You never know, but one thing you could write in an exam situation is something different. Three years ago now, there was a radio script. There is nothing stopping them adding in a meditation of sorts, which on the surface of it, seems like a nightmare, but panic not dear brethren, it is an easy enough task, given that they will give you the title etc.

Here is an example trying to be as creative as possible and based on the theme of “Harvest.”

Harvest Of What?

We plough the fields and scatter, the good seed on the land. Well, not us. Not for some time either. We don’t get our hands dirty, preferring instead to buy pre-packaged, pre – washed, pre- prepared everything, from sliced white bread to ready chopped carrots.

Never mind that our choices are flown half way across the world. We like quality. And, on occasion, we’ll even pay for it.

Harvest is something we’re prepared to leave to others. The physical harvest – Is someone else’s worry. If the weather’s bad. If crops fail. We’ll simply shop elsewhere, move on, pay more. We certainly won’t starve. We have not been that close to the land for a long time now. It’s nothing new, to reflect modern life, contemporary culture.

Perhaps our harvest celebration needs to be revamped? Perhaps it needs to reflect our experience. Of work and toil, our experience, of sweat and tears. Isn’t harvest about celebrating our gift, our skills, all that God has given us to make life good?

Isn’t it about giving thanks for the comparative luxury we know and that we protect at all costs. That’s so far removed from work on the land so can’t we find another way to celebrate? We plough the fields and scatter? Not us, not any more.

Come, ye thankful people come, raise the strain of harvest home. Oh yes. It’s good to give thanks once a year; thanks for all those little luxuries, thanks for God’s blessings. Once a year it’s good to give thanks.

For the Lord our God shall come and shall take his harvest home. Now that’s sounding a different note. God harvesting people. But we won’t worry too much about that. We’re simply here to give our thanks for now. Don’t need to worry about the future at harvest. We’ll just celebrate the present and leave the future to God. That’s part of harvest too, isn’t it, that God takes care of the future?

Come, ye thankful people come, raise the strain of harvest home… Moving on:

For the fruits of all creation, thanks be to God. We’ll celebrate all that we can see around us. We’ll congratulate ourselves on being so well off that we can sing heartily the words: In our world wide task of caring, God’s will is done. In the harvest we are sharing God’s will is done. Yet, to make our words ring true today we have to see beyond our shiny colourful display of fruit, to the responsibility that God places on each of us, to make the kind of harvest we celebrate; alive with meaning for the world, alive with meaning for those who’ll sleep rough tonight, alive with meaning for those who will go to bed hungry, alive with meaning for the poor all around us and, yes alive with meaning in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Sumatra and Zimbabwe, in all the hovels where God’s children  are to be found; to know that our world is not as God intended, that in creation there is more than enough to go around, if we could only share.

And so, in our plenty, it’s not that we should waste time on feeling guilty but that we should turn God’s goodness to us into a call to serve the world by our sharing. Our God, who stretched out the heavens and created everything in wisdom relies on us to care and gives us what we need to do, just that, and so we will take our fruit this morning, symbol of all the goodness of God.

We will take our fruit, symbol of the power of God. We will take our fruit, symbol of the call of God, we will give thanks and we will share from our place of plenty. We will give thanks to the God of the harvest and we will share God’s food for God’s world.

‘Of Mice and Men’ takes its title from an old Scottish poem. Use an idea from a poem as the basis of a piece of your own writing. Use the title of the poem as the title of your piece of writing.

Just how does one go about such a task as this?

In one sense it is an easy thought. I could take the title “Havisham” by Carol Ann Duffy and then write almost anything. It could be what should have happened to Miss Havisham on her wedding day, describing in extreme detail the wedding, her dress, the day, the venue, the guests. I could use lots of similes and personification, making the whole thing come to life on such a joyous occasion, even though that is not the way of the poem or Dickens’ character.

Or I could use the title of the poem by Simon Armitage that starts with “Those bastards in their Mansions” and you can guess what might come next; a story of lust and woe that would make Downton Abbey look like Peyton Place, or Eastenders. The things I could get the Mitchell clan doing would be beyond description. Oh the fun I could have with Phil Mitchell.

