The Impact of War, Memory & Aftermath: Remains, War Photographer, Poppies, The Emigrée & Kamikaze

This focused revision session explores the emotional and psychological effects of conflict in the AQA Power and Conflict Poetry Anthology for AQA English Literature GCSE Paper 2. Through Remains, War Photographer, Poppies, The Emigrée, and Kamikaze, students will examine how poets present memory, trauma, loss, displacement, guilt, separation, and the lasting aftermath of conflict, helping them build more thoughtful, perceptive, and well-supported comparative responses.

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 study the eight most flexible poems in the anthology in great depth, building a strong and adaptable core of knowledge that can be used confidently in the exam. The remaining seven poems will also be covered 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 may choose for the named poem on exam day this June.

This makes the session especially valuable for students who want a more strategic understanding of how the anthology works as a whole. Many students can talk about individual poems in isolation, but feel much less secure when they need to compare ideas quickly and convincingly under timed conditions. This session is designed to help students make clearer links across the anthology, particularly around the ways conflict continues to shape people long after the moment of violence itself. It offers a clear, markscheme-led approach to a group of poems that often leads to rich and flexible comparisons in the exam.

It is particularly useful for students who want to move up the mark scheme levels but are not sure what is required. Students often have relevant ideas about these poems, but struggle to develop them into the kind of analysis that examiners reward. This session provides examiner-led advice on building comparisons, selecting quotations, analysing methods, and shaping a stronger written response, so that students can see more clearly what separates a basic answer from one that is more developed, thoughtful, and precise.

There will be a particular focus on the demands of the mark scheme: how to move beyond broad comments about sadness or conflict, how to make comparisons that genuinely deepen the argument, and how to analyse language, structure, and perspective in a way that supports a clear line of thought. Students will be encouraged to avoid simple feature-spotting and instead develop a more purposeful and analytical way of writing. For those who need a clearer sense of what examiners are looking for, or who want a stronger framework for discussing more subtle emotional themes, this session offers 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 as they continue revising in the run-up to the exam. Optional essay marking can also be added, giving students the opportunity to apply what they have learned and receive feedback on how to improve further.

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.