Description

Polish GCSE Tuition aim to prepare students for the GCSE examination higher tier and to consolidate and extend their existing skills in Polish. If you’re preparing for GCSE this year and are local why not contact me?

GCSE topics covered during the tuition:  personal identification, family, pets, leisure, hobbies and entertainment, everyday activities, food and drink, health, welfare and fitness, house and home, town and local area, shopping, holidays and accommodation, school, further education and work, language and communication in workplace, the environment and society, travel and transport, public services, world events and issues, relations with others.

Grammar: all main points will be included, with emphasis on past tenses, pronouns and prepositions; understanding and limited use of some conditional and subjunctive.

During the classes, you will be able to use Polish in order to…

– give and seek information about yourself and others
– describe your home
– describe your family and domestic routine
– express likes and dislikes
– talk about your school/education/job/future plans
– discuss hobbies/arrange leisure activities/express opinions
– find the way, give information and talk about transport
– communicate as a host or guest
– talk about holidays and holiday accommodation/make plans
– talk about food and drink: recipes, restaurants, at home
– express state of health/describe illness
– enquire about/describe goods required shopping/state preferences
– deal with problems and use services: post office, bank, lost property
– describe/comment on weather/understand basic forecasts
– make acquaintances/arrange meetings
– understand the main aspects of Polish culture and society
– write/reply to a variety of letters/postcards, invitations & messages (some may be hand-written)
– read short articles/reviews in the Polish press and comment on them
– talk about environmental issues.

The individual Polish lessons are based on the communicative approach:
– active students’ interaction
– emphasis on speaking and listening skills
– role plays
– use of realia, pictures and authentic material
– use of audio-visual techniques when appropriate

AQA Specification

This qualification is linear. Linear means that students will sit all their exams at the end of the course.

Subject content

Students study all of the following themes on which the assessments are based.

Theme 1: Identity and culture

Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest

Theme 3: Current and future study and employment

Assessments

GCSE Polish has a Foundation Tier (grades 1–5) and a Higher Tier (grades 4–9). Students must take all four question papers at the same tier. All question papers must be taken in the same series.

Paper 1: Listening
What’s assessed Understanding and responding to different types of spoken language.
How it’s assessed – Written exam: 35 minutes (Foundation Tier), 45 minutes (Higher Tier) – 40 marks (Foundation Tier), 50 marks (Higher Tier) – 25% of GCSE (Each exam includes 5 minutes’ reading time of the question paper before the listening stimulus is played.)
Questions Foundation Tier and Higher Tier – Section A – questions in English, to be answered in English or non-verbally – Section B – questions in Polish, to be answered in Polish or non-verbally

Paper 2: Speaking
What’s assessed Communicating and interacting effectively in speech for a variety of purposes.
How it’s assessed – Non-exam assessment – 7–9 minutes (Foundation Tier) + preparation time – 10–12 minutes (Higher Tier) + preparation time – 60 marks (for each of Foundation Tier and Higher Tier) – 25% of GCSE
Questions Foundation Tier and Higher Tier The format is the same at Foundation Tier and Higher Tier, but with different stimulus questions for the Photo card and different stimulus materials for the Role-play. The timings are different too: 1) Role-play – 15 marks (2 minutes at Foundation Tier; 2 minutes at Higher Tier) 2) Photo card – 15 marks (2 minutes at Foundation Tier; 3 minutes at Higher Tier) 3) General conversation – 30 marks (3–5 minutes at Foundation Tier; 5–7 minutes at Higher Tier)

Paper 3: Reading
What’s assessed Understanding and responding to different types of written language.
How it’s assessed – Written exam: 45 minutes (Foundation Tier), 1 hour (Higher Tier) – 60 marks (for each of Foundation Tier and Higher Tier) – 25% of GCSE
Questions Foundation Tier and Higher Tier – Section A – questions in English, to be answered in English or non-verbally – Section B – questions in Polish, to be answered in Polish or non-verbally – Section C – translation from Polish into English (a minimum of 35 words for Foundation Tier and 50 words for Higher Tier)

Paper 4: Writing
What’s assessed Communicating effectively in writing for a variety of purposes.
How it’s assessed – Written exam: 1 hour (Foundation Tier), 1 hour 15 minutes (Higher Tier) – 50 marks at Foundation Tier and 60 marks at Higher Tier – 25% of GCSE
Questions Foundation Tier Question 1 – message (student produces four sentences in response to a photo) – 8 marks Question 2 – short passage (student writes a piece of continuous text in response to four brief bullet points, approximately 40 words in total) – 16 marks Question 3 – translation from English into Polish (minimum 35 words) – 10 marks Question 4 – structured writing task (student responds to four compulsory detailed bullet points, producing approximately 90 words in total) – there is a choice from two questions – 16 marks Higher Tier Question 1 – structured writing task (student responds to four compulsory detailed bullet points, producing approximately 90 words in total) – there is a choice from two questions – 16 marks Question 2 – open-ended writing task (student responds to two compulsory detailed bullet points, producing approximately 150 words in total) – there is a choice from two questions – 32 marks Question 3 – translation from English into Polish (minimum 50 words) – 12 marks