But the writing of it depends largely upon the poetry you have looked at. So, here are a few tips for you to consider if you get this project to do from your nasty little teacher:

1. Look through the entire anthology at all the poems. There will be some in there that you have not studied as such, with your teacher. Just because you have not read and annotated a poem does not mean to say you cannot use it.
2. Then, think about the poem because your writing needs to be of a similar theme. So says the title.
3. With that done, ask yourself, do you need to change to tone? Can Havisham become a happy story in your writing? Or does it destroy the idea? In the Dickens novel she is a shrivelled old lady ditched at the altar. Can you do the same? Maybe a monologue from Edith [Downton Abbey] after she is jilted at the altar is doable.
4. Then, with title and idea, PLAN IT THOROUGHLY.
5. In the CA you are not allowed a draft but you are allowed a diagram of notes. Said spider-gram can relate to what is in each paragraph you know, as a hint for your creative writing.
6. One final thing to think about: be as creative as possible. Show off your skills and enjoy the creative process of writing and creating this totally new art work.

And above all, enjoy the process. This is one where you can have some fun and fun at the expense of others. Maybe your teacher can be transposed into Miss Havisham after all, assuming she is female of course.

Proof positive that a bit of creative or expressive writing a day keeps the Doctor away.

http://mic.com/articles/98348/science-shows-writers-have-a-serious-advantage-over-the-rest-of-us?utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_facebook

This year’s GCSE Task Bank has a task in it that I am sure lots of teachers will jump at when they see it. If the teacher does not then they have no passion for anything. It is part of a moving images section and is about how film or films have influenced you.

Here is my example. I was challenged by one of my students from last year, who got the C and said I could not do this inside the 750 words word count. So Fiona, here it is, especially for you. Oh, by the way, it is 750 words EXACTLY! It took me 15 minutes to complete as well.

A local newspaper is inviting people to write about films that have played an important part in their life. Write a piece about the film/s that has/have been important to you.

When it comes to films, there are several that can fit the bill as being substantially important in one’s life, the sort of film that shapes and changes you, the ones that leave a mark on you forever, making you think about life from a totally new perspective. Back in 1984, I saw for the first time the film version of the life of Jesus Christ, starring Robert Powell as Jesus and called Jesus of Nazareth. It shaped the rest of my life for I remember sitting there on Easter Sunday and crying my tears of joy as I realised I had a new found friend.

But that is not the film that has shaped my thinking since its arrival into the theatres of our hearts and minds. No. That accolade belongs to a film that depicts the life and times of one man as he grows from being a boy with straight legs and a “back as crooked as a politician,” to a US Marine, a star of college football in the United States and an all-round hero for the modern age. I refer, of course, to the one and the only, Mr Forrest Gump.

Starring Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump, it portrays the idealisation of the American Dream in one person, but this is a person who is picked on by his peers, laughed at by his new Headteacher, mocked and made fun at throughout his life and someone who through all this, manages not only to keep his head above water, but love the woman of his dreams as he walks his sometimes, lone walk through life.

He meets and inspires Elvis Presley. He helps to bring down the government of Richard Nixon, albeit inadvertently. He even goes to Vietnam where he saves the lives of his fellow soldiers, including his Lieutenant, who we all know as “Lieutenant Dan” [did you say that with an accent?] in an ambush where his platoon is nearly wiped out. He has a best friend called Bubba who he holds tightly whilst he passes away. He experiences the whole gamut of events and experiences and in the end manages to rise above all the negativity that life brings because he is extremely good at doing one thing; loving others.

And this is why this film is so influential in my life. For you see, in my spare time, I am voluntarily employed as someone who leads worship in churches near where I live. I am asked to preach a message on a regular basis and do so happily, serving the people in the pews and as I do so, I try to get the people present to love their fellows in the ways that the Bible tells us to do so. Such is my understanding and passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So in Forrest Gump, I see someone who is an example to us all, the sort of person depicted in the filmic genre who although considered by society as a ‘simpleton’ or to use a more modern phrase, someone with ‘special needs,’ is someone who can continue to show love for others as well as his lady friend, Jenny. He even names a shrimp boat after her after she walks out on his life.

