October 2025 teaching English update
📬 What’s inside this month’s English update?
• 📚 GCSE November Exam Series
For 1EN0 and 1EN2 – key dates and reminders
• 🌍 International GCSE November Exams
Everything you need to know
• 🆕 New Resources Round-Up
Fresh exemplars and helpful tools
• 🤝 Entry Level Certificate Teacher Network
Connect, share, and support each other
• 📘 A Level Facebook Features
Share reading tips and get instant answers to coursework queries
• 🎓 Training & Courses
Exam insights and new CPD opportunities
• 📖 British Library Events
Inspiring sessions to spark curiosity
• 🤖 AI Guidance for International GCSE
Navigate new tech with confidence
• 🗣️ Let’s Talk English – Latest Update
Keep the conversation going
It’s time to submit your SLE grades and recordings (from 5 October).
Access all the key guidance for November: dates, submission guidance, and access arrangements.
It’s time to submit your coursework marks and samples and your optional SLE grades and recordings.
Access all the key guidance for November: dates, submission guidance, and access arrangements.
Exemplars and other new resources round up
Make use of the new exemplars from June 2025. So far we’ve published GCSE English Language 1EN0 and 1EN2 with more to come from the other GCSE and A levels through October.
If you’re attending exam insights events, you will be being sent delegate packs which include new exemplars.
2.0 resources
If you’re teaching post-16 students, take a look at our ‘Post-16
English Language 2.0 Insights’.
Get all your support for 2.0 in one place with our new ‘Qualification
Support Guide’.
International GCSE English Language and Literature AI guidance
This aims to help you set up the coursework in such a way that can
manage the authenticity of coursework effectively.
Connect with other teachers of Entry Level Certificate
Make use of the new Entry Level Certificate group on our GCSE English Language Facebook page.
Inside the guide, you’ll find:
✅ Posts and resources to help you deliver ELC English
✅ A Q&A discussion thread where you can ask questions, share teaching tips, swap resources and connect with other teachers.
Not already a member of the Facebook group? Join now.
A level Facebook new features: share reading tips and get instant answers to coursework text queries
Get inspiration for your own reading or for possible coursework texts by going to the new ‘What are you reading’ section or use the ‘choosing texts and titles’ thread to get an instant yes or no on possible texts for A level literature coursework.
Not already a member of the Facebook group? Join now.
Get the most from free training
Exam insights
After processing your students’ results, you may wish to attend an ‘Exam Insights’ training session to get feedback from our examiners on the question papers your students sat in June 2025 to inform teaching of your next cohorts.
Other courses
A level coursework marking training
A level literature supporting the progress of lower-attaining students
New to
How to apply the mark scheme
Browse and book.
Exciting events from the British Library
Oscar Wilde Study Day: 16 October
If you were lucky enough to get a place, I look forward to seeing you there!
Join the waitlist.
Are you teaching 'Hamlet' for A level literature?
Hamlet in context, 12 November 16:00–17:20
Free livestreamed CPD for teachers of Years 10–13 from the The British Library
Join Professor Emma Smith and teacher and author Michael Donkor for fresh insights, tips and resources focusing on ideas of theatricality in Hamlet, from the play within the play, to mourning and madness.
Resources to support an inclusive English curriculum
For teachers of Years 9–13
Explore a selection of brand-new British Library resources for Years 9-13, designed to help widen the representation of ethnically diverse authors in the English classroom. You'll find expert articles, short films on Andrea Levy's 'Small Island' and Olaudah Equiano, plus a timeline charting South Asian writing in Britain.
As thousands of young people returned to school and college this autumn, questions about the purpose and power of English were more pressing than ever.
Throughout the Let's Talk English campaign, we've heard from thousands of voices from across education about the changes they'd like to see and the skills they believe matter most. In our latest blog, we reflect on the conversations so far and why every perspective matters in shaping English education.
Subject advisor
Clare Haviland
English
