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In supporting our students with the new GCSE we need to get them writing spontaneously and freely. Here is a small collection of ideas to encourage students to write creatively at KS3 creating good habits in preparation for their GCSE written work. This could be used as prompt for departmental discussion or a stimulus for work on writing skills. Some of the ideas can be lifted directly from the information here but most will need to be developed to suit individual schools / departments.

Press the 's' button on the keyboard and the selector will stop - pupils have to write or say the number in German / French / Spanish. Simple. You can use the pro-forma for names, text......anything you want. Kids LOVE being chosen to press the button!

Use this whizzy loop by pressing the 's' key on your keyboard to start and stop it spinning super fast. You can change the text on the slides quite easily to suit your purposes - there is one here with numbers, one with dates and one with sentences on and several other ideas - at its simplest you can just ask pupils to translate the slide it stops on but you can use it in many, many different ways - put pupil names on it as a name selector, or sentences starters and a connective to build sentences - you choose. I have put several examples on here to help with ideas, but the concept of randomising things is the same throughout. Enjoy! The pupils LOVE coming to press the 's' key.....the simplest of things seem to please them.

This rigorous PPT takes students through a range of techniques they could employ to help them remember their speaking and writing assessments for GCSE. They should be encouraged to try each method out with a few lines of their own texts to experiment and find which method (or combination of methods) works best for them. The PPT also prompts them to think about when and where they are going to learn their work. It is a thorough and self-explanatory presentation which takes about 1 hour to deliver fully.

This rigorous PPT takes students through a range of techniques they could employ to help them remember their speaking and writing assessments for GCSE. They should be encouraged to try each method out with a few lines of their own texts to experiment and find which method (or combination of methods) works best for them. The PPT also prompts them to think about when and where they are going to learn their work. It is a thorough and self-explanatory presentation which takes about 1 hour to deliver fully.

First in a series of resources to help students of German master the grammar of the language. This set deals with regular, irregular, strong, reflexive, modal and separable verbs. Ideal for high ability GCSE and first year A-level students. The initial information sheet is accompanied by a practice sheet and test sheet making them ideal for homework and independent work as well as use in class. Tried and tested - the students have found them very user friendly. Further resources will be published on TES which cover all the grammar aspects of A-level. The overview grammar sheet attached shows which aspects are covered by the resources in the series.

Tried, tested and loved - my 'go-to' resource for introducing the past tense with 'haben'.

A student resource full of tips on how to use the last few weeks when the focus is totally on Reading and Listening and honing the skills necessary to get the best marks possible in the exam. There are tips on how to use exam papers, how to learn vocabulary, how to structure revision time and how to spot patterns in the types of error students make. The attached resources support the presentation and give students resources to help make their independent revision more efficient and effective.

Ideas and resources to help teachers tackle the new MFL GCSE. This could be used individually or as a departmental resource to inspire staff to think about the challenges of the new GCSE; increasing spontaneity, grammatical accuracy and creativity. Some of the resources are attached and these are easily adapted to suit your own SOWs and languages including the translation maze, mood and thought board and an example of use of poetry.

Get students to better understand where they could improve in their listening and reading exams. For each question the students work out where they lost marks so that the teacher and student can work together to improve performance. Identifying the type of question students struggle with can inform future whole class teaching. Identifying patterns can help individual students recognise what their personal targets for future learning might be. If students use this form when attempting past papers for independent revision it can help them revise more effectively.

Guidance for pupils to help them learn material for their Controlled Assessments

Get your students to draft, redraft and perfect their writing skills using exam style tasks in an easy to use format. Could easily be adapted for other languages by changing the tasks.

A lesson presentation and smartboard activities which explain the agreements and positioning of adjectives in French. I have included the lesson plan as this was produced for an Ofsted inspection (judged outstanding). The tasks are simple and intuitive and this is a tried and trusted lesson that has worked consistently well over the years. It carries on well from my Mr Men lesson also here on TES which introduces colours and extended reading.

A booklet of (homework?) tasks which students can use once the unit of work is complete to help them revisit vocabulary and phrases to help keep them fresh. The tasks could be given straight after completion of a unit of work or for example at the start of Year 11 to review work covered in Year 10. This unit is based on the me, my friends and family unit of work which my students study in Year 10. I will give these tasks to them over the next 6 weeks as revision home works and then reissue the booklet in Year 11 for further revision. The tasks are best printed out as an A5 stapled booklet.

These ‘Something Old, Something New, Something to Read and Something to Do’ cards are great for ensuring interleaving of prior knowledge with current learning. They are designed for use with GCSE German classes. Each card gives students 20 words to revisit and revise, 20 new words, a reading activity and an exercise to carry out usually related to grammar or translation. The first batch of SoSnStRStD cards focus on Unit 1; family, relationships, future plans and technology. There will be more to follow for the other units. I give my students the cards for homework every 3 weeks and they annotate the German in their books. We discuss it in class but they are not allowed to write anything, then they do the tasks at home individually. I give them a vocab test on the new and old vocab to make sure they are learning it. Finally when we are done with them I stick the cards up in my classroom on the back wall in a plastic wallet - there is an answer sheet in there too so they can take a card home whenever they want and do some independent revision.

If your pupils are making the same literacy errors over and over again try giving them one of these A5 cards to help them understand the remedy. There is one for spelling, one for capitalisation, one for tenses, one for word order, one for adjective agreement and cases. Pupils use the card as a reading ruler with the next few pieces of work - checking each line of their work against the rules set out on the card. Over a short time it should help raise awareness of key errors and encourage students to check their work in a more productive fashion. When used consistently the cards help eliminate mistakes and increase independent checking of work. When students feel they have achieved their target to improve they stick the card in their book with a pupil comment about the impact it has had. These have proved so effective with my students they voted them the single most effective piece of support they were given all year last year.

Pupils play in teams and click on a square which reveals a number between 1 - 100. They must say the number correctly and spell it on the board for extra points for their team. Simples.

Easily adaptable for your own purposes. Using this pro-forma pupils translate sentences (this version involves the use of differing tenses) to create a path through a maze of their own creating. My pupils love this activity and get increasingly excited when the numbers are revealed and they get closer to creating a path. Great activity for focussing on grammatical accuracy and gives rise to productive discussion in class about points of grammar, sentence structure and spelling.