His love is a pure love. His love is the sort of love that covers a multitude of sin. His love is the sort we should all have for each other. When all else goes wrong, his love moves him forward. When all things around him seem to be going against him, he remembers his love for Jenny and when that love is not reciprocated, he still continues to show love and affection for her.

This is why this is such an influential film in my life. Not only does it show a man who stands as the epitome of what it is to be human, but it also teaches a moral in this hating, terror filled world where man seems to loathe his neighbour to the point where he is prepared to kill him. It is such a powerful and at times, emotive film and one that should not only be watched by everyone in the world, but also studied at GCSE by every student who has to or can take the course. By doing so, they too will begin to understand just where their life is going wrong and be able to make the changes in their life that are sadly needed.

2014 exam tasks from Section B [H & F Tier]

There were a number of tasks that appeared on the 2014 June 3^rd exam. This little blog piece looks at how it is possible to plan each one in turn and then write it, given either the 25 minute or the 35 minutes time scale in the exam.

The first one we look at is the one about social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. A number of inserts were read and then you was asked to write the following piece.

Social networking sites should be banned. Write an article for a magazine, arguing for or against this statement. [25 minutes only]

The first thing to notice is that there is a statement that you need to keep referring back to; whether or not social networking sites should be banned. The second thing to notice is that the task asks you to write either for or against the statement. You are required to choose one side and stick to it, whilst maybe here and there, mentioning ideas from the other side of the argument.

With that in mind, let’s assume that you choose to disagree with the statement. If you do so, then the best thing is in 5 minutes, to write down 3 really good reasons why something like Facebook is a social freedom and should not be banned. At the side of each idea, put others that support it and so on. From 3 ideas you may easily get 9 things to write about.

Then, choosing the most important first, you begin to write your one sided argument. But the task also says it is for a magazine, but fails to say which magazine or which audience, so this is your choice. My advice is pick a magazine you now well, or read often. You know the style and content. You know how to write the article. Copy the style of your usual writers. For example, one of my students this year loves Top Gear Magazine, as well as the TV show, so I advised him beforehand, that if something like this comes up, he is to be a writer like Clarkson or May. I hope he did it and did it well. He says he did okay.

And most importantly, keep to the time. If it is a 25 minute task, it is 5 to plan it and 20 to write it. You are not going to write a lot in 20 minutes, but let that be 20 minutes of classy, sassy quality rather than 20 minutes of boring dross. Show your writing skills off! Be the show off for this time. Have fun!

The next task that I managed to get written down when I saw the paper after the exam was over, was this one…

There is a local Summer Festival in your area to be held this year. Write to the event organizer, persuading the reader in your letter what you think should be in the summer fayre. Explain why you make your choices. [25 minutes only]

Once again, there are a number of things to look at in the task title. The first thing is the audience of your piece of writing. It is an events organizer, someone possibly older, who is used to getting what they want in life. Chances are it is a female organizer, so assume away. Then there is the form, a letter to an events organizer, sharing some ideas. If you are writing a letter, then it has to be set out right; your address at top right, the date 2 lines below that, the person receiving it [name and address] on left down 2 more lines and a Dear Sir/Madam 2 lines below that. By this time, you are more or less half way down the page, ready to begin underneath the ‘m’ of Madam.

Then it says you are to persuade and explain – so like the above, choose 3 good things, possibly one family event, one for the young and one for the youth age range. Offer breadth of ideas into your writing and plan it in the same way as the first one above. Then write the thing, explaining why your choices are worthy of comment and inclusion in the summer fayre. Then, you have to choose between ‘Yours faithfully’ and ‘sincerely.’ Look it up which one you should use because opinions differ and I do not wish to advise you wrongly. Old fashioned English writers like me go for one ending and the younger ones go for the other. In essence it does not matter so long as you leave a 6 line gap and then add your full name [not at the top of the letter!!!] in capital letters. In the gap that exists, you add your signature. As regards addresses, make them up! And have fun doing so! Originality is good.

