England’s largest exam board has refused to fully change its mind over a decision to make the study of poetry compulsory for GCSE English literature students next year.

Last week, AQA announced that both poetry and Shakespeare would be mandatory elements of its 2021 GCSE English literature exams.

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GCSE English 2021: AQA looks set to U-turn over poetry

The news took teachers by surprise after Ofqual said last month that students would need to be assessed on a Shakespeare play, but that the regulator would allow exam boards to give schools the option to focus on two of the three remaining areas of content: poetry; a 19th-century novel; or fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914.

GCSE English changes

After an outcry from heads, who described the AQA decision as “hugely frustrating”, the board announced on Friday that it would be “taking another look” at its proposed changes to English literature, having “listened” to teachers’ concerns.

But today the board said that the study of unseen poetry and Shakespeare will both be compulsory for students next year.

In an updated statement on the board’s website, AQA said schools could choose to study two out of three from an anthology of poetry, modern texts and the 19th-century novel.

But, the board said: “Shakespeare and unseen poetry would still be compulsory”.

“We realise you may have been expecting all poetry to be optional. Unfortunately, this just isn’t possible, as the anthology and unseen poetry add up to almost 40 per cent of our course - whereas the modern text and 19th-century novel each account for around 20 per cent. So making all poetry optional would risk not complying with regulations,” it added.

“We hope you’ll be happy with these changes. They’re fair for schools that want to continue with poetry as well as those that don’t, as they allow everyone to drop one set text and cover a similar proportion of the course.”

“We’ve already sent these changes to Ofqual for approval, so we’ll publish further information when we’ve heard from them, which we expect to be soon.”