GCSE English Set Texts Question

[EnglishRose1320]

Okay bit of a random one, does anyone know how I would find out what the set texts are for each exam board?

Ds is due to sit his GCSE'S next summer (2022). He has ASD and some really rigid thinking. One of his real barriers is Christmas and any mention of it is only acceptable from the 1st of December until 12th night. He has come home on a total state that they are going to be studying A Christmas Carol this term and it looks like it is a set text for the exam board his school uses.

I was just wondering if any exam board didn't have it as a set text and I could pay for him to sit English with a different exam board. I know it sounds extreme but this is one barrier we have never overcome and I feel it will mean he doesn't get his English GCSE otherwise.

Ask the school what they can do for him as a first move.

Yes I've sent an email and they are going to look into it but not sure what they can do because it's a set text.

I'm hoping maybe it will be a small percent of the paper and he can still pass just answering about the other texts but he might refuse to do it all if he sees it.

A Christmas Carol is one option. The boards provide a list and the teacher chooses. Jekyll and hyde is the more popular choice. It's likely different classes will do different books, so he might be able to move.

It won't be the only set text (I know WJEC/Eduqas use ACC. AQA might but I'm not sure as I've never taught it.) There will definitely be other options but it's unlikely the school would have capacity to teach them (or even plan).

There is a list of set texts the school chooses from, he doesn't have to do ACC. If he would be willing to learn it himself, outside of school, he could do a different one and answer the question on that in the exam instead. My guess is the exam board is AQA, he should do Jekyll & Hyde instead as it is only around 70 pages long. The other Victorian novel alternatives are quite dense - Jane Eyre etc.

AQA also has the sign of the four on that paper.

In English, the exam question booklets are really long because for each section there are about 20 questions, but students only answer one per section, depending on the book they studied. So the Shakespeare section will have a question on loads of different plays, but the student only answers the question on Macbeth for example.

That's really good to know thanks.
Would be happy to pay for a tutor to work through another text with him, I'd happily do it myself but I am only allowed to be in the role of 'mum' in his eyes and trying to help him with school work would make me his teacher which he won't accept.

Hopefully the school might even let him have tutoring during those lesson times, he won't go into the class if they are discussing ACC so he'll need to be doing something else then anyway.

The AQA texts for 19the century novel are

Robert Louis Stevenson
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations (1867)
Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre
Mary Shelley
Frankenstein (1831)
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Sign of Four

I believe in Ds's school the top sets do A Christmas Carol and the lower sets do Jekyll and Hyde.

So your son's school may be able to move him into another class for the duration of that text. Hopefully school can help.

I also do not know what the stance is on answering a different book to the one taught by school, as stated there are a number of books to choose from. They have to study a 19th Century text, AQA has A Christmas Carol, Jekyll and Hyde, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice and The Sign of Four. I would ask school what their view is.

I am clearly the slowest typist in the land

Thanks, looks like hopefully we will find away around it. He isn't a fan of English and will drop it as soon as GCSE'S are done which is fine. Just want him to get the equivalent of an old C, think that's a 5 isn't it? So that he doesn't have to re sit it alongside A Levels.

I may be entirely grey and ready for a long holiday by the time he finishes school but he will get there, just lots of quirks and unique situations to work out along the way!

This is English Lit we're talking about. The grade from this is totally separate from Lang, which is arguably the one which really matters.

I don't blame him. I wouldn't want to read a Christmas Carol at this time of year! Good that there are other options.

As long as he gets a 4 in either language or literature he won’t have to resist- do try to not worry.

The only issue might be where he goes when the class is being taught Christmas Carol- but there is no reason he can’t study another.

I’d recommend he does A Sign of Four as it is quite short and straightforward.

That's also true MrsHamlet, around here most sixth forms just require the equivalent of a 'C' in either I think, so maybe I'm stressing over nothing.

Thanks for pointing that out, I went into panic mode when he came back from school saying he wasn't going to go into English again. He's only been back in school for 1 half term after nearly 3 years of being too unwell for school and in his previous school things like this being handled badly led to his breakdown and hospitalization. I need to take a deep breath, relax and remind myself that he's not in that place now and handles things much better and he is also in a much better school.

Thanks for the recommendation Scarydinosaurs, I'll see if he will read that.
Yes I'm also not sure where he can go, he has an ehcp and quite a lot of additional funding so ordinarily I think one of the t.as from student support would be able to work with him in a spare classroom, however atm due to the pandemic they are much more restricted in what additional support they can offer and where they can go.
To be honest if it helps keep him calm and regulated I'm happy to offer to pick him up for those lessons if it helps, he thinks they are moving on to something else in March.

I normally spend about 3/4 of the Autumn term on the 19th century novel. In my school we have a choice of two of the texts (neither is ACC) so if it came to it, I'd consider changing my choice for your son and teach something else. I've certainly done so at A level.
Otherwise we might move him into a parallel class.

Ask the school what board they do first. More than one board do ACC. It may be if he has support from the SEND department they can make provision for him to work independently on tutor-delivered work alongside them. The school may however not want to risk their results by an unknown tutor being involved in the teaching of their students and therefore the school's results. Once you know the board, based on his ability, the school could suggest an alternative text that is in the spec. I would make sure any tutor you source is knowledgeable about the spec he is doing - whole Lit requirements are less different between boards there are distinct differences between methods for example between AQA and Edexcel. There are also many tutors that might have an English degree but don't really know the details of what is required at GCSE. It may just be better in the long run if you can shift him to accepting studying it now but telling him he can do his mocks' revision in December - though I recognise that may just be totally impossible!

Whichever board it is, there will be alternatives to ACC. We have had situations where students have withdrawn from ACC or Macbeth on religious grounds and there are always alternatives within the same board and paper.

It does make teaching and learning tricker, but if parents and students are happy to put in the extra work, it can be OK.

I work for a big multi academy trust and examine for English Lit. We teach A Christmas Carol for welsh board and it's also an AQA text. There are tons of other texts to choose from. At our school every class learned the same text so we can help each other plan and moderate so we couldn't swap your son around. However to make up for this inflexibility we have a one to o e tutor who works with individuals who need something different. She's a member of school staff so we know she knows the exam spec. We have used this If a child moves to us in year 11 and has studied different texts and we also had a student who didn't like death, blood or the supernatural which meant our usual choices of A Christmas Carol, An inspector calls and Romeo abs Juliet were out of the question. It's the school's job to provide soMe thing suitable for your son, especially if he has SEND.

Christmas Carol is also a set text for Edexel.

Dd's school chose it on the basis that they owned enough copies for everyone to have access to one.