With those 2 tasks done, you have finished. But then, when I looked between the H tier and the F tier, I came across 2 more tasks. [NB. If I have them opposite way round, then apologies. It is not an issue]. One of the tasks follows:

“Nearly half of British children can’t swim – and it is their parents’ fault.” Rebecca Adlington

Write a magazine article, persuading parents of the importance of teaching children to swim.

Let me ask you a serious question to those who sat the exam, that if you answer wrongly, will no doubt terrify you before August comes round. The question is this. When you saw this task, did you think about it for a few minutes, or did you think ‘oooh that is a good one’ and go for it, without planning it?

If you went for this without planning it, then the chances are that you may suffer if you got it wrong and possibly end up with a D. You see, the first thing is a statement from a British Olympic swimmer. She knows therefore, what she is talking about. Then it says write a magazine article but what does one of those look like? Yours needs to look the same. Again, choose the magazine, explain which one it is in a 3 line introduction before it and then write the thing!

This is a one sided argument and nowadays, advertising plays on our fears, so if I was sat there, I would appeal to the parents out there that unless they do encourage their little ones to enter into swimming there will come a time when they may need the skill and without it, will drown etc. Once again, in the 5 minutes at the beginning, choose 3 really good reasons why parents should get their children swimming lessons, expand a few ideas from them and write about them in reverse order, number 3, then number 2 and then the top reason why it is important. It makes the reader tune into what you are saying in your writing! It also makes it more compelling to read! Now that will get you the A* grade!

And the final one in the 2014 exam was this:

Write a short piece of travel writing explaining how you coped with a challenging journey.

Travel writing and writing to explain! [35 minutes only]

This is something that can be written without much planning. If you can tell a story and have a travel visit from hell, to a place where something went wrong, then you should be able to think and write/type at the same time and tell the story. Travel writing is just that; storytelling about places of interest.

I have done an answer to this that is already on the blog. Check it out. But understand that once I had the story chosen, all I had to do was retell it. Now that is a skill that takes time to master so some planning is advised. Bullet points are good here for organizing your thoughts. Then write it, but always have the task and the dilemma firmly in your mind.

If you have not got a holiday from hell story in you, then make it up. Do a Peter Kay, describing what the rooms were like, the mess on the walls, the “and we came here for our holiday and got distemper and hard pad” comments using extreme sarcasm, but above all, mention how the place itself made you make the decision to overcome the problem that existed. If you have not seen the Peter Kay clip, find it on Youtube and see. “Peter Kay, holidays” should be enough to locate it if it is there.

This one would be so enjoyable for me, for I love telling stories, especially daft ones. The more it is daft, or funny, or just odd, the better for me, especially if there is a punch line at the end. Above all, enjoy this one and have fun getting over how you overcame the problem. Do not make it too serious either, unless it relates of course, to something grief laden.

The one thing you need to remember, when writing this and the others, is that you are being timed. If it says 35 minutes, it means it. Get the watch in front of you [if you are doing November resits for example] and time yourself. Make it so you know when each question or task ends and the next one begins. This is so important to time manage the exam correctly so you have those five minutes at the end to check things through for errors. Then you will do well. Then you will pass this exam with C grade or above. And then you will find that you alone have made the difference, especially if you have goofed the exam up in the past, as some of us do.

Bon chance!

RJ

If you have been looking at this blog over the last few months you will have seen a number of posts, most notably some involving my favourite writer, Mr William Shakespeare. I was teaching Macbeth this year and it reminded me that my thesis from my university days needed retyping, as believe it or not, the cat had scragged my only copy.

So much for “the dog ate my homework Sir!”

So, with it damaged beyond repair, I decided to retype it and publish it. If you are studying Hamlet, Macbeth or Henry V at all, and if your teacher is using films to aid the teaching, this will be very useful indeed.

