Camden school for girls sixth form

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Small classes, with exceptional teachers (English Lit also appears in every block on the timetable, so you can combine it with any other subjects)

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At least 50% of our students get As or A*s in English at the end of year 13. We get very few Cs and nothing lower.

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Brilliant Higher Education options: we have many applicants each year to Oxbridge to study English, and the success rate is the highest of all subjects in the school. English is viewed by all Russell Group universities as what’s called a “facilitating subject” - that is, a subject that impresses because of its rigour.

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English Literature A-level is the subject on offer at this school that most encourages critical thinking and independent thought: universities (and life) are beginning to value these skills more than ever, with the advent and dominance of AI and all the rest of it.

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“I love English, but I want to be a doctor. Help!” You only need Chemistry and Biology, or Chemistry and Maths for most Medicine courses. They love to see the diversity that English offers.

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In lessons, one of the most important aspects of our discussions is what we call ‘AO5’, which is exploring different interpretations of a text or an idea. We do a little of this in GCSE (e.g. Macbeth is a dangerous villain, or he is vulnerable to greater forces than he can control), but this takes on so much more relevance for A-level.