AQA GCSE English Lit 2021 - Poetry now compulsory too.

[TheEmpressOfUtterBastardry]

I have just read the latest AQA updates which make clear their rewriting of the already rewritten spec for next year's English Lit GCSE. The poetry component will now also be compulsory, alongside the Shakespeare.

No such announcement from EDEXCEL or OCR yet. I wonder if they will follow suit?

You couldn't make this bumbling unprofessional bollocks up really. It may well change for a third time.

Apologies to the overwrought and overworked teachers who now have to tear up their Y11 plan yet again.

That still doesn't mean you can say what most schools have done on structuring their GCSE courses.

Like I say, I've also asked teachers and teach English but the picture in my area isn't that most people have left Shakespeare til last. The schools in my area approach the course in a range of ways and are all at different places and are cutting different texts too.

Given how disorganised some of the boards have been I'm just wary of telling parents on here that most schools have structured their GCSE course in a certain way when there absolutely no way of saying that.

We haven't left Shakespeare til last.

@LolaSmiles

That still doesn't mean you can say what most schools have done on structuring their GCSE courses.

Like I say, I've also asked teachers and teach English but the picture in my area isn't that most people have left Shakespeare til last. The schools in my area approach the course in a range of ways and are all at different places and are cutting different texts too.

Given how disorganised some of the boards have been I'm just wary of telling parents on here that most schools have structured their GCSE course in a certain way when there absolutely no way of saying that.

Yes agreed, that was what I was saying too. At DS2's school they start with Shakespeare. At schools where friends teach they have done Shakespeare and not 19th century so they will probs drop that.

I agree tho, it's not helpful to say most schools have done a certain thing as it must surely vary.

I think the fairest is to allow schools to decide which of the 3 out of the 4 to choose given everywhere does different order. Compulsory Shakespeare doesn’t seem to be causing too much angst. So maybe some schools had both Shakespeare & poetry to cover this year. Regardless, I think AQA have made a good decision, eventually. I’ve no idea about other boards but seriously hope they’ve thoughtfully reduced content similarly.
That’s if they actually do exams. Given the number of schools with covid after only 1-2 weeks in, who knows how much of anything will be covered. I’d hate to be a teacher right now. So up against it. Huge thanks to any that are reading!

Roughly 40% seem to have Shakespeare left which is the most popular one left and it's compulsory. There are no winners. It was the people shouting about how dreadful AQA were who seemed to assume that was common. And it still seems missed in the conversation that Edexcel also made another text compulsory (which some schools won't have done yet) and Cambridge IGCSE have made ALL the elements compulsory. The whole thing was always going to be a mess. There's too much difference between the boards. And schools do things differently.
I do wonder what schools who told their students they were dropping poetry before the info came from the board were playing at. The guidance clearly said that more could be added and it was always likely.

Well, DD had Shakespeare and 20C and a few poems to do.
They spent last term on English Language.

School told us today but it was all over the media that poetry was being dropped.
Edexcel are keeping everything @GrammarTeacher? So zero content reduction? That’s not fair.

Roughly 40% seem to have Shakespeare left which is the most popular one left and it's compulsory
Based on people you've spoken to you have spoken to online.

None of us are in a position to say how most schools structure their GCSE courses because we simply don't have that information.

I agree with you on the rest of your points though. I think some schools/departments jumped the gun and made decisions in August and released plans to students before the exam boards had comfirmed the plans.

Here are the OCR updates

www.ocr.org.uk/administration/support-and-tools/siu/summer-2021-adaptations-593794/

No Edexcel are keeping the post-1914 text which some still have left to do.
Cambridge IGCSE are keeping everything.

@NotDonna the media really played this wrong. Poetry was never dropped. Ofqual stated that it COULD be made optional (not that it would) and then everyone started assuming.
I'm really not sure why.
AQA gives more marks to poetry than the other boards so it isn't a simple equivalence. The real question here is how as Ofqual over seen another mess as they approved both Edexcel and AQA's changes.
Whilst Ofqual have approved the current statement by AQA, they are apparently still in the process of approving the necessary changes to the papers (which is why there are no confirmed timings on the latest communication). This is not quite over yet and I would not be making any decisions about what to drop yet. When we do, we are planning to decide on a student by student basis.

Student by student basis?? How will that work? I have 240 y11s....,if they are all doing different combos of texts it would be nightmare in terms of revision lessons, resources, intervention......

I'm pretty sure it's ok to decide now if all that is left to know is the timings?

I can't believe it was left this long to tell y11 teachers exactly what their students would be examined on

There’s always chatter about iGCSE’s been easier but maybe not if they’re keeping everything. Some boards reducing content and others not is outrageously unfair. I don’t understand how that can be permitted.

We have 120 students. All timetabled at same time so can rearrange groups where necessary. I know that's lucky.

GrammarTeacher you really must stop insisting that "40% of schools still have the Shakespeare left" or whatever figure you have plucked out of the air. It simply isn't true. In the large London borough where I work I know teachers at pretty well all the schools (well, the state schools anyway) and I can tell you that most of their English depts covered the Shakespeare in Y10.

It sounds like you work in a very small private school if you only have 120 Y11s and if you do the IGCSE.

I can’t see how “most” schools can have covered poetry and 2 books in a term and a half in year 10.
Ours did AIC and some poems. Then more poems in lockdown - reading through them at home by themselves, no marked assignments or feedback or anything. They’re doing Shakespeare now and the last book was supposed to be A Christmas Carol.

@JellyBabiesSaveLives I think some schools start GCSEs in yr9. Ours doesn’t but I’m pretty sure some do. These schools may have covered 3 books/poetry but will obviously need to revise. I’m still shocked that there’s so much disparity between boards.

It's appalling that they thought it was acceptable to announce anything this huge on September 10th. Appalling.

Head of English here, doing Edexcel thankfully. We focused on Language while we were waiting for announcements but still had to plan over the summer and the whole thing has been intensely stressful, particularly for our Yr 11s who are terrified we will go into lockdown again. I just cannot get over the exam boards letting the schools go back before they told us what we had to teach. I'll say it again. Appalling.

Couldn’t agree more @IHeartKingThistle how teachers are managing this is amazing. My DD is worried but her worries are being very well managed by school’s calm approach. At least calm to her!

I don't teach IGCSE I have just paid attention to what's going on with all the boards. I teach in a state school as it happens. We run a two year KS4. I am not insisting on anything. Discussion online in August demonstrated that many schools leave Shakespeare until last. There is no one text they could choose to make compulsory that wouldn't disadvantage some students. I found the ranting about the poetry decision ridiculous as it ignored completely that Edexcel had made a different text compulsory. Regardless of that anyone who told their students what was happening before the board said anything was foolish. It was in the Ofqual guidance that other texts could be compulsory. A quick comparison between boards made it likely that AQA would keep poetry. This was all freely discussed online during August by many teachers in a range of settings.

It’s awful that AQA announced their plans on a Thursday and then on the Friday say they maybe changing them! I suppose they are just following the lead on everything else that has happened in education recently

It’s awful that AQA announced their plans on a Thursday and then on the Friday say they maybe changing them!
I agree, but the main reason they decided to say they were reviewing it was because schools who had decided to make big plans and tell students before AQA had released the plans were complaining, and they were probably worrying about schools jumping to other boards.

The whole situation is a mess, but I'm still amazed there were departments telling students information that hadn't come from the board (presumably because their HoDs and SLTs were paying more attention to the hysteria in the press than what Ofqual actually said).

I keep getting adverts popping up from Pearson saying you can change exam board to them for English Lit for GCSE 2021!