I enjoyed writing it, way back in 1994 and 1995 [and over the last week to retype it] so please enjoy this little tome.

It can be bought from here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/robert-johnson/heroes-and-villains-film-adaptations-of-shakespearean-drama-henry-v-hamlet-macbeth/paperback/product-21700534.html

RJ

Choose a picture/photograph or a short sequence of pictures/photographs and use it as the basis for a narrative.

When I saw this as a title, I avoided it, but then I thought, if you are used to wrapping text round photos for newsletters, to family and friends, then this is what it may be asking for. And so, here is my attempt, based on the truth of the last ten days or so. Totally true and totally tiring!

Little did I know just what would happen over the previous week to get me to this point, in my hospital bed, drained, alone and at death’s door. For me it had been a typical week. Everything had gone normally, but with one minor difference. The levels of exhaustion felt were off the scale, beyond measure, simply too much to take!

It had been getting progressively worse for the past few weeks of my work life, with my teaching career about to suffer a setback that would undoubtedly, be monumental in its magnificence. For I was about to be placed in a position that I should not come back from. Indeed, not many would come back from the brink of death, having suffered from the ailments that plagued me.

On the Sunday before the Friday, I had gone to my church, as usual, as is my practice and I had tried to enter into the worship, but I could not, for the life of me, enter into the singing of the songs as I wanted to. Hymns are poetry sung from the heart and mind, so when this boy sings them, the people who reside on the other side of the globe can hear me sing. Such is my enjoyment of them. But I could not get the timing right, or the breath for the spaces and rests, those times when you need to hold a note and those when you end them.

It all went disastrously wrong for me!

And so, for the next five days, until the Friday evening, I continued in this cycle of tiredness and felt completely drained every second of every day. I even drove 45 miles from where I live to see my Mother on that Friday, did her shopping for her, sorted it out and then complained of over heating. So I went to cool off and collapsed before I got to where I was heading. fifteen minutes later, after having cooled off somewhat, I got up and continued with my day, driving back home again. Little did I know what had just happened to me.

A cough had developed that day, during that first 45 mile journey and it continued through the evening and the night, into midnight and beyond, making it so that I simply could not sleep. So, reluctantly, I rang the emergency services, feeling something was wrong.

When I got to AE, they took one look and shoved a cannula in my right hand and began inserting antibiotics. For the next twelve hours or so, I was probed, prodded and poked in numerous ways, leading to a diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia, which had collapsed my right lung and brought on a Type 2 NSTEMI heart attack. This is why you see a mask in one of these pictures. This is why my breathing became so intolerably difficult. This is why my blood saturation levels dropped from their normal 98% to below 70 percent.

And so, you see me here, recovering from a major bout with illness. You see me at my worst but also at my best, for at the point of no return, when I knew it was either a case of the doctors would save me, or God would take me, there was one thing that was running through my mind. That was a song and I am still singing it to this day. Its title says it all: To God Be The Glory. Great Things He Has Done.

I survived that week from hell and I survived it for one reason; there is something else that I need to do before my time is up and I go off to meet my maker. What that something is has yet to be shown to me or defined, but I can categorically state this, that I believe it is something of magnificent proportions in the lives of so many people. I wonder what that will be and how it will reveal itself!
665 words…

Take the end of a film and use it as the starting point for a piece of writing.

This is and was, a task in the 2014 series of controlled assessments. There are many different ways you could approach this and some things to think about before you approach it. Some are listed below:

