English Language Practice Papers

We have prepared these GCSE AQA-style exam practice papers to give you a helping hand – and to promote the Orwell Youth Prize.  We ask in return that you consider doing one of the following:

  • Tell students about the Orwell Youth Prize.
  • Encourage students to develop their written work so they can enter the Prize. One way of doing this would be to give them a chance to redraft the writing section of one or both exams, making that an entry for the Prize.
  • Develop the written work of students, either inside or outside lessons. They can write in ANY form for the Prize (maximum 1000 words for Years 7-11 and 1500 words for Years 12-13). Find out more about the resources we offer teachers here.

One word of advice.  The materials will be less familiar to students than a typical GCSE exam – and the content is certainly at the more demanding end -so it may be worthwhile giving students a very brief introduction to Orwell and some aspects of the Second World War period before setting the exam as practice.

We hope you find these materials useful – and we welcome feedback on them or any aspects of the Prize programme.

Good luck with your Year 11s this year!

Mick Callanan