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Last updated

8 August 2026

pdf, 641.42 KB
pdf, 641.42 KB

Thinking of selecting Colder Than Here (Laura Wade) as one of your comparative texts for Leaving Cert English? This free two-page PDF guide tells you everything you need to decide.

Colder Than Here is one of the newest texts on the list and one of the shortest: nine scenes, no acts, about ninety minutes, six of them two-handers, alternating strictly between a woodland burial ground and a living room with a broken boiler. A woman with months to live organises her own funeral while her family fail to talk about it, and the play is far funnier than that description suggests. For the Comparative Study it gives you a modern, secular, comfortable world with no ritual left for death, a form in which character is built from objects rather than speeches, and the rare case of an outlook that brightens as the illness worsens. The guide is plain about fit: which modes the play serves well, which one it serves badly, and the subject matter a class must be ready for.

Inside the guide: an at-a-glance table covering form, setting, narration, length and running time, first staging and awards, prescribed-list status and the play’s strongest modes; a clear synopsis; the themes the play carries; and an honest “before you teach” note on what needs care in the classroom.

The guide then sets out how the play pairs in every comparison mode at BOTH levels, partner-agnostic so it holds whatever you set it against:

  • Higher Level: Cultural Context, Literary Genre, Theme or Issue, and General Vision and Viewpoint.
  • Ordinary Level: Hero, Heroine and Villain; Relationships; Social Setting; and Theme.

Colder Than Here was first prescribed for examination in 2026 and is on the Comparative list for 2026, 2027 and 2028, at both Higher and Ordinary Level. It is not prescribed as a Single Text at either level.

The companion Student Textbook and Teacher Guide (full exam-ready analysis and complete teaching support) are available separately from The Prescribed Shelf, or together in the Complete Bundle.

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Get this resource as part of a bundle and save up to 17%

A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

Bundle

Colder Than Here for the Comparative Study (HL) - Complete Bundle

Everything you need to teach *Colder Than Here* for the Leaving Cert English Comparative Study (Higher Level) in one download: the Student Textbook your class reads from, the Teacher Guide you prepare from, and the free Text Suitability Guide alongside them. Myra Bradley has advanced bone cancer and six to nine months to live, and she spends them organising her own funeral: choosing a woodland burial ground, presenting the arrangements to her family on PowerPoint, and ordering a flat-pack cardboard coffin that arrives in the living room to be painted with stars. Her husband cannot speak about any of it and fixes things instead. Nine scenes, no acts, ninety minutes, alternating strictly between the burial grounds and a living room with a broken boiler. As a comparative choice it offers a modern, secular, comfortable world with no ritual left for death, a play with no narrator at all in which character is built from objects rather than speeches, and the rare case of an outlook that brightens as the illness worsens. The bundle covers all four Higher Level modes (Cultural Context, Literary Genre, Theme or Issue, and General Vision and Viewpoint), and every comparison point is partner-agnostic, so the set works whatever texts you pair the play with. **What's included (three PDF files)** - **Student Textbook (33 pages):** the play analysed in continuous prose students can read independently. Each mode chapter opens with a "Reading for this mode" primer and "What the examiners ask", works through the play's key moments with close readings and key-moment, object and technique tables, and closes with a sample comparative paragraph the student completes with their second text, "Setting this text against others" notes, and a comparison grid: the *Colder Than Here* column filled in, the Text 2 and Text 3 columns left for their own combination. Eight original, SEC-style practice questions, two per mode, end the book. Licensed for the purchasing teacher to copy for their own students. - **Teacher Guide (25 pages):** your preparation, done. A full sensitive-content briefing and practical notes before you teach; the play read for the teacher, from story and structure to the outlook; a key-moments bank and a quotation and reference bank, every entry tagged with what it evidences and the modes it serves; each mode broken down into what examiners reward, where the play is strong, what to teach and the errors to pre-empt; a workable teaching sequence built around reading it aloud and staging two scenes properly; notes on running the textbook's grids, sample paragraphs and practice questions in class; coupling guidance for choosing partner texts; assessment essentials (PCLM marking, the PEAL paragraph shape, timing and length); and question-angle banks drawn from recent SEC papers. - **Text Suitability Guide (2 pages, free):** the at-a-glance overview: synopsis, themes, sensitive content, and the play's strengths in the comparison modes at both Higher and Ordinary Level. The comparison grid rows are identical across every Prescribed Shelf comparative Student Textbook, so if your other texts are covered too, the three books line up row by row for your exact text combination. Buy the bundle and save on the separate prices. Written by a practising teacher.

£14.99

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