1. Choosing the film could be the hardest thing you have to do here and could lead you somewhere you do not want to go to. For example, your favourite film might be one where there is an ambiguous ending, where the viewer [or reader in the novel] is unsure as to what happens next. Great Expectations, as a novel, ends this way. Pip and Estella walk off into the sunset, leaving us to guess what will come next. Your story could get bogged down without really careful planning. If Pip and Estella are to spend their lives together, then your story may be how they get to the happiness that is marriage for them. She is rich from her marriage to Drummle after all. Planning is vital here for it to make sense. Gibberish is not good in a GCSE story.
2. Planning is vital for success. Hang on. Haven’t I written that already? Well yes I have, but how do you plan this? One way would be a mind map, or diagram of bubbled ideas, shooting off to other ideas linked in etc. Another will be the bullet pointed plan. To someone as logically minded as myself, this would appeal, for you can plan the story logically and at each turn know where to begin each paragraph. This can be done without planning, but I would not trust myself if the plan was not there.
3. Characterization is important too! Using the Great Expectations example, from above, we already have 2 characters, so who is going to be included in our new story, to take the ending further? That is a decision that is yours and yours alone. I would not add more than 2 more to the existent list in the novel. 2 more ‘new’ characters would give the freedom to change direction. Will Pip and Estella adopt a child, as Miss Havisham did with her? That could be the starting, or end point of any story you write.
4. Adventure is needed – in the story and in the writing. There is nothing worse for a teacher than marking 35 pieces of work, each 750 words long [you do the Maths here] and by the time you have got to number 23, you are in desperate need of caffeine by intravenous injection. And then, number 24 blows your pants off because it is adventurous in content and style. It has characters that are full, believable, understandable [the sort you say “I would do that too” to] and ultimately entertaining. Magwitch, in Great Expectations, explodes onto the reader’s mind early on and then is not seen for some time until the great reveal. Maybe, history could repeat itself in your story, where Pip and Estella travel to the lands where Abel Magwitch made his money, to take over from him where he left off before returning to England [although legally his estate would have been forfeited to the crown for being a returned convict]? The choice is yours, but by God, make it entertaining, or your teacher dies of boredom in a darkened room, all alone!

Go on, have a go. Think of a film with a duality or ambiguity at the ending. Then think logically what would happen next? What would I like to see happen next? And then write the thing, planning it first. You may even be surprised at how good it really is.

RJ

Accuracy in your written work is possible, however hard you may think it is to achieve. Whether it is capital letters and full stops that you cannot master, or more likely the semi colon and the colon, it is possible to get them right. 

Consider how this writer puts together his report. Warning, it is a sports writer, writing after the Spanish were eliminated from the World Cup yesterday, so if you are Spanish and football mad, I apologise. I picked it because of how it is put together, not the content. 

“Disaster”, “failure” and “humiliation” were among the words used by the Spanish press after their side’s World Cup title defence began with a heavy loss to the Netherlands.

Yet there is only one way to describe Wednesday’s defeat at the hands of Chile, which sees Vicente Del Bosque’s team eliminated with a game of the group stage still to play: the end.

The end of an unprecedented era of dominance that so captivated the global game, the end of a golden generation of players who dared, succeeded, thrilled and inspired.

Cesc Fabregas had called the Chile match “life or death” and it proved the latter. This night will go down in football history as the night the tiki-taka trailblazers bade farewell.

The denouement was always going to arrive at some point, but few expected it to come with such alarming speed and in such unceremonious fashion. First-round knockout.

Reigning champions have, of course, succumbed early before – Italy in 1950 and 2010, Brazil in 1966 and France in 2002 – and losing to the Dutch and Chileans on current form is no disgrace.

The Netherlands possess attacking weapons to trouble anyone and Chile, for whom all 10 outfield starters were under the age of 30, have been tipped as dark horses for the title.

However, we are talking about Spain, the winners of the last three major international trophies; the first team to lift two European Championships and a World Cup in succession.

Spain won Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012 to become the first side to win all three trophies in a row

Alarm bells started to ring when they were beaten by Brazil in the Confederations Cup final a year ago, also here in the Maracana. Explanations were given, judgments reserved. Then came a friendly with Chile in September that needed a stoppage-time equaliser to earn a draw.

Nor did Barcelona’s poor season bode well; this is the club from where Spain take their stylistic lead, with seven of Barca’s stars included in the 23-man squad and all of them featuring against the Netherlands.

Another seven came from Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid; both had impressive campaigns, but their involvement in the Champions League final made for weary legs.

“How many of the Spain players have lived up to who they are and played to their top form?” asked Crystal Palace manager Tony Pulis on BBC Radio 5 live.

