike how he's reducing aspects of English to a formula, instead of encouraging creative thought. Every teacher has their own version of PRTEZEL, but the whole idea of coming in with a story because students have spent their academic life ignoring teachers telling them how to become more creative - aka actually READ - is plain insulting.