Albert Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” At Woodford, GCSE English aims to inspire the  imagination, to encourage original thinking and to develop well
justified opinions.

                                   Fiction and Imaginative Writing        Non-fiction and Transactional Writing

Unit 1 is assessed in a 1 hour 45 minute paper. (40%) of marks
Unit 2 is examined in a 2 hour 5 minute examination (60%) of marks
Unit 3 is teacher assessed and moderated by the examination board.

In this unit, we study a selection of prose fiction, including that of the 19th Century. We develop the analytical skills of the students including their ability to justify and explain. We also aim to develop their imaginative writing skills with a particular focus on techniques to engage the reader.

Although the examination courses do not start officially until next September, your daughter has been progressing steadily towards GCSE success in English for some considerable time. The specification that we follow at Woodford is a natural extension of the work undertaken in Years 7 - 9 and builds on the experience and skills your daughter has already acquired.

Students at Woodford take ENGLISH LANGUAGE, and ENGLISH LITERATURE. This enables us to study not only a wide range of non-literary material but plenty of literature, too. Overall, the girls should have ample opportunity to exercise their critical faculties with increasing understanding and sensitivity, and to develop their language skills using them with increasing proficiency in many different ways and for many different purposes.

The subject is studied in mixed ability groups of approximately 24 students. Lessons consist of a mixture of teacher led, small group and pair work, as well as focused individual tasks.