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Love, especially romantic love, has always been and always will be, one of the most influential emotions on our lives. The arts reflect often on this, with English Literature no exception. When we are looking at the earliest literature of love, we are really starting with the poetical work of Chaucer, not an easy task […]

This year it has been more difficult than ever to decide which of the many contenders should take our  Student of the Year title. As always, there has been a huge number of people gaining excellent grades in Maths, English and/or Science GCSE/IGCSE, enabling them to go on to study and hopefully fulfill their ambitions […]

Finding a suitable location from which to work when you are taking a home study GCSE or A Level course is essential. Whether you shut yourself in your bedroom, sit up at the dining room table, perch on the sofa with the laptop, head to the local library, settle down in the corner of a […]

Every year at Oxford Open Learning we write to all the examinations centres where we know our students took exams, and ask them to confirm the results our students were awarded. This provides us with a useful database of centres who have helped our students each year and are therefore often positively disposed towards taking […]

For a number of years, across the UK, MFL teachers have tried a number of strategies to encourage students to take a language course at GCSE. Trips abroad are a great opportunity to practise language skills and get students interested in learning a foreign language. Equally, trips abroad are an eye-opener into other cultures. Students […]

English literature, it seems, is subject more than any other art form, to critical reappraisal. Would we paint over parts of ‘The Nightwatch’ by Rembrandt because the subjects all have white faces? No, we would not.

Recently, a campaign has been launched encouraging everyone in the UK to learn 1,000 words of another language. The (originally named) 1,000 Words Campaign claims that having a vocabulary of 1,000 words allows a speaker to hold a basic conversation (although presumably it depends on which words you learn), and that if this was widely […]

Studying GCSE’s or A Levels alongside regular employment can be almost as demanding as completing the work itself. Add to this the requirements of family life, and it can become a real challenge. To make the most of any home study course it is essential to find a system of studying outside of work hours […]

National Poetry Day is coming up; this year it will take place on Thursday 3rd October.  Although the themed day is designed to bring poetry to EVERYONE – including greengrocers and bus-queues, according to the National Poetry Day website – it is probably safe to say that it is a whole lot easier to celebrate […]

So you’ve decided to do your A2 English Literature and are thinking about that wider reading in the area of ‘Love Through the Ages’ for your A2 exam and you’re starting to worry. Let’s just think first about what the A2 exam is asking of you… Question 1 asks you to compare two unseen items […]