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Schools need more support to teach a wider variety of GCSE English literature texts, teachers warn, as figures reveal that most students are learning the same books, poems and plays.

The vast majority of GCSE students answered questions about An Inspector Calls last summer, choosing it over all other modern text choices - despite an increase in options.

While more schools are now teaching texts by authors of colour, as a result of exam boards offering more diverse choices, the numbers studying these texts remain relatively low.

Experts say many teachers lack the confidence to choose less popular texts, given the high-stakes nature of the subject, and that some schools cannot afford to buy new books.

The most popular GCSE English texts

In June 2024, 84 per cent of GCSE English literature candidates taking the AQA exam answered questions on An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley (published in 1945), along with 64 per cent taking the Pearson Edexcel paper and 56 per cent taking the OCR paper.

Robert Eaglestone, lead on educational policy at The English Association and professor of contemporary literature and thought at Royal Holloway, University of London, said: “If you’ve got 30 copies of An Inspector Calls already, a lot of schools can’t afford to buy 30 or 60 copies of a new play or novel.”

To increase uptake of other texts, the Department for Education should provide free copies, as well as professional development, according to Mel Wells, a head of department for English at a school in Somerset.

It should also provide new schemes of learning with booklets and PowerPoint resources that could be a starting point for teaching a new text, she recommended.

Ms Wells said that in making the decision to teach An Inspector Calls she factored in the time it takes to prepare for a new text and create new resources, as well as concerns about not wanting to teach a text to a GCSE class before she has had time to refine teaching it.

The figures come amid efforts to increase the diversity of GCSE texts, and as the government’s review of curriculum and assessment is looking at opportunities for this.

The University of Oxford’s previously said that the proportion of candidates who chose texts by authors of colour was steadily increasing between 2019 and 2023, from 0.7 per cent to 1.5 per cent across four exam boards.

However, the increase was entirely accounted for by Pearson Edexcel adding four new texts by authors of colour in 2021, as other exam boards’ changes had yet to come through the system.

In 2023, 10 per cent of Pearson Edexcel candidates answered on texts by authors of colour - a big rise from 0.1 per cent in 2019 and 2.7 per cent in 2022. This proportion has risen slightly again, to 11.7 per cent in 2024.

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Last year was the first year of assessment for OCR of the play Leave Taking by Jamaican playwright Winsome Pinnock. It was chosen by 9.1 per cent of candidates.

AQA has added three texts by women of colour for next year. However, it warned in its that most teachers still deliver An Inspector Calls.

“The reasons for this could be due to familiarity, assumptions about examiner knowledge or preference, the time needed to acquire training and resources for other novels and plays, a lack of physical copies of the texts themselves, or a combination of these,” AQA said in its submission.

Laura May Rowlands, head of department for English at a secondary school in Hampshire, acknowledged that curriculum resources provider Oak National Academy had decided to cover the new specification AQA texts.

But she said: “Generally there is so little [resource support] out there that - despite thinking some of these texts might be more suitable for cohorts - I do not want to spend a huge amount of time researching and learning new texts when there may or may not be a change in specification on the horizon.”

New texts ‘increase student engagement’

Researchers for the Lit in Colour Pioneers pilot scheme found that teachers reported higher levels of engagement in the classroom when studying new texts added to Pearson’s specification.

Professor Velda Elliott, associate professor of English and literacy education at the University of Oxford and one of the authors of the Lit in Colour report, told Tes: “When you give schools and teachers the support they need, it has a huge impact on engagement with English literature. People want to teach these texts and they want the resources to do it.

“The last couple of years there have been lots of good study guides coming out for these new texts, and that will really support this change. It is very tempting to stick with what you know you can get good grades in. But the research shows you can do just as well with the new texts, if not better.”

The NAHT school leaders’ union recently criticised the number of students studying texts by global majority authors as “abhorrently low” and urged the government to use the curriculum review to promote more texts by authors from diverse cultures.

A motion passed at last week’s annual conference of the NEU teaching union also advocated for more culturally inclusive curriculum materials to be developed.

Macbeth dominates Shakespeare choice

Meanwhile, two Shakespeare texts continue to dominate the Shakespeare portion of English literature GCSE exams.

Last year 76 per cent of AQA candidates opted for Macbeth, along with 70 per cent of those taking Pearson Edexcel and 52.2 per cent of those taking OCR. The next most popular play for all three exam boards was Romeo and Juliet.

At AQA there was very low uptake for any other Shakespeare text in 2024 - only 1.3 per cent of candidates chose The Merchant of Venice and 1 per cent studied The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing and Julius Caesar.

The Merchant of Venice is also the third most popular text at Pearson, chosen by 2.5 per cent in 2024. Pearson offers Twelfth Night instead of Julius Caesar, which was chosen by 0.3 per cent of candidates.

The Merchant of Venice was picked by a few more candidates taking OCR (9.9 per cent). However, Much Ado About Nothing still has very low uptake at this exam board.

Certain poetry collections also dominate across exam boards - 66.4 per cent of OCR candidates answered on “Conflict” last year, which was similar to Pearson (63.3 per cent).

At AQA, 86.2 per cent of candidates answered on the “Power and Conflict” poetry collection - though the AQA specification offered two anthology options, compared with three at OCR and four at Pearson Edexcel.

The other poetry anthologies on offer included “Love and Relationships” at AQA, “Relationships, Time and Place” and “Belonging” at Pearson, and “Love and Relationships” and “Youth and Age” at OCR.

Few choose Jane Eyre

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and A Christmas Carol are the most commonly picked 19th-century novel set texts across the three exam boards.

In contrast, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice and Great Expectations were picked by 1 per cent or less of candidates last year at Pearson Edexcel and AQA.

These novels have higher uptake at OCR, where 7.7 per cent of candidates went for Great Expectations, 4.4 per cent for Pride and Prejudice and 2.2 per cent for Jane Eyre.

Teachers ‘anxious’ about ‘high-stakes’ exam

Professor Eaglestone pointed to the fact that the subject is included in the English Baccalaureate and school accountability measures. “English is very high-stakes...it’s vital for student progression and for them to get the grade 4,” he said.

“So teachers are increasingly anxious about making sure their pupils do really well, and that makes them more likely to do the things there’s all the support and resources for, that they’ve done over and over again and think are the best ways of getting students the best marks.

“There’s an inertia of choice induced by anxiety about the high stakes of assessment.”

‘Size of English curriculum’ a problem

Jill Duffy, chief executive of OCR, said the exam board regularly reviews its texts “but the decision on what text to study should always be with the individual school or trust, who know their students best”.

“From our conversations with English teachers, we know that practical considerations can make it difficult for schools to change texts - and this is exacerbated by the size of the current English literature curriculum and restrictions around set texts,” she added.

Ms Rowlands said changes were needed to reverse a decline in the subject’s popularity at A level.

“Despite being an English teacher and having a love of literature, the fact remains that literature has become onerous for many teachers and pupils,” she said.

“This is reflected in the decline in uptake of literature at A level. In addition, many schools report pupils having a reading age significantly below chronological age.

“If we want to reignite a love of literature, we need a bigger range of texts with less focus on memory.”

Both the English Association and a review of the 11-16 curriculum chaired by former education secretary Charles Clarke for OCR have identified problems with the English GCSE.

The English Association warned that English GCSEs “do not effectively engage with students’ identities or student diversity”. The OCR review, meanwhile, recommended changes to texts studied in English to make them more diverse and relevant to modern Britain.

The final curriculum and assessment review report is expected in autumn 2025. However, any changes to qualifications will have to be developed and consulted on before schools can adopt them.

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