Scottish set text list for English courses updated to include more modern and diverse works

Wednesday 27 November 2024

The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has published its new list of Scottish set texts for National 5 and Higher English courses. This follows an extensive consultation that heard the views of teachers, learners, and literary experts from across the country.

Key highlights:

Author Ely Percy is joined by pupils from Lourdes Secondary School in Glasgow. Pictured l-r are Melody Hynd, Aiden Callaghan, Natasha Boadi and Amelia Farren.

The Scottish set text list offers an opportunity for learners to study a range of prescribed texts across genres of poetry, prose, and drama. Scottish set texts are the only prescribed element of SQA’s National 5 and Higher English courses. Schools and colleges are encouraged to choose a wide range of other texts that learners study elsewhere in the course, which is unique within English courses across the UK.

Engaging with and listening to the views of those SQA serves is a key pledge in its Prospectus for Change, an ambitious blueprint for Scotland's new qualifications body.

The consultative nature of the approach to updating the Scottish set texts for National 5 and Higher English courses, using the views of learners and educators, is an example of this pledge in action.

The initial phase of the Scottish set texts consultation – online surveys targeting teachers and for the first time learners – ran from March through to May this year and generated over 2,500 responses. Respondents were asked to provide their views on which texts they would like to remain on the list, and which they would like to replace. The survey also asked which texts learners and teachers would like to see added to the list.

The second phase of the consultation involved discussions with focus groups – which comprised senior teachers, representatives from Further, and Higher, Education, and Education Scotland – with whom we shared the key findings from the two surveys. SQA also engaged with the Association for Scottish Literature, the Department of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University, and the Scottish Poetry Library. SQA also spent time with pupils from Lourdes Secondary School in Glasgow, and Liberton High School in Edinburgh to explore the feedback from the learner survey.

Robert Quinn, Head of English, Languages and Business at SQA, said: ‘This is the first review and update of the Scottish set text list since 2018 and rightly it was an opportunity to consider the titles on it and assess how teachers and learners engage with these works and see if and where any changes were necessary.

‘The feedback we received was clear. Teachers and lecturers wanted to retain the most popular texts, but they also wanted a list that is diverse, and relevant for learners. They wanted us to include more writers of colour, more female writers, more LGBTQ+ writers, and writers from a variety of backgrounds. From learners we heard them say they wanted to see more modern and diverse texts that had challenging themes and strong emotional content included in the revised list.’

Author Ely Percy, whose 2021 novel Duck Feet – which follows a teenager’s experience of high school and is written in Scots – has been added to the National 5 prose section of the list. Ely said: ‘It is important for young people to have the opportunity to experience writing and stories that they can see themselves in. Engaging with your reader is often one of the biggest challenges facing writers but having readers who can hear their voice in your characters gives you an opportunity to connect and reflect their experiences.’

While there have been a number of additions to the list that reflect the modernity and diversity requested by learners and educators, SQA has retained all of the high uptake texts such as the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy, Norman McCaig and Jackie Kay, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Tally’s Blood, Men Should Weep and works by Iain Crichton Smith. Robert Burns has been repositioned on the list. Two of his poems, A Red, Red Rose and Composed in August have been added to the new National 5 and Higher Scottish poetry collections. Teachers should be assured that any texts removed from the list can still be used for Critical Essay in National 5 or Higher English courses.

One of the significant changes to the Scottish set text list is within the poetry and prose sections. Previously only collections by single authors or poets were available for study. In this update, a new collection of Scottish short stories and two new Scottish poetry collections are available.

Robert Quinn adds: ‘This approach will give teachers and lecturers the opportunity to introduce National 5 and Higher learners to several new poets, who will now sit along Burns and other culturally significant writers on the list. The opportunities for examining common themes across time are an interesting and exciting aspect to these new collections.’

Dr Ronnie Young, Senior Lecturer in Scottish Literature and Associate Director of the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow, said: ‘By opening up the curriculum to a wider range of writers, voices, and experiences, SQA recognises the continued relevance of Scottish literature to the curriculum and its potential to speak to a diverse audience of students.’

S5 pupil Amelia Farren took part in the consultation along with other pupils from Lourdes Secondary School in Glasgow. Amelia said she and her fellow classmates felt it was important for pupils to have the chance to study writing that reflected their lives and experiences. Amelia said: ‘We said we would like the opportunity to read novels, poems and plays that we can see ourselves in.’

Michael Peck, Head of English at Lourdes Secondary School, welcomed the revision to the list. Michael said: ‘It’s definitely time for some fresh choices and new additions to the Scottish set text list, and it’s a good opportunity to ensure that the reading options reflect the changing demographics within our schools.’

The new National 5 and Higher English Scottish set text list will be live for the 2025-26 session with the first assessments taking place in 2026.

The National 5 and Higher English Scottish Set Text Consultation Report and the updated Scottish set text list can be found on the NQ English page.