Free GCSE English Posters - Typical Features of Narrative and Creative Writing

Here is a set of 3 A3 posters that you can download for free. They are designed to inform students about typical features of creative (or narrative) writing, specifically for GCSE English.  Having said that, they can be used for any exam board, or even if you are not teaching GCSE English.  I hope that they brighten up your classroom and your students enjoy them.

The posters reflect new information that the AQA exam board will be putting in the mark scheme for Paper 1 Question 5, starting with the June 2026 exam series.  Although these are typical features, they shouldn’t be used as a checklist (although that’s not a particularly bad idea!).  Rather they are intended to visually guide your students towards improving their creative writing by giving them some instructions which are easy to take in and remember.

Above is an example of one of the posters.  Please don’t use this, though – follow thislink and you will be able to download the original PowerPoint slides – the software I used to create the posters.  The posters include tips about twelve typical features of creative writing – perspective, characters, vocabulary, setting, ideas, sequence, shifts, structure, pace, mood, style and sentences. Phew! 

"Criminal Sentences" – Creative Writing Card Game for GCSE English Language (Paper 1 Question 5)

Can you gamify creative writing?  That was the question posed to me by a colleague a while ago.  The game I amabout to describe (created for students working towards GCSE English Language – and more specifically the creative writing question – Paper 1 Question 5 in the AQA specification that I deliver) was my response.  The answer to the question? A resounding “yes”.   The game is called “Criminal Sentences” – so called because players can steal from each other (sometimes in the middle of game play). You can find the game here but this article is more about they how and why of its development.

The decision to create a card game was an easy one (bringing it into the world was a little more challenging!).  Every break time, I see my students get packs of card games out of their bags and proceed to engage with them in a thoroughly engaged and animated way.  I like to think that my classes are interesting – and varied – but it was rare to see this kind of energy from my students when teaching creative writing, even from those who say it’s their “favourite part of English”.  I wanted to harness that energy (even fleetingly) and incorporate that into their writing.

Do Now Writing Prompts for English: Free Writing or Exam Style

Presented here is a collection of 40 engaging "Do Now" activities tailored for GCSE English. However, they can be used for any English specification. I designed them to try and combat something very specific. I refer to it as "exam paralysis" – a phenomenon where students find themselves frozen during exams, struggling to write spontaneously within time constraints. This not only squanders precious exam time but also hinders their performance potential in terms of final grades.

To address this issue, I developed a series of prompts and activities aimed at fostering free writing. This approach boosts confidence, encourages honesty in expression, nurtures writing skills and voice, emphasizes the writing process over the final outcome, and aids in overcoming writer's block. These activities are not intended for grading; rather, they serve to empower students to write creatively and authentically. Oh and quickly too, if they stick with it!

Recognizing that this approach may not suit every teacher's preferences, I have also adapted the prompts into exam-style exercises. Here, content, organization, and technical accuracy are assessed. The "free writing" set prioritizes rapid writing development and confidence building, and I will actively engage with students during the process, offering comments and encouragement. The "exam style" set, on the other hand, entails more formal feedback or a focus on achieving specific objectives.

Both sets are customizable to accommodate the needs of your learners. Utilizing a "Do Now" activity can be particularly effective for jumpstarting learning, especially at the outset of a class session or week. It serves as a means to assess prior knowledge and provide instant feedback to students.

Writing Descriptive Paragraphs for GCSE English

What follows the opening lines of a story? Frequently, the writer shifts focus to describe the setting. This collection of ten picture prompts (tailored for GCSE English but adaptable for any level) serves as a visual cue for students.

Their task is to craft a setting description suitable for a second paragraph in a story, while also incorporating key elements that would enhance their chances of scoring well in an exam.  I have used these in class in a number of ways. I have found them very useful in persuading more relucatant writers to create something small but perfectly formed - they are not overwhelmed by the enormity of writing a complete text.

This exercise encourages students to consider the overall structure of a text. In many GCSE English paper 1 exams (AQA), the second paragraph often features descriptive language, allowing candidates to address the "language question." Moreover, vivid descriptions of the setting aid in immersive "world building."

These ten picture prompts could form the basis of a full lesson, though they were initially designed for use as starters—a "do now" activity. Given the demand for only a single paragraph, this could be completed in around ten minutes, with time allotted for some learners to share their work aloud. Alternatively, it could be adapted into an engaging activity on a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

It's great to hear what students come up with - and this can be incorporated at the end of the "do now". Not only that, I try to incorporate these finished pieces inside longer writing projects.

In a class, these prompts could be displayed on a smartboard sequentially, or students could be assigned a random picture to describe. The versatility of this set of picture prompts allows for various implementation methods—choose the one that best suits your teaching style!

10 Great Ways to End a Story that Aren't... And Then I Woke up and It Was All a Dream

How do I end my story or narrative? That’s a question English teachers get a lot. There are many ways to end a story – and this video from Teaching and Learning Resources for Me shows you ten straightforward methods to give your story an ending fairly quickly without it ruining it!

This is an important skill as the end of a story forms part of its denouement and as such is an important part of its structure.  Take a look at the video – which will be your favorite way to end a story?

This video is especially useful when preparing students for exams like GCSE English language where Paper 1 Question 5 of the AQA exam involves doing just that in terms of an optional narrative question.

On Scaffolded Descriptive Writing for GCSE English Language 9-1

Paper 1 Question 5 in the AQA GCSE English Language exam is worth 40 marks.  Put that in to a percentage and it’s worth 25% of the qualification.  So it’s vital that learners do well on this question.

Here, grandmother, suck on this egg… 

There is a however, of course (isn't there always?).  The however in this particular instance is that it is often quite difficult to give students a feeling of almost immediate success when approaching this question - this is a long-haul situation. The faint-hearted can give up almost before they begin. Not only that, a number of students have developed some very fixed ideas about what makes a descriptive text - I teach in FE - and quite often it bears only a passing resemblance to what examiners are looking for (at least in order to award it good marks!).

So I wanted to do something to address this. I did a little research (OK, I used a search engine) and found that some teachers were giving their students scaffolded writing tasks, at least for the first paragraph of a descriptive piece.  Here is an excellent article (the best I found, to be honest) on The Learning Profession blog about how scaffolded descriptive writing openings can work brilliantly.  The rest of this post details my journey from this point - it isn't advice about how to teach this part of the syllabus, it's simply about how I developed my ideas about scaffolding and how I then went on to embed it in my classes.