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LearningTranscript
00:00Hello, my name's Amber Allitt, and I'm a journalist specialising in education.
00:05A whole new cohort of secondary school pupils have begun working towards their GCSEs this
00:10year, and for the lion's share of them, that includes their English Literature GCSE.
00:16As you can probably imagine, they'll be reading a few different books and plays as part of
00:20their studies, from the Shakespearean, through to the 19th century Dickensian, through to
00:25more modern novels.
00:27Each exam board actually sets a list of texts that teachers are able to choose from, and
00:32these are periodically updated.
00:34Recently, there's been a push to include literature from a more diverse array of authors, to hopefully
00:40connect with pupils from a wider variety of backgrounds.
00:44Here are three of the newest texts added to the reading list by AQA, England's biggest
00:49exam board.
00:51The first is My Name is Leon by Kit Duvall, which started being taught for the first time
00:56in 2023.
00:58This is a book about a young mixed-race boy growing up in the 1980s and his experience
01:03with foster care, set in Birmingham during the Handsworth Riots.
01:08The next two are both plays.
01:10Leave Taking by Winsome Pinnock is about a family which has migrated from Jamaica to
01:14London and the family members' different ways of navigating their sense of identity and
01:18belonging.
01:20The last is Princess and the Hustler by Chinonurru Modimba, a play about a Windrush-era family
01:26living in Bristol during the discrimination-fuelled bus boycott of the 1960s.
01:32Young daughter Princess dreams of winning a beauty contest and it ends up being a powerful
01:36story of self-love.