“Whether that was because their season has finished later than most I’m not sure. I really wanted them to do well at this World Cup. I feel for Del Bosque – one of the great managers.”

We knew when Spain landed in Brazil that they were nearing the end of a cycle and faced an incredibly difficult task to be become the first Europeans to win a World Cup in South America.

What we did not anticipate was the Dutch handing out a 5-1 drubbing, the heaviest defeat suffered by World Cup winners at the following tournament, or the Chileans dispatching them so clinically.

In all, except brief periods of the first half versus the Netherlands, Spain have looked a shadow of their old self – their control, movement and passing unrecognisable from the not too distant past.

Against Chile, they posted their lowest passing accuracy in a World Cup game (81.7%) since a quarter-final loss to South Korea in 2002 and Andres Iniesta attempted the fewest passes (52) in the eight World Cup matches in which he has played a full 90 minutes.

Spain lost 152 balls to Chile’s 141, making 62 recoveries compared to 71, and despite attempting five more tackles than Jorge Sampaoli’s men their success rate was 13% lower.

To watch Xabi Alonso – someone who has been at the heart of Spain’s glory – resort to hacking at opponents in frustration as Ls Roja failed to establish any sort of rhythm was sad.

Pre-match, the midfielder claimed the criticism of his side was “exaggerated”, adding: “I don’t think you can conclude that this generation is finished, we’re still alive.”

But those words now carry a hollow ring and as Spain walked off the pitch at full-time there was little sense of shock. They looked disappointed but not distraught, more resigned to the inevitable. There was even restraint about Chile’s celebrations; they triumphed with plenty left in the tank.

“What is painfully obvious watching them live is the lack of pace in the last third,” said former England midfielder Danny Murphy on BBC Radio 5 live.

Del Bosque’s charges have nothing to play for against Australia on 23 June and it will be interesting to see whether he makes the sort of changes that will be necessary going forward.

Iker Casillas, goalkeeper and captain, barely played for Real Madrid last season and endured a forgettable, error-ridden World Cup. Will David De Gea, 23, replace the 33-year-old?

Will Iker Casillas make way for David De Gea in the final game against Australia?

Xavi, the symbol of Spain’s rise and the heartbeat of their midfield for so long, was dropped for the Chile game and at 34 might never pull on the red shirt again. Koke, 22, waits in the wings as a quicker, more dynamic option with a better engine than the fading legend.

Iniesta, Xavi’s partner in crime, still has a lot to give but is nowhere near top form, defender Gerard Pique was replaced by Martinez in what may be a sign of things to come, and this looks to be the end of the international road for Alonso and Villa at 32, possibly even Fernando Torres at 30.

Some potential successors await in the current squad and others outside. Spain claimed the 2013 European Under-21 Championship – the likes of Jese, Alvaro Morata, Gerard Deulofeu, Isco and Daniel Carvajal coming to the fore. Two years ago, they took a second consecutive Under-19 title.

“Villa, Xavi, Torres, you look at the Spain team and you think there are six or seven players who could all step down,” said former England defender and 5 live summariser Danny Mills.

“In players like Isco, Juan Mata and Fabregas there are still a lot of players coming through at the top level, and you also expect De Gea to be around for a long time. So Spain will come strong again but it’s a big ask for the youngsters to come in and replace what was maybe an ageing squad with a little bit of complacency and a lack of desire.”

From speaking to Spanish journalists, it is clear they are looking forward to a fresh start, optimistic about the future, but there is also unhappiness that the present team did not show the necessary hunger and application to make Spain’s proven philosophy click as it has previously.

For Spain’s approach to bear fruit, they need an impregnable defence, tireless runners and relentless hard work. None of those boxes have been ticked in Brazil.

They conceded seven goals in two games compared to just two in seven four years ago, which when you do not score many goals – another problem that requires solving – means trouble.

Del Bosque was always going to pin his hopes on this crop for one final hurrah – there is an argument that exposing youngsters to a disastrous title defence would have caused more harm than good – but why did he not shuffle the 23 more ambitiously once selected?

