Please or to access all these features

Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Is this normal for GCSE English Literature?

32 replies

Violet38 · 28/05/2026 14:17

Dd is coming to the end of year 10 in a large mainstream secondary. They’ve still only covered one and a half of the AQA literature texts. A Christmas Carol finished in January, and they’ve been on Macbeth ever since. The class she’s in is an Act behind her friends classes due to her teacher being unwell for two weeks, and the sub teachers just went over what they’d already covered at that point.

Is this standard at this point in year 10 and am I worrying unnecessarily? They still need to finish Macbeth, then even if they start An Inspector Calls this term, there’s also all the poetry to cover. They haven’t done any themes, or exam questions / past papers, exam skills etc. Is it normal for all this to be crammed into year 11?!

OP posts:
NeverDropYourMooncup · 20/07/2026 19:07

Going back many years, we did Of Mice and Men, the first chunk of poetry, Macbeth and the war poets in Y10, then An Inspector Calls by Christmas Y11, formal poetry analysis after that.

It wasn't a big thing, we were all done by the beginning of March.

makemineadecaf · 21/07/2026 11:04

Dd adored English literature and can’t wait to start the alevel in September!

ErikaL · 27/09/2026 10:33

Past papers usually make the biggest difference. PMT has them, Mr Bruff on YouTube is great for Eng Lit, BBC Bitesize has good guides on the set texts, and school.ninja has all the boards' papers with mark schemes and examiner reports. The examiner reports are worth a read, they show what top answers do.

Check these:
https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/past-papers/gcse-english-literature/
https://www.youtube.com/@mrbruff
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zckw2hv
https://school.ninja/gcse/english-literature

Good luck!!!

BitterTits · 27/09/2026 10:38

Talkingfrog · 28/05/2026 15:26

We are in Wales so things are done slightly differently. Year 10 are the first year following a new syllabus so they have double award English, which combines language and lit.

So far they have done a Christmas carol, and the 2 nea that linked to it so module 2 is done. ( I think helped by the fact they had looked at the text in year 9.

They have covered the poetry needed for module 1, and sat the actual exam before half term.

Module 3 is also 2xNea, which i think they should completed one of by now, but they are schuled for later in June.

They haven't yet started the text for module 4,( which will be an exam) which i think is going to be an inspector calls.

They haven't yet started a Shakespeare play ( don't know which one they are doing), which will be part of the nea for module 5. The other nea for module 5 is poetry based, which they haven't started either.

I can't remember what was covered by module 6, which will also be covered by an exam.

I don't think I remember language and literature together being as much as this, but it was over 30 years ago so may have been.

I think things probably took a bit longer at the start whilst they were all bedding in, and bubthe time they finish this year, ypu may be surprised about what they have covered.

We did Unit 2, 3 then 1 in Year 10, beginning 4 after the exam, and I'm still worried about fitting everything in. How are they getting on now?

NotReallyNotOftenAnyway · 27/09/2026 10:42

My ds's school started GCSE texts in year 7 and it was a terrible idea because he was completely overwhelmed. I think your school may be more sensible.

TeenToTwenties · 27/09/2026 10:44

NotReallyNotOftenAnyway · 27/09/2026 10:42

My ds's school started GCSE texts in year 7 and it was a terrible idea because he was completely overwhelmed. I think your school may be more sensible.

That's atrocious. Talk about teaching to the test rather than educating!

Talkingfrog · 27/09/2026 15:06

@BitterTits they were still finishing unit 3 after the exam. Started module 4 in September - mocks soon, before module 4 exam in November. They aare doing a maths paper then too.
Not sure the November exams seem a bit soon. It serns a very short time ftom starting back after the summer until the exams for the maths and English.
However, it does mean the timetable for May/June is a bit less intense - they have 7 less exams to fit in.
I see the fact that whichever Shakespeare play they study will be an NEA instead of an exam as a good thing. 🙂 They have changed it for those that started yr 10 in Sept, so there are less NEA tasks. I think they have realised it was too much for them to fit them all in ( especially with the teachers having to prepare, mark and moderate them all).

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread