World Class English at Wycombe Abbey
2 March 2024 - Academic
Having celebrated superb IGCSE English exam results in the summer of 2023, we already knew that last year’s UV were a special group. Now, deep into the next academic year, we have further proof of the scale of their accomplishments, with the exam board CAIE awarding certificates to four pupils for being ‘Top in the World’. We are delighted to see the world class performances of Bea (LVI), Felicity (LVI), Ahjung (2023, Airlie) and Isabella (2023, Shelburne) recognised in this way and would like to join with CAIE in marking this phenomenal achievement.
Securing 100% in all English papers is a remarkable feat and these pupils should feel proud of the prestigious accolade. We are certainly very proud of them, as we are of all pupils who work so hard to make progress throughout the course and achieve marks beyond anything they could have imagined when they first embarked on English lessons in LV. One of our greatest joys as English teachers is seeing pupils grow in confidence to express their ideas and respond to literature with passion and purpose, producing perceptive, sophisticated responses to challenging questions. It is fair to say that working with Wycombe Abbey girls gives us great joy!
Tinkering with the curriculum when we have been so successful might seem like something you would want to avoid and yet, as avid readers and passionate educators, we are committed to shaping the best possible experience for our pupils, even if that necessitates taking some difficult decisions. It has been heartening to see pupils responding so positively to the introduction of the unseen prose and poetry paper in IGCSE English Literature, which undoubtedly contributed to the success of last year’s cohort, while this year’s text changes at A level have reinvigorated the LVI course and fostered higher levels of engagement and progress than we had anticipated. Encouraging pupils to respond to literature in both an intellectual and emotional manner is central to our approach and it is undeniable that Rossetti and Ibsen have elicited some powerful and profound reactions.
As one of the teachers chosen to visit Oaks Christian School in Los Angeles during October Long Leave, I was privileged to experience firsthand the impact of a balance between ideological exploration and grammatical comprehension in English lessons. We are looking forward to developing our partnership in the months ahead, with two English teachers from Oaks Christian School visiting us in June, while we are excited at the prospect of enhancing our teaching of English Language through the judicious application of some of the ideas and resources garnered during my visit. With American Literature remaining our topic unit of choice at A level, I am sure there will be many more opportunities for collaboration to the benefit of both schools.
Alongside our thriving English courses, we continue to widen our co-curricular offering and we are thrilled to have recently launched a new Creative Writing Club, overseen by Mrs Morrisby and Miss Millwood. Building on the success of last year’s launch, Miss Pritsou has done a wonderful job coordinating our enrichment lecture series and updating our displays, with the ‘Books of the Year, 2023’ being a particular highlight, representing the favourite books of the past 12 months from each boarding house. It has also been a fruitful period of theatre trips and events, as we host a screening in Fisher Library one week and whisk pupils off to The Globe and Stratford the next!
I am so privileged to work with incredibly talented and enthusiastic colleagues who go beyond the call of duty to ensure that, whether pupils are ‘Top in the World’ or not, they have an enriching, engaging experience of English that will stay with them long after they’ve left Wycombe Abbey.
Mr Sam Lenton
Head of English
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