“He’s a good manager but maybe not a good coach. He knows how to deal with egos but when the players doesn’t respond you need someone who can make changes to a team that normally plays on memory. It was probably necessary to lose like this to close this beautiful and glorious era.”

While speculation is sure to rage over which players will retire or be cast aside, Del Bosque’s achievements since being appointed in 2008 are said to guarantee his position – so any decision would come down to the 53-year-old, whose contract expires after Euro 2016.

If he does leave, there is concern over who would be available and appropriate to take over. They would have to embrace a method that is non-negotiable but must evolve because Spain have become predictable. The Dutch and Chile knew how to beat them and La Roja couldn’t adapt.

Former England winger Chris Waddle explained: “They were two hard games for Spain and that is because teams have changed the way they play against them.

“Before, teams used to sit back and play on the counter-attack but now they play quicker than Spain, they press high up the pitch and nick the ball off them. Because Spain are not used to that, and they leave space behind with their full-backs coming on, teams are having success.”

Rather than a big-name Spaniard such as Rafael Benitez, they could opt for a former player in whom Spain’s chosen gameplan is engrained. The likes of Under-21 coach Albert Celades, Recreativo de Huelva boss Sergi Barjuan, Olympiacos manager Michel and Sporting Gijon’s Abelardo Fernandez are all highly thought of.

But for the time being the responsibility still lies with Del Bosque.

On the morning after losing to the Netherlands, the front cover of Spanish newspaper Marca was a funereal black with the headline: “Fix this”. Thursday’s simply said: “The End”.

Today is the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings on those Normandy beaches. Many men went and did not return, but those that did leave their stories across the internet. 

This is one of them. RIP to all those who served, then and since, as well as prior to WW2. 

Voices of D-Day: Thomas Valence 

We proceeded toward the beach, and many of the fellows got sick. The water was quite rough. It was a choppy ride in, and we received a lot of spray.

Our boat was one of six of A Company in the first wave, and when we got to the beach, or close to it, the obstacles erected by the Germans to prevent the landing were fully in view, as we were told they would be, which meant the tide was low.

I was the rifle sergeant and followed Lieutenant Anderson off the boat, and we did what we could rather than what we had practiced doing for so many months in England. There was a rather wide expanse of beach, and the Germans were not to be seen at all, but they were firing at us, rapidly, with a great deal of small-arm fire.

As we came down the ramp, we were in water about knee high, and we started to do what we were trained to do — move forward, and then crouch and fire. One of the problems was we didn’t quite know what to fire at. I saw some tracers coming from a concrete emplacement which to me looked mammoth. I never anticipated any gun emplacements being that big. I attempted to fire back at that, but I had no concept of what was going on behind me. There was not much to see in front of me except a few houses, and the water kept coming in so rapidly, and the fellows I was with were being hit and put out of action so quickly that it become a struggle to stay on one’s feet. I abandoned my equipment, which was very heavy.

I floundered in the water and had my hand up in the air, trying to get my balance, when I was first shot. I was shot through the left hand, which broke a knuckle, and then through the palm of the hand. I felt nothing but a little sting at the time, but I was aware that I was shot. Next to me in the water, Private Henry G. Witt was rolling over towards me. “Sergeant, they’re leaving us here to die like rats. Just to die like rats.” I certainly wasn’t thinking the same thing, nor did I share that opinion. I didn’t know whether we were being left or not.

I made my way forward as best I could. My rifle jammed, so I picked up a carbine and got off a couple of rounds. We were shooting at something that seemed inconsequential. There was no way I was going to knock out a German concrete emplacement with a .30-caliber rifle. I was hit again, once in the left thigh, which broke my hip bone, and a couple of times in my pack, and then my chin strap on my helmet was severed by a bullet. I worked my way up onto the beach, and staggered up against a wall, and collapsed there. The bodies of the other guys washed ashore, and I was one live body amongst many of my friends who were dead and, in many cases, blown to pieces.