CCEA English Language - The Study of Written Language - Parenthood Summer 2027 - Two Poems

Catrin by Gillian Clarke and Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy - Controlled Assessment for students achieving their final awards in Summer 2027 (current Year 11s)

Let’s be honest: for years, we’ve all been performing some serious mental gymnastics to stretch the CCEA-provided theme across the dusty plains of Soledad. We’ve almost needed a lever and a pulley system to contrive a link between a 1930s migrant ranch and childhood, usually by pointing at Lennie Small and saying, 'Look! He likes soft things and doesn't know his own strength - he’s basically a giant toddler in dungarees.' It was always a bit of a reach, like trying to find 'joy' in a Curley’s Wife monologue.

The examiners are tired. They don't want to read 32,000 more essays desperately casting George Milton as the ultimate 'parental figure' to Lennie. It’s time to give the ranch a rest and lean into the poems that actually want to talk about this theme.

This Study of Written Language: Parenthood pack swaps the migrant trail for the visceral, messy and glamorous reality of actual motherhood. It has paired Gillian Clarke’s 'Catrin' with Carol Ann Duffy’s 'Before You Were Mine' to give your students a pairing that actually makes sense.

• No More Contrived Links: Instead of force-fitting themes, students will explore the 'tight red rope of love' in a hospital ward and the 'fizzy, movie-tomorrow' glamour of 1950s Scotland.
• 'Deep-Dive Analysis: From the 'red shoes' (No! Not Curley's Wife's!) acting as relics of a lost identity to the 'first fierce confrontation' of birth, this resource provides the specific, high-level terminology - like synesthesia, syntactic parallelism, and extended metaphors - that moves students from a C to an A*

What's included?

1.  Introductory video to each poem

2. Detailed and engaging Slides Deck for each poem

3. Context information for each poet

4. Comprehension questions for each poem

5. Detailed comparative notes on titles, themes, structure and language for each poem

6. Sample question titles

7. A short sample answer paragraph

8. Connectives worksheet

9. A guided planning sheet - by answering the questions, the students are preparing for their controlled assessment