Direct Conflict and War: Exposure, Bayonet Charge & Charge of the Light Brigade

This focused revision session explores how war and direct conflict are presented in the AQA Power and Conflict Poetry Anthology for AQA English Literature GCSE Paper 2. Through Exposure, Bayonet Charge, and Charge of the Light Brigade, students will explore ideas such as fear, violence, duty, suffering, confusion, and the experience of battle, while strengthening the comparison and analysis skills required for success in the exam.

This session can be booked as a standalone class, but it is also one of five sessions in the full Easter poetry revision course. Across the full course, students will cover the eight most flexible poems in the anthology in great depth, building the kind of secure and adaptable knowledge that makes comparison much easier under exam conditions. The remaining seven poems will also be addressed with a lighter touch, focusing on their main themes and key quotations, so that students are equipped to make a comparison with any of the 15 poems in the anthology that AQA chooses for the named poem on exam day this June.

This makes the session ideal not only for students who want targeted help with a major anthology theme, but also for those who want a clearer, more strategic overview of how the anthology fits together. Many students revise poems individually but struggle when it comes to making comparisons quickly and confidently in the exam. This session is designed to address that directly by showing students how these poems connect through theme, method, and message, and how those links can be used in a way that is purposeful and rewarded by the mark scheme.

It is particularly well suited to students who want to move up the mark scheme levels but are not sure what is required. Students often have sound ideas, but lack confidence in how to shape those ideas into stronger exam responses. This session offers a clear, markscheme-led approach, helping students understand not just what the poems mean, but how to write about them in a way that earns marks. With examiner-led advice on comparison, quotation choice, analysis, and written structure, students will gain a much clearer sense of what separates a straightforward response from one that is more thoughtful, precise, and well developed.

There will be a particular focus on what examiners are looking for when they reward higher-level responses: comparisons that are genuinely meaningful rather than bolted on, analysis that moves beyond feature-spotting, and references that are selected and used with purpose. For students who need a stronger framework for writing about poetry, or who want clearer guidance on how to meet the assessment objectives, this session provides practical and highly relevant support.

A companion workbook will be available before the session so that students can prepare in advance and get the most from the teaching. The recording will be shared afterwards with all participants, allowing students to revisit the session in their own time as they continue revising towards the exam. Optional essay marking can also be added, giving students the opportunity to apply what they have learned and receive feedback on their work.

Whether booked individually or as part of the full five-session course, this class offers structured, exam-focused preparation designed to help students approach the anthology with greater confidence, stronger comparison skills, and a much clearer understanding of what success looks like in AQA English Literature GCSE Paper 2.